Chapter 36

Silver’s POV

“You were the anonymous buyer?!” I blurted, staring at Elliot in disbelief.

“Yes,” He answered.

“Wow, that’s such a kind gesture!” Merida announced and the audience erupted into cheers, making me blush at the sentiment.

Elliot continued and said, “The painting has extraordinary commemorative significance for us, and I wanted to remember it for a lifetime.” He paused for a moment and then glanced at me and said, “It reminds me of what happened the day she painted—”

“Okay, that’s enough!” I blurted, my face red with mortification. “We aren’t going to discuss that in front of everybody,” I scolded, narrowing my eyes at him.

Elliot gave me a boyish grin which made my heart flip in my chest. Merida just laughed and some members of the audience chuckled, understanding exactly where Elliot was going with that.

I folded my arms across my chest and forced a smile, hoping the redness in my cheeks would soon go away.

“No need to be embarrassed,” Merida.

I continued to stare at Elliot, not even realizing that Merida had ended the broadcast.

“Great job, you guys. It was such an honor to meet you, Silver,” Merida said, shaking my hand. I was still so stunned that it was Elliot who bought my painting.

“Where are you keeping it? I don’t remember seeing it at home,” I asked him, my brows furrowed in confusion. I was pretending he didn’t just embarrass me in front of a live broadcast.

“My office,” he replied. “At the packhouse.”

I supposed I had never really gone into his office before so that made a lot of sense. But I was still in disbelief that he actually bought my painting. He just shrugged casually and took hold of my hand. We walked together off the stage and into the backroom. As soon as we were away from everyone else, I could feel the tension between us returning.

Elliot started to walk toward the dressing room, not even bothering to look at me. I folded my arms across my chest and pouted, fully aware that I was acting like a brat, but I didn’t care. I needed my husband to talk to me and not act coldly towards me.

I followed him to the dressing room and before he had the chance of shutting the door behind him, I stopped it with my foot. When he didn’t hear the door click in place, he turned and frowned at me.

“Can I help you with something?” He asked, his voice sounding a bit strained. I knew he was trying to maintain his cold demeanor like he did earlier, but there was something else in his voice, it was pain.

“Yes, we need to talk,” I told him.

He looked at me for a short while before sighing and stepping aside for me to enter his room. I shut the door behind me, glad to see nobody else was in this dressing room. I turned to look at him. As soon as our eyes met, I completely forgot what I wanted. My entire brain went completely blank.

His expression seemed to have softened some and he sighed as he leaned against the vanity on the far side of the room.

“Abou the other night…”

“We don’t need to talk about it,” he said, cutting me off. “Just forget about it.”

I pressed my lips in a firm line and glared at him.

“No, really need to discuss what happened,” I told him, narrowing my eyes at him. “Or this argument will never get resolved.”

He sighed and ran his fingers through his head.

“Okay, go on,” he said. “I’ll let you explain.”

I nodded and took a deep breath.

“You said something earlier that confused me. You told me that I let someone take advantage of you,” I said, meeting his eyes. “What did you mean by that?”

He scoffed.

“What do you think I meant?” He asked, shaking his head at me with disgust all over his face.

“That’s why I’m asking you,” I told him, unable to keep the aggravation out of my voice.

“When Beta Leo called you and you came to see me, you let Shirley take me into a hotel room and have her way with me!”

I gawked at him.

I couldn’t have heard him correctly. There was no way he actually thought I would do something like that.

“Excuse me?” I asked him.

He opened his mouth to repeat himself but then stopped short when he saw the expression on my face.

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” I asked him, my voice coming out as nothing more than a whisper.

He was quiet for a moment as he assessed my face and then his brows scrunched together.

“She said…” his voice trailed off again and then he let out an aggravated huff as he ran his fingers through his hair. “What happened that night?”

Tears welled up in my eyes and I wrapped my arms around my body.

“Beta Leo got us a room and I took you to that room with him and a gamma warrior. They left and I was getting you ready for bed, but you didn’t exactly want to sleep…” I confessed, my cheeks flushing from the memory.

He scanned my face for a moment and then his body stiffened.

“Was I with you all night?” He asked.

I bit my lip and nodded my head once.

“We were together until I had to leave yesterday morning. I had a meeting that I needed to get to. After my meeting you called and yelled at me,” I told him, lowering my gaze and staring at the ground. “Wanna tell me what exactly happened this morning?”

He was quiet for a long while as he processed my words. I lifted my gaze to look at him and I was taken aback by the horrified look on his face.

“Elliot?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

“Shirley was in my bed,” he said, his brows pinched together. “She was half naked.”

I flinched away from him as if he had just slapped me across the face. The pain of his words was almost too much for me to handle. At that moment, my heart shattered completely.

I covered my mouth with my hands and stared at him through my tear-filled eyes.

“She said it was her that I had sex with last night, but obviously that wasn’t true,” he said, shaking his head. Relief flashed through his face. “It was you…” he breathed as he met my eyes.

I could tell he was relieved by this realization, but I was anything but relieved because this was the first time I had heard about him waking up in bed with Shirley lying beside him. It made me feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

He went to touch my arm, but once again, I flinched away from him as if he had just struck me. He furrowed his brows together as he assessed my changed demeanor.

“Silver—”

“Did she touch you?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

“I wouldn’t let her,” he assured me. “I thought it was you lying beside me for a second but when I took in her scent, I realized immediately that it wasn’t you and I quickly got out of bed. Well, actually, I dressed first so she wouldn’t see me. I didn’t want her to see me.”

That made me feel a little better, but I still felt uneasy knowing they were in bed together and undressed.

Wait…

“Was she naked too?” I asked, my brows pinched together.

“She was half naked,” he told me.

I nodded, trying to process his words.

“Did you really not remember anything from last night?”

He stepped closer to me and this time I didn’t flinch away; I let him touch me and wrap his arms around me. I allowed his scent and warmth to envelope me. I missed him these last couple of days. I shouldn’t have missed him as badly as I did because this was only a contract marriage and once, he decides to divorce me, it’s going to be harder than it should be. But for right now I allowed myself that moment of weakness where I caved into my wants and desires.

“I remember your scent, I remember your face, and I remember touching you,” he told me softly. “I was confused when I woke up the next morning and it was Shirley in the bed and not you. When she told me I had sex with her, I thought for a second I mistook her for you and I hated myself for it… But then when she told me that you knew she gave me a party drug and took me to a hotel—”

“That never happened. I barely even spoke to Shirley. When I got here, she was trying to take you away, but I dismissed her and told her I’d handle it. The gammas present and Beta Leo can vouge for me.”

His expression softened, as did mine.

This really was a huge misunderstanding.

We remained silent for a moment as he stared into my eyes.

“So, it was you?” He asked me.

I nodded my head once.

“Yes,” I whispered.

He took a deep breath and pulled away from me, taking out his phone in the process. He swiped across the screen for a moment before putting the phone to his cheek.

As soon as the line connected, he put it on the speakerphone.

“Shirley,” he greeted into the phone.

“Hey, Elliot. I have been worried about you. How are you?” She asked, a bit too cheerfully. I had to stifle a groan.

“I found out something rather disturbing, Shirley,” he said in a grunt.

She was quiet for a moment.

“What is it, Elliot?”

“You lied to me the other night. We never slept together Why would you lie about something like that, Shirley?”

“I wasn’t trying to lie to you, Elliot. I told you. I took a drug too. I’m not sure how I ended up in your room. When I woke up I thought we had slept together. It was just a misunderstanding. I swear,” she said urgently into the phone.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I’m done with party drugs, Shirley. I’m not the same guy I used to be. I grew up. I’m married now. I can’t have misunderstandings like that getting around, understood?”

“Yes. Understood, Elliot. I’m so sorry.”

He hung up without another word. I pressed my lips together and folded my arms across my chest, displeased by that conversation.

“That was it?” I asked him, my tone coming out dry.

“Shirley is a long-time friend and ally, Silver. I can’t break my ties with her, or it could put my whole pack in jeopardy. That’s one thing I’m not willing to do.”