“Soon,” he answered flatly. “Everything is already in place. I can’t break it off immediately because of that child. But once I push things in the right direction, she’ll remove herself.”
My stomach dropped.
“Push things…?” I whispered without meaning to.
Mira let out a small sigh, like she was exhausted by me. “It’s just hard seeing her still there… acting like she belongs with you. I can’t stand it.”
“She won’t be there for long,” Adrian said coldly. “Once everything is finished, she’ll be gone.”
My grip tightened on the wall beside me.
Then his voice shifted—lower, sharper.
“I shouldn’t have gotten involved with her in the first place. If I knew she’d end up deaf, I wouldn’t have wasted a second. She’s nothing but trouble now. I can’t get rid of her easily because of politics—and because she somehow clung to me with that child.”
The words hit harder than anything I had felt in years.
Clung?
Me?
I stepped back slowly, shaking. My hand pressed over my mouth as if that could hold me together.
Five years ago, he said it was love.
Five years ago, he looked at me like I mattered.
Five years ago, he chose me—or so I thought.
And five years ago, I gave up my hearing saving him.
So all of it…
meant nothing?
My throat burned as I swallowed back a sound I didn’t want to make.
Even the fireworks outside couldn’t drown what I was hearing now.
Because after five years of silence…
the first truth I ever heard from him
was that he wanted me gone.
My knees weakened. My vision blurred.
I stumbled back, the world tilting as sound pressed in on me from every direction. Too loud. Too real. Too cruel.
I covered my ear out of instinct, as if I could shut it all out again.
But there was no silence left to return to.
I could hear everything now.
The truth.
The lies.
And the man I once saved…
destroying me piece by piece with every word.
Alpha Adrian never loved me.
He never wanted me.
And he never wanted our son.
Elira’s POV
My head felt like it had been split open from the inside.
When I finally came to, the first thing I noticed was the empty liquor bottle sitting on the bedside table. I let out a low groan and pressed my palm against my forehead. My mouth was stale and bitter, my body heavy like it didn’t belong to me. I never drank. Not at banquets, not even during celebrations. But last night… last night I needed something—anything—to drown out the weight of Alpha Adrian’s words echoing in my mind.