Chapter 2
If I get an abortion in New York, Elias would know before the anesthesia even hit my veins.
The Blackwood family owned half the city’s private hospitals. That’s why I was sitting in a sterile, nameless clinic in Chicago.
My phone vibrated against my icy palm.
It was a video file. Two and a half hours long. My thumb hovered over the screen, trembling, before I finally tapped play.
The sound of raw, unhinged roaring filled my AirPods. My breath hitched. On the screen, the security footage showed my penthouse—the apartment Elias and I shared. But the man pinning Vivian against our marble kitchen island was a stranger.
His eyes glowed a feral, predatory amber. His fangs were fully descended, biting brutally into the crook of Vivian’s neck. She was screaming, clawing his back, matching his violent rhythm.
“Mine,”Elias growled in the video.
I stared at the screen, my chest caving in.
Because I’m human, I could never endure a wolf’s mating bite. I could never handle his raw pheromones or his rut. In our three years of marriage, Elias had always suppressed his beast in the bed for me. He was agonizingly gentle, treating me like spun glass that would shatter if he gripped too hard. I used to think that was the ultimate proof of his love.
Now I knew the truth. He kept me in a cage of gentle restraint, but he gave his true, wild self to her.
Every single scene twisted my heart into agony, yet in an act of self-torture, I forced myself to watch the entire video.
“Ma’am, it’s time for your procedure. But… are you sure you’re in the right state?” The doctor asked with clear concern.
Only then did I realize tears were streaming uncontrollably down my face, my whole body shaking from weeping.
I wasn’t crying merely out of grief. I’d come to a devastating truth: even knowing Elias had cheated, I still could not bring myself to let go of my love for him.
He was a living, breathing human being, not some garment I could toss aside whenever I pleased.
To cut him out of my life would be like slicing open my own chest, tearing my heart out raw and ripping it to shreds.
I wiped away my tears and resolved to give Elias one final chance.
I dialed him.
He picked up on the fourth ring. "Molly? Baby, what's wrong?"
His voice was tight. Strained. Through the receiver, I heard the faint rustle of sheets and a muffled gasp.
"Elias," I whispered, staring blindly at the clinic wall. "I miss you. Can you come home?"
A heavy pause. Then, a low, guttural groan he couldn't fully suppress. "I'm swamped at the office, sweetheart. Major merger. Sorry, I can't tonight."
Click.
He hung up on me. In three years, he had never been the first to end a call.
"Miss Bennett?" The nurse opened the door. "The doctor is ready for you."
I dropped the phone into my purse, dried my eyes, and stood up. "I'm coming."
The sun was barely up when the lock on my New York apartment clicked open.
I sat on the living room rug, my knees pulled to my chest, staring at the message Poppy had sent an hour ago: Flight 828 goes down in 72 hours. Offshore accounts are ready. Don't look back.
"Molly! Baby, you're awake!"
Elias burst into the room. He dropped his briefcase and knelt in front of me, his eyes bright with manic excitement. "Look at this. I just closed the deal." He shoved a glossy tablet into my hands. "A private island in the Bahamas. I’m naming it after the baby. We’re going to build a massive theme park just for him. For his first birthday, I’m flying out everyone—"
He stopped. His smile vanished.
He finally noticed the tears pouring silently down my face.
"Molly?" Panic seized his features. His hands hovered over me, suddenly terrified to touch me. "Shit, baby, what's wrong? Are you in pain? Is it the baby?"
There is no baby,I screamed in my head. Your baby is gone.
I just carefully pushed his hands away. "I'm fine. Just hormones. Pregnant women cry sometimes."
"Don't scare me like that." He exhaled a shaky breath, pulling me into a careful, restrained hug. "I'll stay home today. Whatever you need. I'm right here."
"No." I pulled back. "I have the Ivy League alumni dinner tonight. I need to see my old professor."
"Then I'm going with you," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "I'm not letting you out of my sight."
That evening, the alumni dinner at the Pierre Hotel was packed with familiar faces.
Elias kept one hand firmly on the small of my back, his eyes tracking my every movement. To top it off, he had his assistant hand out gift bags to every woman at our table.
"Oh my god," my former roommate gasped, pulling out a diamond-encrusted necklace. "This is Marque's latest collection! This is easily seven figures. Elias, you shouldn't have!"
"We all know we're just reaping the benefits of Molly's halo," another friend teased, eyeing Elias. "I remember when you were the most terrifying guy on Wall Street. Now look at you, practically a golden retriever just to see Molly smile. You're so incredibly lucky, Molly."
Hearing their envy, I didn't smile with that usual warm glow of happiness. I just forced a polite, empty curve of my lips.
Just as the room filled with laughter, the heavy double doors swung open.
Vivian Ashford stepped in, dripping in haute couture and diamonds. "An alumni dinner and my invitation got lost in the mail? I thought we were all in the same graduating class."
The atmosphere instantly plummeted. Everyone knew Elias had ruthlessly bankrupted the Ashford family years ago for bullying me. No one welcomed her.
Ignoring the icy stares, Vivian confidently pulled up a chair right across from me. Her amber eyes swept over the jewelry in my friends' hands.
"Marque. It's a gorgeous brand," Vivian smiled sweetly. "I guess none of you knew I founded it."
A murmur rippled through the table. How could a ruined woman from a fallen pack afford to start a top-tier luxury brand?
"My family went through a rough patch, sure," Vivian continued, her voice dripping with fake innocence. "But then I met my husband. Two years ago, he dropped a few billion and pulled a ton of strings to set this company up for me. Not just one store, either. He opened sixteen global boutiques for me."
As she spoke, her gaze flicked deliberately toward Elias for a split second, before settling into a provocative smirk aimed right at me.
My breath caught. A sharp, suffocating pain seized my chest.
Two years ago. I remembered there was a period when Elias was barely ever home. He told me he was frantically expanding our European markets, working himself to the bone for our future.
I spent nights staying up, brewing him tea and worrying about his health. But he was busy building an empire for Vivian.
I instinctively clutched my chest, my face draining of color.
Vivian let out a cold sneer. "Molly, what’ s wrong with you? Elias treats you like fragile glass, keeping you safe in the palm of his hand. So how do you still look half-dead?"
Smack.
The sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the dead-silent hall. Vivian’s head snapped to the side. A red handprint bloomed rapidly across her cheek.
"Shut your mouth and get out," he snarled, his voice dropping to a deadly rumble, "or I’ll make sure you never speak again."
Vivian clutched her red, stinging cheek. She let out a resentful scoff and stormed out of the banquet hall.
With her gone, the lively atmosphere slowly returned to the table, but my face remained deathly pale.
Elias grabbed my hand, his eyes tight with worry. "Baby, where does it hurt? I'm having the doctor come right now."
I pulled my hand out of his grip. "I'm fine. I'm just going to the restroom. Don't follow me."
The moment I stepped out into the quiet hallway, Vivian stepped out of the shadows, blocking my path.
She let out a cold laugh. "Don't flatter yourself. Do you really think his slap means you're that important to him? I gave him a son and a daughter—pureblood heirs. His heart is already tilting towards me." She leaned in, her amber eyes flashing. "Watch this. All I have to do is tell him the kids have a fever, and he'll drop you and come running."
When I walked back into the banquet hall, Elias was pacing near our table, looking frantic.
Seeing me, he rushed over and kissed my forehead. "Molly, there's a massive emergency at the company. I have to go. I already told the manager everything tonight is on my tab. Have fun with your friends, okay?"
I reached out and gripped his suit sleeve tight. "You said you were going to stay with me today. Stay. Please?"
Looking at my calm, almost pleading eyes, a sudden, inexplicable panic flashed across Elias's face. For a second, his wolf instincts seemed to warn him that if he walked out that door, he would lose something utterly irreplaceable.
But Vivian had said the pups were sick. His flesh and blood. He had to go.
Slowly, resolutely, he reached down and pried my fingers off his sleeve, one by one.
"Baby, I promise I'll be back tonight to make it up to you, okay?"
He turned and left.
I took a deep, trembling breath. Vivian was right. His heart had already shifted.
Half an hour later, my phone buzzed. A video from Vivian.
