Chapter 7: I Might Have Wronged Her

Elena's POV

"Lucas?"

I breathed his name in disbelief.

Lucas crossed the room and glanced down at the woman on the floor, his brow creasing into a visible frown.

"Elena, what did you do to her?"

What did I do to her?

I defended my marriage. I fought for the man I loved. I gave her exactly what she deserved. Was that so unreasonable? Was that so wrong in his eyes?

Before I could say a word, Lucas was already moving toward her, pulling her up from the floor.

"Daisy, I apologize on Elena's behalf. She didn't mean it."

Daisy.

Of course it was her.

The woman who had been tormenting me for days — sending me those provocative anonymous photos, those taunting messages designed to unravel me from the inside. The woman behind the rose-icon account, Sweet An, who had sent my husband flirtatious texts in the middle of the night. It was her all along.

Daisy and Lucas had grown up together. Childhood sweethearts, by her own account. And yet, for reasons I still couldn't fully understand, Lucas had chosen me — not her.

I watched her now, fabricating a twisted ankle, collapsing against Lucas's chest with the most pitiful expression she could manufacture.

"Lucas, you have no idea how she treated me." Her voice trembled with practiced injury. "She screamed at me. Said horrible, degrading things. Then she threw tea in my face." A dramatic pause. "She's completely out of control. Absolutely insufferable."

She never got to finish.

"Apologize."

Lucas's voice was cold and flat, cutting through her performance like a blade.

Daisy blinked. "I — what?"

I was equally stunned — because he wasn't speaking to me.

His intention was unmistakable. He took hold of Daisy's wrist and guided her firmly until she was standing directly in front of me.

"Elena is my wife." His tone left no room for argument. "I will not allow anyone to insult her, bully her, or speak about her that way. Not anyone."

However proud Daisy carried herself in the outside world, in front of Lucas she shrank into something small and obedient. She dropped her gaze.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I shouldn't have said those things."

I said nothing. Forgiveness wasn't something I was prepared to offer a woman who had been working to dismantle my marriage.

"Know your place," Lucas said, releasing her wrist. "Don't do things you shouldn't."

He stepped back, and the dismissal was complete.

I stood there watching him, genuinely unsettled. If Daisy truly was the one behind all of it — the photos, the messages, the late-night texts — then why had Lucas turned on her so decisively the moment she crossed a line with me? Was this real? Was this protection, or was it simply a very convincing performance?

"Elena." Lucas came to me and took my hand. "Daisy won't be coming here to treat you anymore. I'll make sure of it."

I tested him carefully. "But she's your friend, isn't she, Lucas?"

He exhaled slowly and pulled me into his arms.

"If she makes you unhappy, she's not a friend worth keeping."

Was that true?

Did he really choose me — even over Daisy, the girl who had been beside him his whole life?

I let him hold me, but my gaze drifted past his shoulder toward the window. Outside, Daisy stood on the pavement, hugging her soaked jacket to her chest, crying in a way that looked far less performed than before.

Maybe this round had gone to me. Maybe she had lost — not just to me, but to her own overconfidence.

I was just beginning to let myself sink into the warmth of his embrace when my phone buzzed against my hip.

I glanced at the screen.

A friend request. Rose icon. The name: Sweet An.

My eyes snapped back to the window. Daisy was still out there, wiping her face, stumbling away in a state that left no room for composure, let alone for opening an app and sending a contact request.

A cold, uncomfortable thought settled in my chest.

What if I had the wrong person?

Daisy had only just left. She was too busy falling apart to be doing anything else. There was no way she could have sent that request.

"Elena…"

Lucas's voice pulled me back. I snapped out of it, and before he could notice what was on my screen, I shoved the phone into my pocket and dropped onto the couch.

"Lucas — how did you know I was here with Daisy?"

I needed to redirect his attention. I couldn't let him notice me hiding the phone.

"The security cameras inside the house. I was nearby handling something when I checked the feed and realized something was off. So I came back."

I looked up. There, mounted in the ceiling of the living room, was a small surveillance camera. I turned slowly, scanning the room — and felt my breath catch.

They were everywhere. Every corner. Every angle covered.

Something I had never noticed before, or perhaps never allowed myself to notice, suddenly felt suffocating. All that tenderness, all that protection, all those times he'd seemed to anticipate exactly where I was and what I needed — it looked different now. Less like love. More like a leash.

He wanted me exactly where he could see me.

"Elena, you've been acting strange lately."

Lucas cupped my face in his hands, studying me with what looked like genuine concern.

I used to love those eyes. Deep, dark, the kind of eyes you could fall into and not mind the landing. But looking into them now, I felt something closer to dread. They were a depth that swallowed you whole — drew you forward with warmth, then let you fall, and fall, until there was nothing left of you at the bottom.

I forced a yawn. "I haven't been sleeping well. I'm exhausted. I just want to rest."

Lucas sat beside me, gently pushed me down against the cushions, and slipped his arm beneath my head.

"Then sleep here. I'll stay with you."

Once, I would have held onto a moment like this with both hands. He was always so busy, always somewhere else — an afternoon like this, just the two of us, still and unhurried, was something I used to ache for.

But now, lying there with my cheek against his arm, his heartbeat steady and warm beneath my ear, it all felt faintly unreal. Like a dream I already knew the ending to. Sooner or later I would wake, and the warmth would be gone, and he would be further away than ever.

Not being loved anymore — that's the worst pain there is.

"Lucas." My arms tightened around him. "You promised you'd love me forever."

I gripped him hard — harder than I needed to, as though if I just held on tightly enough, I could keep him from slipping away.

He didn't flinch. He just laughed softly and pressed his lips against the top of my head.

"You're my greatest love, Elena. That's not going to change."

I must have been more exhausted than I realized, because I fell asleep in his arms almost immediately.

---

When I opened my eyes, sunlight was flooding the room, warm and unhurried across the cushions and my skin. I pushed myself upright and stretched.

"Ms. Bennett." One of the housekeepers appeared in the doorway. "Breakfast is ready whenever you'd like."

Breakfast?

I had only lain down in the afternoon. Surely it hadn't been that long.

I pulled out my phone — and stared at the time. Early morning. The next day.

I had slept through an entire night on the couch.

And Lucas was gone.

He hadn't woken me. Hadn't carried me to bed. Just — left me there.

He would already be at work now. I had no way to ask him.

My phone screen lit up again.

Another friend request from the rose-icon account. Sweet An.

I had nearly forgotten. My thumb hovered over the screen, about to accept — when a message from an unknown number arrived first.

I didn't hesitate. I opened it.