Chapter 2 Chapter 2

SERA

I bend over the tombstone and squint at my name.

For a few seconds, my body goes numb. Then a cold chill slowly slithers through my bones, making my body tremble as the realization hits me.

My insides curl as my thoughts spiral, the pain in my chest becomes unbearable.

I have been rotting away for eight years and every second, all I thought about were the very people who'd already buried me?

They are the reason I fought to live, but I was already long dead to them and no one cares, not even after I have returned.

The air behind me shifts and without turning around, I know who it is. He brought me here.

I squeeze my fists together, trying to stop my hands from trembling.

“You were in an accident on your way back home with the baby, Sera,” he says, his deep voice cold and apathetic. “The first responders swooped in. They were only able to save my daughter…but it was too late for you. The car exploded and you and the driver–”

“Well, I am clearly not the one in this tomb, Cassian!” I snap, My head swelling so much it feels like it’s about to just fucking explode.

He sighs and looks away impatiently and my heart aches at his coldness towards me.

Who could have done this to me? Take eight whole years of my life like it means nothing, go as far as faking my death and locking me up in a prison for terrorists under the sea in faraway Asia?

I can’t think of one person I could have wronged so badly to deserve any of this.

I turn to face him, my heart racing. His shoulders are broader, his eyes are much darker, stripped of the enthusiasm of his youth. He is much more handsome and manly. He has changed, but my heart still flutters at the sight of him.

I still love him very much, but that wedding ring on his finger does something devastating to me. It feels like a thousand shards of glass only pierce deeper into my heart each time I realize that he belongs to someone else now.

But she is no stranger and that hurts even more.

Camille.

She is the same fiancee he had broken up with to be with me when we found out that I was pregnant. It all feels like a script now—a very dark one.

Has he ever loved me even for a day? Were his feelings ever real?

Or did he think, just like Octavia had said, that I had been trapping him with my pregnancy?

I glance at his finger once more and scoff bitterly. Maybe that’s why it had been so easy for him to hand over my wedding ring to her.

If I really meant anything to him, shouldn’t our wedding ring—the only thing I had left behind—serve as a monument in remembrance of me?

Gosh, Sera. Take it easy. Fucking breathe…

At least, there is still one thing that is mine—my daughter.

I shut my eyes for a few seconds, holding back the hot wave of tears gathering behind my eyeballs and I look at him calmly.

“A lot has clearly happened in my absence, Cassian, but I don’t want to deal with all of that now. I just want to see my daughter, okay? So, if you can just get her for me, we–”

His eyes darken and he shakes his head, “I am afraid that’s not possible, Sera. We cannot allow her to see you, alright? You don’t exist to her and we must keep it that way.”

I stare at him in confusion, my heart stopping for a few seconds. I chuckle lightly and scoff at him, “Come on, Cassian, this isn’t time for jokes.”

But he isn’t laughing.

Instead, he pulls out a key card from his pocket and hands it to me. “You can live in my penthouse for now until we have figured out how to resolve this issue of your sudden…reappearance, but you cannot be in my daughter’s life.”

One second, my heart is breaking apart completely and the next, my blood is boiling with so much fury that my skin sizzles and turns red.

“Your daughter?! She is my daughter too! What are you even saying, Cassian?” I snap.

How dare he try to keep my daughter from me? The only thing in the world that’s mine? How can the man I love be so cruel to me?

I slam the key card against his chest and he allows it to drop to the ground, unfazed.

I glare right into his cold, despicable eyes, my entire body shaking with an uncontainable heat and I shake my head. “Nothing, not even the might of the great Ariston family, will stop me from seeing my child!”

His stoic expression doesn’t shift and he replies calmly, “You can’t bring this drama upon an innocent child, Sera. Be reasonable. Her life is perfect without you and knowing you exist will alter that. I won’t inflict that on my child.”

I throw my head back, stunned. “Inflict? Are you trying to gaslight me, Cassian?!”

He ignores my outburst, which only makes my blood boil even more. “Until I know what happened to you, I advise you to respect my decision, Sera. It is what is best for Elara.”

He is crazy if he believes I will agree to that! He is making me the villain of my own tragedy!

“To hell with you and your decisions! I went through hell to get back here, Cas! For you and for our child! You didn’t even care to wait for…for–”

My voice quakes and my heart clenches again.

Each word chokes me even more and I feel a strain in my chest each time I speak. My tears gush out of my eyes like lava, sizzling with each stop on my skin.

“I have lost you, Cas. To hell with you. But my child? My child thinks I am dead and we both know I am not! This isn’t a bloody movie, it’s my life, so what drama are you talking about?!”

For a split second, I see a glimpse of the man that loved me and my aching heart melts with hope. A glint of guilt flashes in his eyes before his stoic, distant expression returns, shattering my hopes again.

He steps forward, his chest inches away from my chin and he stares down at me with a cold look.

“But that’s the thing, Sera,” he says slowly, “she doesn’t think her mother is dead. She thinks her mother is well and alive— she thinks Camille is her mother.”