Part 3Stood Up on Our Wedding Anniversary

The pain on my lips made me push him away, a surge of anger rising within me.

I had merely exchanged a few words with Caleb. He, on the other hand, had paraded his ex-wife and child through my home. What right did he have to make demands of me?

"Why should I?" I asked, my voice cold.

Julian looked up, his dark eyes like whirlpools, pulling me in. "Because you are my woman."

I frowned. "No, I'm not. Mona is."

He actually chuckled, the usual frost on his face melting into something softer. "Mrs. Marriott, you're jealous."

I shoved him away, my actions fueled by a childish petulance I despised in myself. "Send them away."

The atmosphere instantly froze over. The smile vanished from Julian's face, as if the brief warmth had been a figment of my imagination.

"Elara," he said, loosening his tie with a sigh of immense weariness. "She is not a threat to you. Besides, Lily is my daughter. I can't just abandon her."

I stared out the window at the passing city lights, which were beginning to blur. A light rain had started to fall, smudging my view.

"I never told you not to take care of Lily."

Julian looked at me as if I were a petulant child. "Mona raised our daughter alone overseas for five years. I owe her."

A bitter, indescribable ache spread through my chest. "So you're telling me I just have to accept her presence in my life?"

He looked down, then turned my body to face him. His hand gently covered my eyes, which I knew were turning red. "I need you to understand. No matter what, you will always be my wife."

His evasive defense of her felt like a betrayal. Suddenly, the whole thing felt pointless. All the moments I had genuinely tried, all the effort I had put in, seemed utterly meaningless.

In this grand performance I had hoped for, he had let me down yet again.

Just then, my phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number.

[Miss Vance, Julian and I were inconsiderate today. I'm sorry.]

Attached was a photo. In it, Julian was holding Lily under the moonlight, while Mona stood beside them, smiling.

I narrowed my eyes. My chest felt tight, constricted.

It was a cheap trick, but a brutally effective one.

I tossed the phone to Julian, my voice devoid of emotion. "It seems I'm the third wheel in your relationship, aren't I?"

He looked down at the phone, and his first instinct was still to defend her. "She probably just felt you'd be upset and wanted to apologize."

I laughed, a sharp, angry sound. "Julian, are you playing dumb, or are you really this blind? Do I have to catch you in bed with her to get you to admit what's happening?!"

"Elara," he warned, his voice low and dangerous. "Watch what you say. Nothing inappropriate has happened between Mona and me."

I let out a cold laugh, a sob catching in my throat that only I could hear. "Nothing inappropriate? So it only counts if you're naked?"

The car fell silent. When I looked at Julian, his eyes were filled with a coldness I had never seen directed at me before. "Elara Vance, you are Mrs. Marriott. Show some damn grace!"

I don't know how to describe the feeling of that moment. The garden I had cultivated for him in my heart had turned to barren wasteland.

I fought back the bitterness, my eyes burning. "I have no grace? Ha…"

"If I had no grace, I would have thrown them out the very first night! Would she have even had the chance to shove her bed photos in my face?"

"If I had no grace, when the photos of you two hit the internet, the Vance family would have already made her disappear!"

The sudden emotional outburst was fueled by the raw pain of being so completely misunderstood. It was like being pricked by the thorns of a rose. All anyone else saw was the beautiful flower, but all I felt was the piercing pain.

Julian looked stunned, his gaze fixed on my tear-filled eyes. "I…"

I turned away and rolled down the window, letting the fine rain mist my face, hiding the pathetic tears.

"Do you know why my parents named me Elara?" I asked, speaking to no one in particular. "They said it's because I was their one and only. Unique."

I took a deep breath, pulling the dignity of the Vance heiress around me like a shield. "So, if to you, I am just a disposable piece in a game of profit and loss, then we are done."

Hearing this, a panic he didn't understand seized him. He turned and pulled me into a fierce embrace. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."