Masuk“Maybe we should get a divorce. Name your prize and leave.” Dylan said and I hiccuped immediately. My heart beat increased rapidly. Just then, my phone buzzed and I knew why he wanted a divorce. My sister was back. Even after three years of dedication and loving him, it turned out Dylan never got over Lexa. He was quick to rush to her as soon as she arrived in the city. Tears welled up in my eyes realising I was nothing but a space holder for my sister. Fine, I would leave. But the next time you see me, I won't be the same. Goodbye forever, I’ll forget we ever met.
Lihat lebih banyakHailey’s POV
I sat on our sofa, my eyes glued to the entrance.
This was the first time something like this was happening in my home.
What was going on with my husband? Why was he suddenly staying out so late?
Even though we were not very close, he respected our marriage so much that he always returned home as soon as he finished from the company.
But today, it was different—almost midnight and Dylan was still nowhere to be found.
Since the beginning of our marriage, Dylan's affection towards me, was based on his mood, some days when he was happy, he came showering me with kisses and lots of gifts. While some days, when he had a strong face, he was out of it as if not interested in the marriage anymore, but he had never stayed out late.
Just then, I heard the creaking sound of our door. He was back.
My tensed-up mind calmed a bit and a slight smile appeared on my lips upon sighting him.
He looked amazingly handsome as usual, that face that always hushed whatever noise I had in my head. He was my man. The one I love and still loving.
I stood up and walked up to him, but his aura was outrageously cold and aloof.
Sometimes, he was like that but today, it felt different—so different I could suffocate from it. I wondered what had happened.
"What happen babe? What keeps you so late today?" I muttered, my voice soft and filled with concern.
But when he raised his head and looked at me, a cold shiver ran down my spine. Had I done something wrong?
"Is there a problem?" I asked.
"What concerns of yours is it that I stayed out late? Is it because I used to come back to this place every day? Is that why you think you're so special?" He rumbled.
I felt a sharp pain pierce through my heart.
"Get out of my way," he said and brushed past me.
I shook on the spot. My leg wavered, and I almost slumped to the floor.
He was cold but had never been this cold. What was happening?
With my trembling leg, I walked back to the sofa and sat quietly.
Dylan always had his ways of making me feel pain every time, but this was worse, this wasn't him, there used to be a bit of care in his behavior, but today it was completely flat, uninterested, hatred—I felt it all.
Just as I was lost in thought, my phone rang.
I looked up at the screen, and my heart crushed in my chest, it began thumping faster. Panic overwhelmed my soul.
With my shaky hands, I picked it up.
"Hey sis.." the voice came up. This voice that I dreaded with all my heart.
This voice that had done nothing but cause me pain, trauma, and heartache.
Why was she calling?
"Is that how you behave as a sister? You know I'm back but didn't care to call or say anything?" she muttered, her voice mocking, just as always.
"Oops, Dylan didn't tell you? I just called him and he said he's back home, but he didn't care tell you that your lovely sister is back?" she muttered and my hand shook even more.
What does she mean she was back? Why was my husband's ex back?
I began gasping for air. My body felt hot even though there was an AC with me in the living room. Many years of commitment, loving him and this lady was back?
I didn't need anyone to tell me this was where the problem started, why Dylan came back so late today. Why his aura was so cold and almost throwing me off—he was with her.
"You wouldn't even say anything to your sister? Come on Hailey, we've grown past this." Lexa said, knowing she was getting at me by returning to California.
Why now? After so many years? And Dylan didn't waste seconds before running to her. Was I about to lose everything I've built with my time, my heart, my emotions literally my life?
I shook and suddenly dumped the phone on the sofa and sprang to Dylan's room.
I didn't stay committed to loving him all these years just to be thrown away in the end. I needed to get to the bottom of this before it gets too late.
I had hoped that one day, he'd fully come around and we'd live as one big happy family, not for him to do this in the end.
"So this was it. You were with Lexa." I voiced as soon as I pushed the door open.
"What about that?" Daylan muttered, his tone flat as though it was nothing serious.
"Why are you making a big deal out of this? Your sister was at the airport she needed someone to pick her up and she called me," he explained, his voice nonchalant.
I rubbed my hair to the back, biting on my lower lip.
"She's your ex, Dylan," I said, but that doesn't seem to mean anything.
"So what! Please leave when you're done!" he snarled at me, I couldn't help the pain trouping inside my heart so freely like it was meant to. I was overwhelmed by his sudden attitude. He was cold, but never to this extent.
But I refused to move an inch. I didn't know how to—I suddenly forgot how to take a step. Dylan had hurt me to my core.
"If not for my family, do you think I'd be married to you? I warned her to quit partying, she got caught by grandfather and he rejected her. And your dad, he practically begged me to take you since they can't let go of my family's alliance. You were just sold off to my family and I've never had any feelings for you, not even once. You don't have any right to question what I do, who I see, or even sleep with." he muttered effortlessly as if his words were not harshly bruising my soul.
When Lexa was rejected as his bride-to-be, Father insisted that I must marry him.
They were dating in school then before the alliance came. Hence it was supposed to be easy for them, but his grandfather ended up rejecting Lexa as she seemed too exposed and attended clubs.
I didn’t want it, but Dad already made it seemed like a it was a must. It felt like I'd be disowned that minute if I didn't listen to him. Hence I had no choice
Dylan seemed nice and very handsome, the kind of man every woman dreamt of.
I wasn't happy my sister got rejected, I wasn't happy not having to choose who I spent the rest of my life with, but I had to accept my fate, and he was cool too and very likable.
He became my husband and I chose to love him. With his handsome face, it was very easy to fall in love with him.
After our marriage, Lexa disappeared. It was peaceful, living with him was a bliss, we were getting closer—so I believed, only for Lexa to come out from nowhere after three good years and it was Dylan she called to pick her up from the airport.
We had a driver she could’ve used but she decided to involve Dylan, to cause an uproar in my home.
My heart constricted with so much pain.
"Leave!" Dylan's word echoed, jolting me up from my reverie and bruising my chest even more, I felt like coughing blood—the pain was outrageous.
I walked slowly out of his room, his words echoing in my head. 'You were just sold off to my family and I never had any feelings for you.'
Tears I've been holding streamed down my face.
As my legs moved, it took me back to our main room.
My eyes darted around as it occurred to me he wouldn't be coming here this night.
Panic settled in my heart.
Was I going to lose my husband? I needed him, I needed Lexa gone. Severe heartache engulfed my soul.
Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, I heard our doorbell ring.
Hailey POVThe word lingers between us.Warmth.It does not belong to the cold architecture that built him.It does not belong to observers who measure civilizations like data sets.It belongs here.To breath.To pulse.To the space between skin and skin.The silver fracture in his iris widens slightly.He blinks.Slow.Almost human.Dylan steps closer to me, not shielding now, but anchoring. His hand remains laced with mine. I can feel the tension in his fingers, the readiness. But he does not pull me back.He is letting me choose.The child lowers his hand from his chest as if unsure what to do with it.“Internal systems destabilizing,” he says, but the tone is different. Softer. Less certain.“You’re not destabilizing,” I tell him. “You’re adapting.”He studies me carefully.“That was not the intended outcome.”“No,” I say. “It never is.”The grid hums around us, low and steady. Not defensive. Curious.The dual heartbeat inside me pulses again. Stronger now. Not threatened.Respond
Hailey POVThe word does not echo.It settles.Heavy.Deliberate.“Mother.”The child inside the sphere steps forward.The metallic casing peels back further, dissolving into mist that evaporates into the air like it was never solid to begin with.He stands barefoot on the sand.He appears no older than eight.Dark hair.Still posture.Eyes that hold galaxies.Dylan shifts instantly.He moves half a step in front of me.Not aggressively.Protectively.The child tilts his head slightly.“You are experiencing defensive attachment behavior,” he says calmly.His voice carries no hostility.No warmth either.Just assessment.“Identify,” Dylan says, voice steady.The child’s gaze shifts to him.“I am Phase Two.”“That’s not an identity,” Dylan replies.“It is sufficient.”The grid trembles lightly.Not destabilizing.Uncertain.I study him carefully.His presence does not feel like the Architects.Not gold.Not shadow.Something… structured.Designed after integration.“You’re not here to a
Hailey POVMy hand does not move from my abdomen.It feels warmer there.Not the diffuse warmth of the grid.Not the flare of power.Something smaller.Focused.Dylan notices the shift in my breathing immediately.His hands slide from my back to my shoulders.“What is it?” he asks.I swallow.“There are two.”The words barely leave my mouth.But the grid responds.A soft, expanding pulse rolls outward across the planet.Not violent.Not destabilizing.Joyful.Dylan’s brows draw together slightly.“Two what?”I look up at him.His eyes search mine.And I see the exact second understanding hits him.His hand drops slowly from my shoulder to rest just above my hip.“Hailey…”The ocean behind us is calm again.The sky sealed.The gold presence gone.But the hum in the air is different.Fuller.The child inside me pulses once.Then again.Not alone.The duplicate’s final transformation was not dispersal.It was integration.“She didn’t disappear,” I whisper.Dylan’s voice lowers.“She merg
Hailey POVThe sky is opening again.Not violently.Not yet.Just a thin seam of light tearing slowly across the atmosphere.A reminder that time is not waiting for us to decide.The gold rings above the ocean rotate in widening arcs. The ancient figure stands at their center, patient but unwavering.The duplicate watches us like this is the final variable in an equation she cannot solve alone.Dylan’s hand is still at my waist.Warm.Steady.His thumb moves once, slowly, as if he is reminding me he is real.“You don’t owe the universe anything,” he says quietly.The wind lifts my hair around my shoulders.“I know.”“But if you choose this,” he continues, voice lower now, “it’s because you want it.”The honesty in him undoes something tight inside my chest.The gold light hums stronger.The child within me pulses, not in panic, not in hunger, but in anticipation.Not of destruction.Of becoming.I step closer to Dylan.There is barely space between us now.I can feel the rise and fall
Hailey’s POVThe morning arrived like a threat.I stood in front of the mirror while the city woke behind the glass, my reflection staring back at me like a woman I barely recognized. Calm on the surface. Fire underneath. Dylan watched me from the doorway, his presence steady, unreadable, like he w
Hailey’s POVThe silence between us was louder than any argument.Dylan stood a few steps away, his hands clenched at his sides, his control hanging by a thread. I could feel it in the air, thick and charged, the way a storm feels right before it breaks. My chest hurt with everything I hadn’t said,
Hailey’s POVFear has a way of stripping everything bare.After Dylan told me about the injunction, I couldn’t move. The thought of strangers deciding whether I was fit to raise my own children hollowed my chest until breathing felt like work. I stood there, arms wrapped around myself, staring at n
Hailey’s POVVictory is fragile.It shatters the moment you start believing it will last.That night, long after the city quieted and the cameras moved on to their next scandal, I lay awake beside Dylan, staring into the dark. His arm was draped over my waist, heavy and warm, his thumb tracing slow












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