Chapter 184 — If I Was Just a SubstituteZarina’s POVI slammed the door shut.The sound echoed through the room, and for a moment, everything went still.My chest was tight. My legs shaky. I barely made it to the bed before my knees gave out. I dropped onto the mattress and buried my face in my hands.Tears poured freely down my cheeks.I didn’t even try to stop them.All I could hear was her voice—Zaria’s voice—repeating that name. Over and over in my mind. Her laugh. Her smug, knowing eyes. And then the way Asher looked at her.Like a ghost had come back to life.I had given everything—every single part of myself to this life, this family, this love. And now, I was standing in the middle of it, suddenly unsure if it had ever been mine at all.The door handle rattled.“Asher,” I croaked. “Don’t. Please.”“Zarina—”“Go away.”His voice sounded again, lower, strained. “Zarina, please. Open the door.”I didn’t move.He knocked again. “I just want to talk.”I curled deeper into myself.
Chapter 183 – I Won’t Be ReplacedZarina’s POVI didn’t sleep all night.I sat alone in the nursery, with only the soft sounds of my babies breathing to keep me company. The moonlight came in through the window, lighting the room just enough for me to see their peaceful faces.I kept staring at them, brushing my fingers gently over their tiny hands and cheeks.I should have felt at peace. But I didn’t.My chest was heavy.Not with sadness—but with fear, confusion, and something I hadn’t felt in a long time.Anger.My mind kept going back to her. Zaria.The woman with my face. The woman with a history I never knew existed. The woman who everyone looked at like she was born for the throne I had fought so hard to sit on.She said she was Asher’s old flame. But I knew there was more to it. Something deeper.Something Asher wasn’t telling me.And I hated how that made me feel—like a second choice. Like I was never really chosen, just… accepted.Loved because I looked like someone else.I b
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Two— The SubstituteZarina’s POVI sat on the bed, holding my knees to my chest. The silence in the room was loud. Deafening. The moonlight spilled through the windows, cold and silver, but it couldn’t warm the ache in my chest.Everything felt like a lie.My love. My life. My place.Because no matter how many times I told myself Asher loved me for who I was… one truth echoed louder than everything else.I looked like her.And maybe that was all it ever was.The knock on the door was soft at first.Then louder.“Zarina,” came Asher’s voice from the other side. “Please… please open the door.”I didn’t answer.Not yet.I stared at the reflection in the glass. My face. My eyes. My hair. Everything I thought made me me… was the same face another woman had.A woman Asher loved before me.A woman who had come back.A woman who was never supposed to return.When the knock came again, harder this time, I stood up slowly and walked over. My fingers trembled as I
Chapter 181 — The Truth I FearedZarina’s POVI ran.Up the stairs, past the hallway, into our bedroom—the one place that was supposed to be mine. Ours.My hands trembled as I slammed the door shut behind me and locked it. I didn’t care if it was childish. I didn’t care if it made me look weak. I just couldn’t look at him right now.I pressed my back against the door, my chest rising and falling too fast. My throat ached, and my eyes burned. The tears had been waiting, heavy behind my lids, and now they poured freely.I sank to the floor, holding my knees, trying not to make a sound—but I couldn’t stop the sob that broke through my lips.I wasn’t supposed to feel this way.I had fought so hard to be strong. To be Luna. To be mother. To be wife. And now… now everything felt like it was slipping out of my hands.Why?Why did she have to come back?Why did she look like me?And why—why did he look at her like he had once looked at me?“Asher…” I whispered his name without even realizing
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty — A Heart Breaking in SilenceZarina’s POVThe living room was quiet, filled with the soft ticking of the wall clock. The children had just gone to bed. I had finished reading their bedtime story and kissed each of them goodnight. Asher sat on the couch, his eyes on the fire crackling in the hearth. I joined him, sitting beside him and resting my head on his shoulder.We hadn’t said much since the last argument. The silence between us had been thick, but this moment felt like a step toward healing. A quiet breath before the storm we didn’t know was coming.“I missed this,” I whispered.He turned to me, gently touching my hand. “Me too.”His voice was soft, like the wind that passed through the trees at night. For a moment, everything felt okay again. The shadows of worry, doubt, and confusion faded a little.Until we heard the door open.I sat up quickly. My heart skipped. Asher’s hand tensed in mine.And then she walked in.Zaria.She didn’t knock. She
Chapter 179 — A Substitute HeartZarina’s POVI couldn’t breathe.It was like the walls around me were closing in, slowly, tightly, suffocating me from the inside out.“She was my mate.”Those four words repeated in my head like a loud, cruel echo that refused to fade.She. Was. My. Mate.I stood still in the middle of the room, my eyes locked on Asher, trying to understand what had just come out of his mouth. Maybe I heard wrong. Maybe my heart was playing tricks on me.But the look on his face…Pain.Guilt.Fear.No, I didn’t hear wrong. He had said it. He had confirmed it.Zaria.The woman who looked like me.The woman who smiled like she knew something I didn’t.She wasn’t just a stranger. She wasn’t just a passing shadow from his past.She was his fated mate.The very thing I could never be.“I thought she died,” he said quietly, stepping toward me. “Years ago. I searched for her. I went mad looking. But she vanished. There was no trace.”“So you gave up,” I said, my voice dry an