Chapter 1 It's been a year

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Elara's POV 

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“Elara what the f**k are you doing here!?” Dorian yelled, his voice echoing in the room like thunder.

I tried to say something, I tried to protest, but the words wouldn’t come out. 

My lips trembled as I fought back the overwhelming feeling twisting in my stomach.

My gaze moved from Dorian to Alexis, taking in the sight of his erection buried deep inside her as she lay on his office table, her shirt unbuttoned and her skirt pushed up to her waist, while Dorian’s pants hung loosely around his knees.

Just when I thought our marriage was finally getting better… now this?

“You’re having an affair with my best friend?” My voice broke, painful tears blurring my vision.

“I was going to tell you, but not yet,” he said, zipping up his pants as Alexis got down from his office table. 

He was going to tell me????

I realized then and there that I had already lost a game I didn’t even know I was playing.

“How long have you both been doing this?” I finally summed up the courage to ask the question that was bugging me.

“It's been a year,” Alexis answered and my heart immediately dropped to my stomach. I couldn't breathe, it was like the oxygen wasn't reaching my lungs.

She didn't even look or sound remorseful.

“You know, I'm actually glad you saw this,” she continued. “It saves me the trouble of pretending I haven’t been his from the very start. You always thought the world revolves around you, like you're more special than me, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to humble you…..Dorian complains about you all the time, how you made him feel trapped, how you never knew how to please him. He’d come to me for everything you couldn’t give him… and let’s just say, I never left him wanting. Every kiss he gave you was borrowed. Every night he spent with you, he was thinking about me. You were living in my shadow, and you didn’t even know it. I’ve always been his first choice. He chose me, and he will always choose me over you.”

Her words, like fire, glazed over my skin, burning into nerves I didn’t even know existed until the ache spread through me.

She stood beside Dorian, smiling at him as he smiled back, and the next second, he pulled her in for a long and passionate kiss, not caring that I was standing there. 

She pulled away after what felt like forever and giggled as she spoke. “I think you should tell her now.”

Tell me what?

“Alexis gave me something you couldn't give to me for years. She's pregnant with my child,” Dorian spoke, gently rubbing her belly as they smiled at each other. “Elara, I'm divorcing you and making her my wife.” 

I blinked.

Once.

Twice.

My breath stalled in my throat.

I caught my husband cheating and he ended up divorcing me?

Not only that, he's also fathered a baby with my best friend?

His words hit like a bomb, exploding and shattering my insides. 

The world went silent. The air suddenly became heavier. 

All I could hear was the heavy pound of my heartbeat, loud and violent in my ears as my head throbbed. 

No. No, this wasn’t happening. This was a nightmare, a sick, twisted nightmare, and if I just closed my eyes, I’d wake up and everything would go back to normal.

But my eyes stayed open. And nothing changed.

My greatest fear unraveling before me like a curse.

“Dorian I signed over half a billion dollars worth of money and assets over to you yesterday, and you know that was my inheritance from my parents. Why did you take everything when you knew you were going to divorce me?”

I couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. They spilled uncontrollably, streaming down my face as my legs wobbled beneath me.

“Because that was our plan all along,” Alexis smirked. “I gave you the idea for a reason Elara and you fell right into our trap, so easily.” 

I gasped, and It hit me then. 

Every conversation, every little piece of advice she’d given me… it was all part of their plan. They’d been in it together from the start, and I’d walked right into it, smiling like an idiot because I trusted them.

“Here, I'll advise you to sign it now, then we can get rid of you for good.” Alexis took the divorce papers from the table and handed it to me, smiling from ear to ear. 

Seeing her smiling so proudly made me sick, I trusted her, I've been nothing but a good friend to her and she goes behind my back to break my marriage, to f*ck my husband.

All of a sudden something dangerous and feral exploded in me, my eyes burned with rage as I clenched my jaw and I lunged at her, yelling at the top of my voice, desperate to draw blood.

My fingers brushed her shoulders slightly before Dorian pulled her behind him and pushed me backwards with so much force I lost my balance and hit my head against the wall.

“Baby, are you okay? Did the b**ch touch you?” Dorian asked Alexis, his eyes filled with concern as he cupped her face.

You would think she was the one who was thrown across the room. 

He didn't care to hide the fact that I didn’t mean anything to him anymore, he was rubbing it in my face, and now….I was done.

Done putting him first, done tiptoeing around his moods, done breaking myself just to keep a marriage that felt like walking barefoot over glass.

He’d been sleeping with my best friend for a year, and he didn’t even have the decency to pretend he was sorry.

“I’m not staying in this sham of a marriage with someone as pathetic as you, Dorian.”

I rose to my feet, snatched the papers from Alexis’s smug hand, signed it without a second thought, and flung them at his face.

“You wanted a divorce? You’ve got it.”

Dorian’s lips curled into a slow, cruel smirk, his chuckle low and poisonous. “Elara you’re nothing without me, and I can't wait to watch you shatter… piece by piece.”

I bit the inner corner of my mouth, my eyes fixed on him, taking short and shallow breaths in, tears threatening to spill out, but I won't cry in front of him, not anymore.

I stormed out of the office, trying to hold the tears back as I ran into the elevator and to my car. 

The moment I was alone, everything hit me at once, the betrayal, the divorce, the fact that the two people I trusted most had destroyed me and stolen from me.

I let out a feral scream, pounding the steering wheel again and again as the tears poured uncontrollably, blurring my vision and I stayed like that for what felt like forever, completely breaking down.

He can’t just take everything from me and build a new life with her. He can’t walk away like nothing ever happened, while I’m stripped of everything, not even a dollar to my name. I won’t let him.

I lifted my eyes to his office building, my chest burning with disdain. “You’re not getting away with this, Dorian.”

With that, I started the ignition and drove off.

I couldn't go back to our home, and with nowhere to go, I ended up at a hotel.

I drank an insane amount of Vodka at the hotel bar, just to numb my emotions a bit, but it ended up frying my brain instead. I couldn't see or think properly, the walls spinning around me, but I managed to drag myself to my room.

“Room 1167,” my eyes scanned the key card. 

My brain was foggy but I was still able to locate my room and I got in, shutting the door behind me. 

I stripped off my clothes, ready to dive into bed, when a deep masculine voice rumbled through the room.

“What are you doing?”

I jolted and yelled, heart slamming in my chest as I stared at the dark figure sitting on the couch at the far end, thanks to the lights being turned off, I couldn't see his face clearly, I could only rely on the streaks of light coming in through the window.

“What the hell are you doing in my room?” I snapped, fumbling in my purse for my pepper spray and aiming it at him.

But he didn't say anything, he just stood up and took a few steps towards me, entering the light a little bit, enough to show the outline of his face...I gasped, finally making out what I was looking at….

“Dorian?”

What was he doing here?

“I'm sorry,” he said, in a low deep tone.

And at that moment I froze, did he just apologize to me.

Whatever anger and detest I had for him evaporated slowly as his words hit my ears.

Was this really happening? 

Did he finally come back to his senses?

He finally realised how much he loves me and he came to apologise.

I didn't know when tears started flowing from my eyes as I let out a soft chuckle, covering my mouth with the back of my hands. 

I collapsed into his arms, hugging him tightly and pressing a soft kiss to his lips… but he didn’t kiss me back.

I pulled away quickly. Was I reading things wrong?

“It's okay you don't have to…” I was about to take a step back from him when he pulled me to himself, his lips crashing into mine in a split second.

It felt magical, and his kiss…. his kiss was…..different. I was feeling emotions I haven't felt in a long time, maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was because this whole thing was so surreal.

His tongue pushed deeper, exploring my mouth as it tangled with mine. 

The kiss grew even more intense, and I felt myself drowning in it as a burning heat ignited deep between my thighs, making it harder to think about anything except him

Everything around me faded into nothing, and before I could even process what was happening, I was on the bed… and he was on top of me.