Chapter 5 : The Big Secret

Killian’s POV

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

For a moment, I felt my senses snapping back into place. Her hands were around my neck; they were soft and warm, just like I remembered, but her face didn't give me the satisfaction I had waited six years to see.

Six years ago, I woke up briefly in the middle of the night to realize Seraphina wasn't lying next to me anymore. Our baby was crying profusely. I sat up in bed and took the child in my arms, believing Sera had just gone into the bathroom to take care of herself, or perhaps her postpartum symptoms were acting up again. The last thing I ever wanted was to see her suffering. Having a child at that point in our lives had been a risk, a heavy burden on her, especially since her body was her most important asset as a model.

We were getting ready to be married back then. I had knelt in front of my father and made a promise: I would walk back into the company and take the reins as he wanted, if only he let me marry Seraphina. And he had agreed. He was going to give his blessing; he was going to accept Seraphina into the Cross Empire.

She knew this. We were so happy that day. But I didn't know she had been cooking something up in the darkness for me. As I nursed the baby back to sleep, Seraphina wasn't actually in the bathroom. She was long gone, vanished into the night to a new lover.

I didn't want to believe it at first. The next day, when I declared her missing at the police station, the investigation started moving pretty quickly. I even accused my brother, Dominic, of having a hand in her disappearance, simply because he wanted me out of the company.

But the CCTV cameras couldn't be fabricated.

"I ran this through forensics over and over again, Killian," my best friend, Dante, said. He watched my face realistically, trying to see if I was ready to accept the truth. "That’s actually her in the video. And the man hugging her under the umbrella is Maximilian Thorne."

I felt a sharp tug of pain sear into my chest. "But why? Sera wouldn't just leave the baby and me, I argued, my eyes darting toward the child I had finally managed to put to sleep. "Sera is in danger. I know she is."

"Maximillian and Seraphina are getting married next week." Dante dropped the words heavily, letting them sink in.

Sera wasn't coerced. She wasn't in danger. She had left me. She had simply woken up in the middle of the night and walked out of my life.

"But why? I was nice to her. We were okay," I stammered. "I was going to marry her. Is she still mad because I narrowed her modeling life by making her a mother? I apologized for that. I was going to make things right."

"Killian, you didn't do anything wrong," Dante sighed. "She's a woman, remember? A very beautiful one. You were no match for Maximillian. She just chose the best man on the plate for herself."

"I don't want to believe that. Sera wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

"She disappeared for nearly a week while knowing she’s a breastfeeding mom! No calls, no texts, and yet she’s all over the TV! Killian, wake up. You’ve been abandoned."

It didn't make sense to me. For days, I tried to understand why. I tried to reach out. I even went so far as to attend her wedding, watching her say her vows to Maximilian while smiling from ear to ear. Even when he grabbed her in his arms and kissed her, I still tried to understand.

In the end, one thing remained clear: I was never enough for her. I was just a stepping stone into the life she really wanted to live. While our daughter cried every night as I struggled to change her diaper or prepare her meals, Sera did nothing but grace my TV screen and the billboards on the streets. Her disappearance haunted me constantly; she made sure I had nothing left to do but think about her, whether I wanted to or not.

That was double the cruelty. As the months passed, my love twisted into a stern passion of hate. I started having dreams of pressing a cold knife to her neck, or my hands squeezing the life out of her.

There was no way I was going to let her have a comfortable life after she had completely ruined mine. After leaving me a wreck, she chose to live as if she were a saint. To make it worse, she never once acknowledged me, the life we shared, or our daughter in any of her interviews. Suddenly, her entire world revolved around one person: Maximilian. I always wondered what he had that I lacked, what he could give her that I couldn't.

When my father passed away three years ago, I became the new CEO of the Cross Empire. Elevating the company to greater heights was my first real achievement, ensuring it became an empire that commanded more power than the Thornes'. If I wanted to bring Sera down and drag her to the hell I lived in, destroying the world she thought she owned was the perfect place to start.

"You want to disguise yourself as a bodyguard and apply to work in the Thorne house?" Dante had asked in shock when I told him the news.

"Yes."

"What? Don’t tell me you're still not over Sera after all these years?"

"Not over who? That witch?" I spat. "No, Dante. I didn't come this far just to watch her smile in peace every day. I want to destroy every bit of her until there’s nothing left."

That was how I made it in here. And now, she dared to ask me what I was doing here, so casually, as if she weren't a demon that needed to be cast into hell.

I reached up and grabbed her wrists, firmly pulling her hands away from my neck. I didn't do it gently; I wanted her to feel the strength in my grip.

"My name is Joseph," I rasped, my eyes cold. "And I don't think I know you well enough for you to be putting your hands on me, Mrs Thorne."

"Killian..." She purred softly thinking this was still the foolish me from six years ago, "How is the baby?"

"Which baby? Do I know you?"