Chapter 2

Elena's POV

Footsteps at the door.

The older maid came in and found me standing motionless in the tearoom. Her face softened with something like pain.

“My lady.”

I turned.

She had been in this house for many years and had always been kind to me. After my first miscarriage, she'd quietly had the kitchen make me a bowl of hot soup.

She hesitated, then lowered her voice.

“Now that Miss Vicky has returned, you ought to be careful.”

“You are still the young master's wife, after all.”

I heard the word wife and gave a quiet, small laugh.

“What would being careful change?”

The maid went still.

I looked down at the faint steam rising from the teacup.

“If I push my way between them, I'll only make Jason resent me.”

Early in the marriage, I used to feel hurt. Used to feel the injustice of it.

Every time Jason mentioned Vicky, something would ache in my chest. When he stared at my face in a daze, I'd ask him carefully: “do I look like her today?”

Every time, I got colder distance in return.

He told me I shouldn't crave what didn't belong to me.

A vampire's devotion to his chosen. I envied it. But it broke me too.

I knew. Jason's love had never been mine. It would never become mine.

So I learned to be quiet. To stop asking, stop fighting, stop reaching.

The maid's eyes reddened.

“My lady, these years have been so hard on you.”

I shook my head.

“It's nothing.”

But I knew.

Except for a handful of servants I'd lived alongside for three years, all the vampire nobility in the domain were waiting to laugh at my expense.

News of Vicky's divorce had spread like wildfire. They'd soon find out she was living under Jason's roof. They were already guessing how long I could last.

I stood in the tearoom for a long time, until my legs ached. Then followed the butler to carry in the tea.

Through the half-open door, I watched Jason pull out Vicky's chair with his own hand.

Still composed. Still precise.

His gentleness was all in the details.

He remembered she liked her tea a little sweet.

He even took her shawl from her outstretched hand without a second thought.

Everything I had spent three years quietly hoping for, Vicky received without asking for a word.

I suddenly felt very tired.

All that careful hope had only ever been a reminder.

I wasn't Vicky. I had no right to want what I could never have.

I stood outside the door and listened to their easy conversation. The only thing left on my lips was a thin, self-mocking smile.

Even now, I still had that sliver of hope left.

I should have known. As a stand-in, I had no reason to still be here.

Jason came out with Vicky, showing her around the house by the look of it.

This house that existed, in name, for both of us. He had never given me a patient tour like this.

Vicky saw me first.

“Elena, what are you doing out here?”

Jason looked over.

For just a moment, the warmth in his eyes faded.

“I'm taking Vicky around. Go rest.”

I didn't ask why. I just answered softly.

“All right.”

I started to leave. Then he spoke again.

“Vicky will be staying here for now.”

The corridor went silent.

The maid nearby visibly paled.

Vicky tilted her head toward Jason, a natural ease and softness in her eyes.

I gripped the tray's edge. The metal pressed into my fingertips.

After a beat, I heard myself say:

“I understand.”

Jason frowned slightly.

I couldn't tell if he was annoyed by my composure or had expected me to be even more compliant.

Yet I had no strength left to press for answers. I couldn't ask why she was moving in, or for how long. Couldn't ask if he’d spared a thought for how the world would judge and mock me.

None of those questions had answers worth hearing.

The truth had long been laid bare before my eyes.

I turned and headed upstairs.

The thick carpet swallowed my footsteps.

At the bend in the stairs, I heard Vicky murmur:

“Is this all right?”

Jason's voice, as warm as ever:

“It's fine. Elena will understand.”

I gripped the banister and stopped.

“Will understand.”

So in his eyes, even my own hurt had to stay within appropriate limits.

I didn't look back.

I just kept walking.

But in that moment, something became very clear.

There was no longer any place for me in this house.

And this marriage, three years of it, was about to reach its real ending.