Chapter 5

Elena's POV

When I came out of the hotel, I didn't take Adrian's car.

The driver followed me out and asked twice, but I shook my head both times.

Adrian had told me to return to the estate, think everything through, and come to him with an explanation.

I had nothing left to explain.

I walked slowly along the road outside the hotel.

My place on the edge of the human world was not close. The distance, a twenty-minute drive, felt endless on foot.

My mother had just died.

Tomorrow was supposed to be my wedding.

A few hours earlier I had handed back the ring and the crest myself.

With so many things happening at once, I was not as devastated as I had imagined I would be.

I couldn't even cry.

My body just felt heavy, and I walked slower and slower.

What she'd said at the end kept coming back.

She wanted me to find someone who could believe me.

I had never really thought about it before.

I had always felt that Adrian being willing to marry me was proof enough that he loved me.

And that as long as we still loved each other, the doubt and the arguing would pass.

But looking back now, I could not remember the last time Adrian had stood by me unconditionally.

It was fully dark by the time I got home.

It was the small apartment I had rented when I still lived in the human world.

After moving to Adrian's estate, I rarely returned, but I had never given up the apartment.

Adrian once asked why I kept it.

I had lived there when Adrian and I first met, and the apartment held so many memories of our slowly deepening relationship.

Coming back now and then was nice.

Now I was only glad that after leaving his estate there was somewhere I could go.

Nobody had lived in it for a long time.

I tidied a little and sat down on the edge of the bed.

There were a lot of messages.

The wedding coordinator was still confirming tomorrow's schedule.

Someone was asking after my mother.

I did not answer any of them.

I set the phone aside and sat leaning against the bed for a long time.

Then somebody knocked.

They were members of the staff from Adrian's estate.

There were four of them, with a car waiting downstairs.

The housekeeper leading them said Adrian wanted me back.

I didn't ask why.

Exhausted as I was, I didn't refuse either.

If I was leaving, I had to go back to the estate one more time anyway.

My documents, some things my mother had left me, and years of clothes were all there.

I could pack everything and clear it out in one trip.

I said nothing the whole way.

As we neared the estate, the scenery outside became more familiar.

The first time I came here, I had been afraid I would not remember the way.

Adrian told me I didn't need to.

As long as I had the crest, wherever I went, someone would bring me home.

It had warmed me through, hearing that.

The crest was his again now.

Nobody would be bringing me home anymore.

It was very late when the car came through the gates.

The wedding was supposed to be tomorrow, so the flowers and decorations were still up everywhere.

The staff were taking some of it down.

They all stopped when they saw me.

Some people stole glances at me.

What had happened at the hotel had clearly traveled ahead of me.

I ignored it and went straight to my room.

I didn't have much luggage.

Adrian had bought me too many things after I moved in.

Clothes, jewelry, shoes, all kinds of things I would never have bought myself.

I opened the wardrobe and took out only the clothes I'd arrived with.

The gowns he'd given me stayed where they were.

I found my documents and a few letters my mother had sent me over the years.

I was halfway through when the door opened.

Adrian was back.

He stood in the doorway, looking at the open suitcase, and his brows quickly drew together.

I didn't stop.

The room stayed quiet a long time.

In the end he spoke first. "I told you to come back to the estate and calm down. You ignored me and ran back to that apartment of yours, but fine.

"The wedding is tomorrow. If you leave now with none of this settled, how do I explain it to the elders and the guests?"

My hands stopped for a second.

So that was why he'd called me back.

For a moment I wanted to laugh.

But in the end, my body went rigid, and I could not force even a hint of expression onto my face.

My mother had died a few hours earlier.

Our child was gone.

I had handed back the ring that day.

But he did not notice how calm I was, or how final my decision had become.

What he most wanted to ask was how to explain it to other people tomorrow.

I folded the clothes again and put them in the case.

"Tell me what you want me to say, and I'll play along."

He visibly froze.

He hadn't expected me to agree that fast.

Every other time someone said I was after his money, I'd rushed to explain.

Even idle talk from a few of the staff could upset me for days.

I always thought that if too many of those rumors spread, they would affect Adrian too.

So I told the people around me, and told myself, that we truly loved each other.

In all honesty, I had never wanted anything from him.

There was no point explaining now.

Explain once and there would only be a next time.

He wasn't going to believe me. He would only think I hadn't been caught this particular time.

Adrian came into the room and looked at what I'd packed.

His eyes went over the jewelry I hadn't touched and settled on the case.

"You have to go tonight?"

"Yes."

"Because of one test?"

I didn't answer.

I no longer had the strength to tell him it was the ninth time he'd done this to me.

But I had finally given up on him.

Footsteps came from the corridor.

Seraphina came in.

She clearly already knew why he'd brought me back.

She looked at me, then at Adrian, and reminded him that the wedding could not be canceled without a proper explanation.

If the Prince's heir was abandoned by his fiancée the day before the wedding, both the Council of Elders and the guests would demand an explanation.

If it wasn't handled properly and the wedding was called off at the last minute, the royal house would lose face.

She had a point.

So she proposed something else.

"Elena, since it's come to this, why not simply admit it?"

She folded her arms and looked at me with haughty satisfaction.

"I knew from the beginning that your motives for approaching Adrian were not innocent.

"Now that you've been caught, of course you're in a hurry to leave. But kindly don't drag the royal house's name through it. Own what you've done."

She wanted me to admit that I had been after his wealth and status, and that the day before the wedding I had been caught preparing to sell his whereabouts for nine million dollars.

Once exposed, I knew I couldn't stay, so I had canceled the wedding myself.

That explained everything.

And nobody would think less of the royal house over a wedding called off at the last minute.

The room went quiet.

Adrian said nothing for a moment.

He looked at Seraphina with his brows drawn tight.

After a while he looked at me.

I knew that look far too well.

Hesitation, suspicion, and guardedness—none of them belonged in the way one looked at the person one loved.

I waited a long time and never heard him say no.

The last stubborn scrap of hope inside me finally died.

I lowered my eyes and asked Seraphina, "Will that be enough?"

She seemed surprised.

Then she nodded.

I nodded too.

"All right. I'll say whatever you want me to say."

Adrian's expression darkened further.

"Elena."

I looked at him.

He fell silent for a long time and never finished the sentence.

I didn't wait.

I only lowered my head and went on packing.

All I wanted was for them to let me leave after tomorrow.

As for what the vampires might say about me afterward, I no longer cared.