Chapter 2

Elena's POV

When Adrian leaned in close, his gaze settled on my face.

These past few days I'd been wearing heavy perfume.

The medication the doctor gave me masked the strange scent in my blood, too.

I put on makeup every day, painting my lips a little redder than usual.

Adrian didn't notice.

That wasn't surprising, really.

He rarely looked at me this closely.

Even when he did come home now and then, he only pulled me into a careless embrace when he needed me to do something for him.

I used to live for those brief embraces.

Looking back now, all I felt was how pathetic it had been.

“You haven't looked well lately.”

He changed the subject, ignoring what I'd said before.

I lowered my eyes. “I'm probably just tired.”

“Then rest for a few days.”

He said it so easily, just like always, deciding on his own where our argument would end.

“And don't go throwing around words like divorce so casually from now on.”

I looked at him, that handsome, gentle face exactly as it had been the day we met.

Ten years ago, a single line of concern like that would have been enough for me, hope rising up before I could stop it.

Now there was only a hollow ache in my chest.

I didn't explain again.

I just turned, took the divorce papers from the drawer, and laid them in front of him.

“I'm not saying this lightly.”

“I've already had the papers drawn up.”

Adrian glanced down.

My signature was already there on the page.

The smile finally vanished from his face, leaving nothing but cold in his eyes.

“You're serious?”

I nodded.

He didn't fly into a rage right away.

Adrian would never lose control the way ordinary people did.

He was the Prince's heir, elegant and aloof no matter the moment.

Even so, he despised the wife before him, and this arranged union even more.

He picked up the papers, flipped through a couple of pages without much interest, his tone still even.

“You've settled the property division? You want nothing at all?”

“Nothing.”

The hand holding the papers tightened, and he lifted his eyes to me.

“If you leave here, where could you even go?”

I didn't answer right away.

It was a question I'd asked myself many times.

Away from the Prince's estate, I would no longer be the envied wife of the heir.

And my own family would never take back a divorced daughter.

For ten years of marriage, I'd stayed inside that estate waiting for him to come home, longing for his half-hearted scraps of warmth, and I'd never made a single friend I could trust.

But I was dying.

I didn't want to waste what little time I had left on more nights of waiting for him to come home.

“I don't know,” I said softly.

“But I'll find somewhere.”

Adrian watched me, his gaze gone fully cold.

“You want a divorce over a mistress I've already cast off?”

Suddenly I found it almost funny.

Even now he assumed I was simply jealous over the little lover he'd sent away.

But what was that woman, really?

She wasn't even the first.

And she wouldn't be the last.

I shook my head.

“It isn't about her.”

“It's that I don't want to do this anymore.”

Adrian frowned.

I looked at him, my voice flat.

“I don't want to keep sending off your lovers, or spend our anniversary waiting up all night only for your assistant to deliver some token gift.”

“I don't want to keep pretending… that I still have any real chance at happiness.”

As the last words left my mouth, my heart still gave a small, quiet ache.

But only one.

I was calmer than I'd thought I would be.

Maybe it was because, when a person truly reaches the end, so much simply stops mattering.

The things that once kept me crying through the night now left me only numb.

Adrian stared at me for a long time.

Then, all at once, he let out a soft sigh.

“Elena.”

He set down the papers and walked toward me.

“You're worn out.”

I knew what he was about to do.

He would kiss me.

He'd use that familiar way of his to quiet me.

Over the past ten years, he'd done it far too many times.

Every time I truly broke down, he would come back to me, briefly.

He'd be tender for a night, maybe two.

And then I'd forget the humiliation and let myself believe again that I still had hope.

But I knew he only needed me for my standing as his wife.

Whether it was managing his lovers or taking his arm at a banquet, I still had my uses at his side.

This time, I didn't close my eyes and lift my face to wait for his cold lips.

I raised a hand and pressed it to his chest.

“Don't.”

Adrian went still.

My palm rested against the fabric of his shirt.

Vampires have no warmth.

I used to think I could warm him through.

Only now did I understand that, just as Adrian had said, it had always been nothing but a foolish dream.

“This time will go the same as every other time.”

I looked at him.

“You'd humor me for a few days, then go back to someone else.”

“And once I'd turned agreeable again, you could leave with a clear conscience.”

A flicker of mockery crossed Adrian's eyes; that line had finally gotten under his skin.

“Aren't your own parents the same?”

My breath caught.

He looked at me, his voice still low.

“This is simply what noble marriages are.”

“I made it clear to you from our wedding day.”

“You're the one who refused to accept it.”

He said it so calmly, so cruelly.

I thought of the home I grew up in.

Mother at one end of the long table, Father at the other.

They spoke politely and never intruded on each other.

When dinner ended, each went off to see someone different.

I sat alone in that empty dining room, watching the candles burn slowly down.

Even then, I made myself a promise.

I would never have a marriage like that.

I would marry someone I loved.

And I would make that person love me back.

So when I met Adrian at that party, I threw caution to the wind.

I thought I'd finally have a home.

Instead, after going all the way around, I'd ended up right back where I started, empty-handed.

I looked down and gave a small laugh.

“You're right.”

“I was the one who wouldn't accept my place.”

Something in Adrian's expression faltered.

I raised my eyes to him.

“I always thought that if I just tried a little harder, was a little more understanding, you'd eventually turn and look at me.”

“Now I accept it.”

“You'll never love me, and there's no point forcing it.”

The room went quiet.

I pushed the divorce papers back toward him.

My voice was barely there.

“Adrian, sign them.”

“I'm truly tired.”