Chapter Three

ADRIELLE~

The words slipped from my mouth in a soft, broken whisper, but he didn’t hear me. Or maybe he didn’t care.

“Fuck! Your pussy tastes so good, Nessa!” His voice boomed through the house, shameless, guttural.

The woman’s breasts bounced in time with the violent rhythm of her hips as she rode him, her head tilted back in a loud cry. She ground down harder, over and over, until her moan split the air.

“Take it,” Valen groaned, voice fractured with pleasure. “Take it, Nessa!” His palm slammed against her ass again and again, the sharp sound mixing with her cries.

The longer I watched, the more my insides hollowed out. My chest burned as though someone had shoved hot iron through my ribs. Tears surged up and spilled freely, blurring my vision.

And then I remembered. Doctor Jay’s voice. The truth pressing its claws into me.

It was truly him. My husband.

“VALEN!”

The scream ripped from me before I could think.

Her gasp was small, fleeting. Instead of fear, her expression shifted quickly, like someone slipping on a different mask. She looked at me with slow, deliberate mockery, scanning me from head to toe, smirking like she’d already won.

“Well, look who crashed our party.” She turned to Valen with a lazy smile. “Your foolish garbage of an ex-wife finally crawled back from the dead.”

The word ex-wife hit like a slap. My chest seared.

“Get the hell away from my husband, you jezebel!” My voice cracked under the strain, my body trembling as pain dug its nails deeper into me.

She slid off him without hurry, draping the bedsheet around herself with theatrical laziness, before crawling beside him and pressing her lips to his.

My breath caught. Valen... He was kissing her. In front of me.

He cupped her face, kissing her deeper. She chuckled against his mouth, shooting me a sidelong look dripping with derision.

“I want more, baby,” she whined, fake tears trembling in her voice.

“Just a minute, darling,” he murmured, stroking her cheek like she was fragile glass.

Then he turned to me. His eyes were all fire and fury.

“And what the hell are you doing here?”

“It’s me,” I stammered. “Adrielle… your wife–”

“I don’t recall asking you for a résumé.”

“Valen, I–”

“What are you doing here, Adrielle?!” His roar cracked through me. “Who gave you the right to come in here?”

He had never raised his voice at me before. Not once.

From the bed, she let out a disdainful laugh. “The audacity.”

I ignored her, clinging to Valen with my eyes. “What’s happening? Who is she?”

She rose and sauntered toward us, naked, unashamed. “Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. I’m Vanessa. The wife of this sweet man.” Her arm curled possessively around him.

W–w–wife?

Valen smiled at her. Our smile. The one that used to be mine alone. It scorched me now.

“That’s so sweet of you, love,” he said, kissing her lightly.

Something inside me cracked and spilled out through my tears. They didn’t just fall. They ripped from my eyes, hot and unending, rolling down to my lips where they tasted of salt and despair. My knees felt waterlogged, barely holding me up.

Vanessa’s lips twisted in mock sympathy. “Aww, your little speech made her cry.”

“Why?” My voice shook as I clutched my chest. “Why do this to me, Valen? I trusted you. I loved you more than my own life. I–” My throat caught, but I still managed to push the words out.

“I saved you instead of my father, and you repay me with this?”

Vanessa burst out laughing. “Wow, Valen. You didn’t tell me she was this dramatic. We’ve got a charity case with acting skills!”

He chuckled with her. “Must be something the coma woke up in her.”

The words sliced into me like a serrated blade.

Vanessa tilted her head, her voice thick with venom. “Sorry, sweetheart. This isn’t Hollywood, and even if it was...” She eyed me slowly, from my hair down to my feet. “you'd never get the role. You know why? It's because they don't cast mental patients in love stories.”

Valen smirked, satisfied by what she said. She looked at him and smirked back.

“Valen...” I could barely breathe his name, my chest aching with every word. “After everything I did for you… you didn’t visit me, didn’t care if I lived. You refused to bury my father. You didn’t even show up at his–his–”

My words collapsed into a sob so loud it startled me. “I trusted you! I gave you everything!”

Vanessa stepped closer, her gaze glinting with satisfaction. “You know what’s sad, sweetheart? You survived the coma just to find out you were already dead to him.”

My vision went white with rage. I didn’t think. I moved.

I slapped her so hard my palm stung.

“Shut up, you husband-stealing witch!” My voice tore at my throat.

She shrieked, clutching her cheek. Suddenly, Valen’s hand came out of nowhere. The slap sent me staggering, crashing to the floor.

“How dare you touch her!” he barked, his fury entirely for her.

“Are you okay, my love?” His voice was gentle now, cupping her face.

“She slapped me! This mad woman hit my face!” she whimpered, fake tears shimmering.

"I'm sorry, my love." Valen apologized, wiping the tears on her face with his thumb.

It should have been me. It was supposed to always be me. I’m the one he should be comforting. Not her. Not this strange woman.

“Valen... it’s me. Your Adrielle. I’m your wife,” I whispered, shivering on the cold floor.

He stepped closer, his shadow swallowing me. “You’ve crossed the line. I won’t let you disrespect my wife in my house.”

“What have I done to deserve this?” My tears blurred him until he was just a silhouette.

“I don’t love you, Adrielle. I never did. I never felt anything for you. I only married you to get into your wealthy family.. You were just a placeholder. A tool. A pathway. Vanessa is the upgrade.”

My heart stalled, my ears ringing.

“I never loved you or your father,” he went on, his voice disturbingly calm. “I hated him. All I wanted was the money. And now, it’s mine.”

The air left my lungs. It felt like someone had driven a steel rod through my chest, the pain radiating into my arms, my neck, my bones. My hospital gown clung damp and cold against my skin, the metallic scent of blood filling my nose.

“No,” I rasped. “This has to be some kind of joke. Please, Valen... stop this. Stop hurting me. I’m begging you.”

His eyes were dead. “You were never meant to keep those riches, Adrielle. You’re just a privileged cunt the universe made the mistake of favoring.”

The words hit harder than the slap, heavier than the night pressing in around me.

Somewhere deep inside, something tore loose – a thread I didn’t know could break. I felt it unravel, slow and merciless, until there was nothing left to hold me together.

Valen... the man I had loved more than my own life, the man I had chosen over my father, looked at me like I was nothing but filth on his shoe.

And in that moment, I realized he wasn’t killing me with his hands. He was killing me with the truth.