Chapter 5

KAEL POV____

The truth hit me like a thousand hammer blows, shattering my entire world into irreparable pieces.

I, Kael Montenegro, the man who had everything, the man who thought he won the game of life, had lost everything that truly mattered.

I found out that the child I loved and raised for four years wasn't mine. I found out that I had been living a lie, married to a woman who deceived me from the very start.

And the worst realization of all... I had thrown away the only woman who truly loved me. I had rejected my own flesh and blood. I had told Elara to abort our baby. I had treated her like trash, convinced that she was just a game, just a pastime.

Now, I was paying for my sins. And God, the price was too high to bear.

Months had passed since the truth came out, and my life had turned into a living hell. I divorced Sophia immediately. I threw her and her child out of my life, erasing them completely just like I tried to erase Elara before.

But erasing the pain was impossible.

Every night, I would sit alone in my massive, empty bedroom, drowning in whiskey, staring at the one photo I had of her. It was an old picture, taken when we were still happy, or at least when I pretended to be.

Her smiling face haunted me everywhere I went.

“Why, Elara? Why did you have to disappear on me?” I whispered, my voice hoarse and broken. “Why didn’t you fight for me? Why didn’t you stay so I could realize my mistake sooner?”

Stupid. I was so stupid to blame her. She did fight. She fought with tears, with love, and with honesty. And I crushed her. I pushed her away. I told her she lost.

And now, I was the one who lost everything.

“Sir, we still have no leads. It’s like she vanished into thin air. All her bank accounts were closed years ago. Her social media was deactivated. Even her family said they haven’t heard from her since she left.”

My assistant stood in front of my desk, head bowed in fear. He had been reporting the same thing for months.

“Nothing?” I roared, slamming my hand on the table, making the items on it jump. “How is that possible?! I own half of this city! I have money, power, and connections! How can I not find one single woman?!”

“We are trying our best, Sir. But she did a very good job hiding. It’s like she never wanted to be found.”

Those words pierced my heart.

She never wanted to be found.

Yes. That was it. She hated me that much. She was so disgusted by me that she chose to vanish forever rather than let me see her again.

“Find her!” I stood up, my eyes bloodshot and wild. “I don’t care if you have to dig up the whole country! I want to know if she’s alive! I want to know if... if my child is alive!”

The thought was killing me slowly. Did she keep the baby? Or did my cruel words force her to get rid of it?

If she aborted it... if she killed our child because of me... I would never forgive myself. I would rather die than live with that guilt.

“Yes, Sir.”

When my assistant left, I was alone again in the suffocating silence. I walked to the window and looked down at the busy streets.

People were walking, laughing, living their lives. And I was here, trapped in my own castle, suffering the worst punishment imaginable. Regret.

I remembered everything clearly. I remembered the way she looked at me when she told me she was pregnant. There was hope in her eyes. There was love.

And I spat on it.

“It was just sex, Elara. You lost the game.”

I said those words with so much arrogance. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to prove I was in control.

Now, I would give anything, every penny I have, every power I possess, just to go back in time and slap myself awake. Just to hold her and tell her I was wrong. Just to tell her I would take responsibility.

But time didn't turn back. And she was gone.

I started going to places we used to go. Places where we shared memories.

I went to the old condominium where we lived together. It was empty now, but I could still smell her scent. I could still hear her laughter. I sat on the floor where she used to cry, and I cried with her.

“Elara... please... come back,” I sobbed, hugging my knees like a lost child. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was blind. I was arrogant. I was a monster.”

I went to her favorite café. I ordered her favorite drink, just to feel close to her. But the seat across from me was always empty.

I asked everyone. Her friends, her relatives, old neighbors.

“Please... just tell me if she’s okay. Just tell me if she’s alive,” I begged, my pride long gone.

But everyone just looked at me with pity or anger.

“She doesn’t want to see you, Kael,” one of her closest friends told me coldly. “You broke her beyond repair. You told her to kill her own baby. What kind of man does that? She left to survive. She left to save herself and that child from you. So don’t look for her. Let her be happy.”

Happy.

The word stung. She was happy without me. She was better off without me.

It meant that I was truly worthless to her. I was just a bad chapter in her life that she successfully closed.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The search continued, but the results were always the same. Nothing.

I was becoming obsessed. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. My appearance deteriorated. I looked like a living dead.

I had nightmares every night. I would dream of Elara standing in the rain, looking at me with tearful eyes, holding a baby in her arms. And when I tried to reach them, they would fade away like smoke.

“Where are you, Elara?” I would whisper in the dark. “Why are you doing this to me? Punish me... hurt me... but let me see you. Let me see my child.”

I realized then that the game wasn't over. I was still playing it, but now the rules were different. Now, I was the one chasing, and she was the one running away.

And she was winning. She was winning by staying away from me.

I had everything in the world, yet I had nothing. I had a name, a status, and wealth, but I had no wife, no real child, and no love.

I was the richest man in the world, yet I was also the poorest.

Because the woman I loved... the woman I destroyed... was somewhere out there, living her life, and I didn't even know if she was alive or dead.

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The pain was unbearable. It was a slow torture that would never end until I found her.

But where? Where could she be?

Little did he know...

Miles away, in a beautiful city by the ocean, Elara was living her life. She was happy, successful, and raising their son beautifully. She had erased every trace of her past. She had built walls so high that no one could penetrate them.

She was safe. She was free.

And she had absolutely no intention of ever going back to the man who broke her heart.

As for Kael... he would continue to search. He would continue to suffer. He would continue to regret every single word he said.

Because he made his bed, and now he had to lie in it... alone.

TO BE CONTINUE