chapter 3

Chapter 3

A month passed quietly in the blink of an eye, although to Elara it felt like an eternity, because every day carried a weight she had never known before.

In the public eye, she was ‘the Mrs. Blackwood’ that everyone envied, dressed in elegance and surrounded by luxury, yet behind closed doors, she existed like a shadow that no one bothered to acknowledge.

The servants were polite on the surface, but their eyes often lingered with judgment, and their whispers never fully disappeared. Some believed she had married far above her worth, while others assumed she was only here for money and the benefits that the Blackwood name brought.

At family gatherings, the smiles directed at her were thin and practiced, and the conversations always drifted toward the same subject with practiced precision.

“So, any good news yet?” Dominic’s mother was always the one to bring up the topic before others followed.

“It has been a few weeks already. What is taking you so long? Is Dominic not working hard enough?”

“The Blackwood bloodline cannot wait forever.” His grandfather said.

Elara had learned to just smile and lower her head whenever such conversations started, because responding would only make things worse.

She had learned to swallow her discomfort and remind herself that patience was necessary, even when every word felt like a blade stabbing her heart over and over again.

As for Dominic, he acted indifferent as if none of it concerned him. He never once intervened whenever his family mocked Elara, and he acted like she did not exist, unless they were in the bedroom.

During the night, he came to her room with a purpose rather than desire, and his touch held no warmth or affection.

There were no lingering glances and no gentle words, and when it was over, he always turned away, as though sharing a space with her annoyed him.

Elara endured the coldness because she believed that this was the price she had agreed to pay, and because she told herself that once she fulfilled her role, things might ease.

But the results did not come as fast as she had anticipated.

Each week, the doctors ran tests, and each week the results were the same.

Always negative!

Dominic’s patience was wearing thinner with every report. His jaw would tighten, and his voice would sharpen just enough to make his displeasure clear every time he looked at the doctor’s report.

“Your initial reports indicated that you were healthy,” he told her one evening, his tone clipped. “So, there should be no issues.”

Elara looked at him and replied, her fingers clenched together. “I also have no idea why there is nothing yet. But sometimes it takes time. Maybe my body is still adjusting.”

Dominic did not like that answer. Time was not something he valued when it did not obey him.

After that conversation, his presence in the bedroom grew even colder, and his temper became less restrained.

There were nights when his frustration showed openly, and he would almost tear Elara’s body apart.

And there were mornings when he would leave even without a word, as though her very existence offended him. Elara stopped hoping for kindness, because hope had become too painful to carry.

She stopped expecting him to ask how she felt, because he never did ever since she stepped foot in his house.

By the end of the second month, her body felt different, although she tried to convince herself it was only stress.

She was more tired than usual, and certain smells made her uneasy, yet she ignored the signs because disappointment had already taught her to expect nothing.

After weeks of testing and trying, Elara had already given up hope. Dominic’s family had started calling her names. They said that she was a freeloader who was just feeding off Dominic without nothing to offer.

At some point, she even overheard Dominic’s mother telling him to find another woman and get rid of her, because she was nothing but a worthless burden.

After the unexplained feelings in her body, on one quiet afternoon, when Dominic was away on business, Elara finally gathered the courage to take another test.

Elara stood alone in the bathroom, the marble floor cold beneath her feet, while the seconds passed slowly.

Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror, pale and tense, with eyes that had learned to hide too much in the shortest time she had been in the Blackwood residence.

The few minutes she waited felt like forever, but at last the result appeared, clear and unmistakable.

One look at the results and her breath left her in a rush.

Seeing the two lines made her feel like she had just been pulled out of hellfire.

The result was actually positive!

Her hands trembled as she stared at the pregnancy test kit, disbelief crashing into fear, and fear tangling with something dangerously close to hope.

She sank onto the edge of the bathtub and pressed a hand against her stomach, tears filling her eyes as reality settled in.

She was pregnant. She was finally pregnant with Dominic’s child.

That evening, when she told Dominic the news he had been waiting to hear, his reaction was immediate and controlled, although the shift in his mood was impossible to miss. He looked at the test, then at her, and finally nodded once.

“Good,” he said. “That is what should have happened since long ago.”

No congratulations followed, and no tenderness softened his words. He reached for his phone and started speaking about doctors, schedules, and security arrangements, as though she had simply confirmed the success of an experiment.

Elara stood there quietly, watching the man she had married move on so easily, and the fragile hope she had carried was shattered once more.

She understood then, that pregnancy had not changed her value in his eyes. It had only confirmed her usefulness.

Too her surprise, Dominic joined her in bed later on. This was the first time he was going to spend the night in his bedroom ever since Elara came into his house.

That night, as she lay awake beside him, staring into the darkness, Elara held her breath and made a silent decision.

If this child stayed in this house, it would never belong to her.

And if she wanted to protect the life growing inside her, then she would have to leave everything else behind.

She had to make the most difficult decision of her life!