Signed off

CHAPTER TWO : 

Mira turned her head slowly to face me, her eyes meeting mine with a satisfaction that made my blood run cold, and Leo pulled out of her body in a slow, deliberate motion that made her moan with obvious pleasure. The sound echoed in my ears like a gunshot. I felt like I had been stabbed in the chest, the pain so sharp and so real that I staggered backward and gripped the doorframe to keep myself from falling. My entire body was shaking, my legs threatening to give out, and I could not breathe, could not think, could not do anything but stare at the two people who had just destroyed my world.

Leo did not look at me. He pulled his pants up with a casualness that was more insulting than anything he could have said, then reached out to stroke Mira's hair like she was something precious. His fingers trailed down her back with a tenderness he had not shown me in months, and she leaned into his touch like a cat basking in the sun. There was no remorse on his face. No guilt. No shame. He looked completely unbothered, like I was nothing more than an inconvenience he would deal with and forget.

I stepped into the room, my voice trembling as I finally managed to speak. "Leo," I said, the words coming out in a broken whisper. "What is going on? We have been dating for three years. I have given you everything. I changed everything about myself for you. How could you do this?"

He finally turned to look at me, and his eyes were cold and empty, like he was looking at a stranger he had no interest in knowing. He did not answer. He glanced at Mira instead and smiled, a soft, intimate smile I had not seen on his face in a long time, then leaned down to press a kiss to her shoulder. The tears welled up in my eyes, hot and angry and impossible to contain.

"Leo," I said again, my voice cracking. "Please look at me. Tell me this is not what it looks like. We were going to elope in a few days. We had a plan. How can you do this when we were supposed to run away together?"

A laugh escaped my lips, bitter and broken. I was standing in a hotel room watching my boyfriend fuck my stepsister, and I was asking him about our elopement plans. The absurdity hit me like a wave, and I laughed again, a hysterical sound I did not recognize, even as the tears kept falling.

He had promised me we would leave everything behind and start a new life together. And the entire time, he had been fucking my stepsister, planning to use me and discard me like nothing. The irony cut me open, and I wrapped my arms around myself as if I could hold my shattered pieces together.

Mira shifted on the bed, pulling the sheets up over her body, and looked at me with a smile that was pure poison. "Elara," she said, sweet and condescending. "You really are pathetic. Did you honestly think he loved you? Did you really believe a man like Leo would choose someone like you?"

I stared at her, my mouth hanging open. We had grown up together. We had shared secrets and dreams and a childhood that was not always easy. I had trusted her, loved her like a sister. Now she was looking at me like I was beneath her, like my pain was something to enjoy. "You are my sister," I whispered. "I loved you. How could you betray me like this?"

She laughed, light and airy, and my stomach churned with disgust. "Trusted me?" she repeated, shaking her head like I was a child who understood nothing. "You should have trusted yourself more. You should have known you were not good enough for him. You come from a low-status family. No connections, no power, no ambition. What did you think he saw in you?"

I opened my mouth to defend myself, to say I was not nothing. But no words came out, because a part of me believed her. A part of me had always believed I was not good enough, that I had to shrink myself to be accepted. I had given up my career for Leo. I had given up my dreams. I had changed everything about myself to become the woman he wanted, and it still had not been enough.

Leo stepped forward, his hand still resting on Mira's shoulder, his expression devoid of emotion. "Elara," he said, flat and matter-of-fact. "I have been using you for three years. That is all you ever were to me. A tool. A means to an end. I never loved you. I never even liked you. You were convenient, and now you are not."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I gasped, my hand flying to my chest as if I could stop my heart from breaking. Three years of changing myself, shrinking myself, sacrificing everything I was for a man who never cared about me. All the nights I waited for him to come home. All the meals he barely touched. All the times I bit my tongue to keep the peace. I had given him everything, and he had given me nothing.

"I loved you," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "I chose you over my career. Over my dreams. Over everything. And you were just using me the whole time?"

He shrugged, a gesture so casual it made me want to scream. "You were useful," he said simply. "Your family had connections I needed. You were so desperate to be loved you would do anything I asked. Pathetic, really. But useful while it lasted."

The tears kept coming, hot and relentless, and I could not stop any of it. My entire world was crumbling, and I stood in the middle of the ruins, watching the man I loved destroy everything we had supposedly built together. Every promise, every shared dream, had been a lie.

I took a step backward, meaning to walk out and never look back. My hand reached for the door handle, my fingers trembling so badly I could barely grip it.

Then Leo spoke again, and his words stopped my heart.

"By the way," he said, casual and unconcerned, "that document you signed earlier? It was not a work document. It was your consent to participate in the Volkov surrogate selection. Your father and I arranged it together. We thought it would be the perfect way to finally get rid of you."

I froze. The world stopped spinning. I turned slowly, my eyes wide with disbelief. "What?" I whispered. "The document I signed? The Volkov selection? What are you talking about?"

He smiled, cold and cruel. "The Volkov family is looking for surrogate candidates for their comatose heir," he explained. "Women from powerful families, and a few carefully selected outsiders. Your father and I nominated you. You just signed your consent. Congratulations. You are going to be a surrogate for the most dangerous family in the country."

My legs gave out, and I collapsed against the doorframe, sliding down until I was crumpled on the floor. The Volkov family. The heir who had been in a coma for months. The rumors that everyone who got close to him suffered mysterious accidents. They were sending me there. Sacrificing me. And I had just signed my own death warrant.

"You sent me there?" I said, my voice barely a whisper. "You and my father planned this together? You sold me to the Volkov family to get rid of me?"

Leo shrugged again, unbothered by my anguish. "It was the perfect solution. You were becoming a problem, too attached, too demanding. This way you are out of the way, and I get to be with the woman I actually love. Everyone wins."

I looked at Mira, hoping for some flicker of guilt, but she just smiled, smug and satisfied, like she had won a prize. She took Leo's hand, interlacing her fingers with his, and looked at me with pity in her eyes. "I told you, Elara. You never deserved him. He was always meant for me."

I could not breathe. The walls seemed to close in around me. I had been betrayed by everyone I trusted. My boyfriend. My stepsister. My father. They had all conspired against me, and I had been too blind, too naive, too desperate for love to see it.

Now I was trapped. I had signed a contract agreeing to a selection that would almost certainly get me killed. I had nothing left, and no one to turn to.

Leo looked down at me, his expression cold and dismissive. "You should go now," he said. "You have a big day tomorrow. Your interview with the Volkov family. Try to make yourself presentable. You are going to need all the help you can get."

He turned away, dismissing me like I was nothing, and wrapped his arms around Mira, kissing her forehead with a tenderness that shattered my heart into a million pieces. I watched them for a moment, then felt a rage building inside me, a fire I had never felt before.

I pulled myself to my feet, my body trembling with pain and fury. I did not say anything. I did not scream or cry or beg. I turned around and walked out the door, leaving them behind, leaving everything behind. The tears streamed down my face, and I could barely see where I was going, but I kept walking, one foot in front of the other, because I refused to let them see me break.

I was pathetic, I thought as I stumbled down the hallway. Pathetic, and broken, and I had nothing left. But somewhere deep inside me, a small voice whispered that this was not the end. This was the beginning. I would survive. I would find a way. I would make them pay for what they had done to me.

For now, all I could do was walk. One step at a time. Into the d

arkness. Into whatever future awaited me at the Volkov estate.