CHAPTER FOURTEEN_ Claire’s POV

My hands rested uselessly on the steering wheel as I sat idly in the driveway.

I hadn’t even started the engine yet.

Realization hit me hard. Harder than anything Lucian had said.

I didn’t know where to go.

While the Dhark mansion had never felt like mine, somehow, it had been where my life was lived. For years, I had spent all my waking hours in the mansion; like some glorified housewife.

The truth was that the Dhark mansion was the only place where I knew who I was. The only place where my name meant something.

The Dhark mansion was my safe space.

Outside of it, I was completely lost.

I caught my pale reflection in the rearview mirror. I looked too calm for a woman whose marriage had just collapsed.

But a question lingered in my mind:

Who am I, if I’m not Lucian’s wife?

Getting Eva’s number had been easy.

But I hadn’t planned to call her. I told myself I would drive around the city. That I would think. That I would let myself breathe.

Instead, I dialed Eva’s number on my phone.

She answered on the second ring, as if she’d been waiting for my call.

“Claire.” Her voice was smooth, almost gentle. “I was wondering when you’d call. Perhaps we should sit and talk.”

I didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Where?” I asked.

“My house. I’ll text you the address.” Eva replied.

“I’m on my way.”

She paused for a second, just enough to sound gracious. “I’ll be waiting.”

The line went dead.

I got the text a minute later. Eva’s house was a thirty-minutes drive away from ours.

The modern mansion looked exactly the way I had pictured it in my head_ immaculate architecture and beautiful white walls. A home for a star.

Eva opened the door herself.

She was barefoot, wearing a thick gray sweater. She looked like a completely different person.

“I’m glad you came,” she said, stepping aside to let me in. “This must be very hard for you.”

Not “I’m sorry”

Not “I never meant to ruin your life”

Just “this must be very hard for you”

I walked in without responding.

The scent of lavender hit me first.

Her living room was beautiful. Peaceful. And then I saw a cot at the far end of the room.

It was unmistakable, even from a distance.

Tears gathered in my eyes, but I blinked them away.

I wouldn’t let Eva see how much the mere idea of a baby hurt my soul. I wouldn’t let it show.

Eva followed my gaze and smiled faintly.

“I haven’t had the energy to put the cot together yet.” She said.

I turned to face her fully. “How long have you known?”

She blinked slowly, then gestured to the couch. “Would you like to sit?”

“No.” I answered bluntly.

Another pause.

“A few weeks,” she said. “I suspected before that, but I didn’t want to be wrong.”

“And Lucian?”

Her lips curved into a small smile. “He knows.”

“How long has he known?” I asked.

She studied my face for a moment before speaking. “Longer than you,” she said simply.

The words landed exactly as she intended them to.

I nodded, absorbing it all.

“So this wasn’t an accident.”

Eva tilted her head slightly. “Life is rarely accidental, Claire. Some people just pretend it is, when they have to.”

She wasn’t gloating. She didn’t need to. She spoke with the calm confidence of a woman who believed the ending was already written in her favour.

And it was.

“Men like Lucian,” she continued softly, “don’t choose love. They choose responsibility.”

Something in me went still. Because I knew she wasn’t lying.

“He would never abandon a child,” she added. “You know that.”

Yes, I did.

And suddenly, everything was perfectly clear to me;

Eva had used my infertility as the leverage to trap Lucian.

She had already won, before I even knew about the game she was playing.

I finally met her gaze.

“If you needed to destroy my marriage to keep him, you’ll never truly have him.”

For the first time, something real flickered across her face. Annoyance.

“You’re wrong,” she said calmly. “I didn’t destroy anything. I simply reminded him of who he is.”

“Children don’t fix broken men,” I retorted, my voice firm and steady. “They just give them somewhere new to hide.”

Eva straightened, placing a hand over her stomach, reclaiming her composure.

“He’ll do the right thing.”

The certainty in her tone almost broke me.

“He always does.”

I didn’t argue.

I walked out without saying another word.

Realization dawned on me as I got in my car and drove out of Eva’s mansion;

Lucian wasn’t just torn between two women.

He was choosing the child… and letting me bleed out in the process.