Chapter 4

Elena's POV

The night wind hit my face, and I realized I was shaking.

The delayed, almost unbearable wave of anger had locked my body in place.

The first time Ryan and I met, he had stared at me for a long moment, then said he had fallen for me at first sight—and from that day on, he had taken care of me with a kind of gentleness.

His warmth and attentiveness had blinded me to the fact that none of it was real.

All I wanted was to give back the same love to the vampire who had faced down every objection for my sake—and I never once noticed that what he felt for me wasn't love. It was the grief of a man who couldn't let go of Lilian.

If Lilian had never left. If he hadn't been startled when he first saw me—hadn't confused me for Lilian, another woman in a white dress—he never would have married me. He wouldn't even have bothered with the sweet words that made me fall for him.

I was just a human bride used as a substitute. His love and his promises had always been a lie. Now that Lilian was back, every performance of tenderness had been quietly returned to its rightful owner.

I stood under the corridor outside the main building, watching the light pour through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Their silhouettes moved across the glass—Ryan leaning close, saying something, and Lilian resting against him.

This should have been the moment I turned and walked away.

But instead, I found myself thinking about before.

The first month of my pregnancy, I had been exhausted constantly.

A human body was never built to carry a half-blood child easily, and I hadn't understood why—I had just assumed I was simply weak.

One night I couldn't even keep myself standing.

Ryan carried me to bed, cut his own wrist, and brought his blood to my lips.

"Just a little," he said. "Vampire blood helps repair a human body. Try a small amount first."

His voice was quiet. Patient.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here. I'll protect you."

I had believed, in that moment, that I was someone who was cherished.

I believed he was giving me his blood because he loved me. Because I mattered.

Looking back now, I could only find it ironic.

All that tenderness, all that care—none of it had been for me.

It was a series of experiments.

He had been calibrating the dosage. Measuring the effects. Testing what happened when a pregnant human woman drank a small amount of vampire blood, more importantly, whether it brought her relief or caused harm.

And once the person he actually wanted to protect had returned—he handed over every hard-won piece of knowledge without hesitation.

I stood there watching as Ryan lifted his arm and passed a glass to Lilian, my chest rising and falling hard.

The next second, I went back inside.

Lilian was sitting on the sofa, a cup of dark liquid in her hands.

I recognized it immediately.

Ryan's blood.

She was about to drink when I grabbed her wrist and held it.

The cup slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor.

"What are you doing?!" Ryan's voice was almost a shout.

He shot to his feet, grabbed my wrist, and jerked me sharply backward.

"Are you crazy?"

His grip was brutal, his knuckles nearly cutting into my skin.

I stumbled, my abdomen clenching hard with the sudden force, and I instinctively curved my body to protect my stomach.

I looked up at him, my voice rough. "She's drinking your blood, isn't she?"

Ryan's expression turned to stone.

"That's none of your concern."

"None of my concern?" I laughed once, my eyes burning hot. "So when you gave it to me, I was just an experiment?"

Lilian rose from the sofa, hands out, looking as if she'd been frightened by all this.

"Elena, please don't..." she said softly. "I'm just not feeling well. Ryan is worried about me, that's all."

"He took care of you the same way before. Didn't he?"

That sentence lit me on fire.

"Took care of me?" I stared at her. "What you're enjoying right now—I paid for that with my life."

Ryan's expression went completely cold. "Enough."

"The way you're acting right now is pathetic."

"If this keeps up, there's no point in this marriage continuing."

Divorce.

He said it like it was nothing—yet it landed precisely on my throat.

"Enough with the theatrics," he said. "A half-blood with no father, no vampire protection—you really think that child would survive out there?"

"No matter how powerful your father is, he can't stay in the vampire world."

As his words sank in, the emotion drained from my face, piece by piece.

The anger, out of control, the trembling—all of it slowly subsided, leaving behind only an unnervingly calm emptiness.

I lifted my head and looked at Ryan.

He clearly sensed something was off.

In that instant, his brow flickered—a brief hesitation crossing his eyes as he studied my expression.

He had never seen this look on me before. The kind born from hitting rock bottom, leaving nothing but cold indifference.

For a moment, he was genuinely startled. His lips parted as if to speak, and his hand instinctively reached for mine.

But only for a moment.

Just as quickly, he masked that flicker of unease. His jaw tightened again, his expression settling back into its usual confidence and composure.

As if he had already decided for me—decided that I would never dare leave him.

Slowly, I pulled my hand free and stepped back.

"So in your eyes," I said quietly, "my child was just a bargaining chip to keep me in line."

He didn't deny it.

Silence, in itself, was the answer.

After a long moment, Ryan ordered the servants to lock the front gate and told me to go to the side bedroom and reflect on my behavior.

I stared at the closed door, then turned and climbed the stairs without a word.

This time, he didn't follow.

Behind me, I heard Lilian call softly.

"Ryan..."

Her voice was soft, clinging.

He hesitated for a second—then walked back to her side.

Whatever flicker of heartbreak or hesitation that might have been meant for me dissolved into nothing.

I walked into the bedroom, wrapped my arms around myself, and sank to the floor.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Lilian.

"Don't get the wrong idea."

"I was the one who had Ryan use you as an experiment first. He's just feeling a little guilty."

"Don't fool yourself into thinking you still mean anything to him."

The light from the screen burned my eyes.

So that was it.

From beginning to end, I had just been a substitute. Someone to experiment on.

I turned off my phone and took a deep breath.

I had to leave.

No matter what it cost.