Chapter 5

Elena's POV

Long after dark, the estate had gone quiet—the kind of quiet that made it feel like an empty shell.

I hadn't closed my door. I left it deliberately open by a crack.

Light from the living room below came up through the banister in long, blurred columns. Lilian's voice drifted up, soft and faint, pitched to sound fragile.

"Ryan, I don't feel well."

His voice immediately dropped in concern. "What's wrong?"

"I feel dizzy. The baby's breathing is erratic." She paused. "The blood from earlier... wasn't enough."

He was quiet for a moment.

I could picture his face—that measured, restrained expression, his brow creasing slightly.

"You can't have any more right now," he said, steadily. "Vampire blood puts too much strain on a human body."

Once, I had accidentally taken too much—and spent the entire night writhing in abdominal pain, unable to sleep until dawn. Ryan had stayed at my bedside through all of it, wiping the sweat from my face, his voice rough and low as he apologized and told me the dosage had been off.

I had found it so thoughtful. It had never crossed my mind that the same careful patience, the same calibrated attention, would one day be transferred to someone else entirely.

Lilian hummed softly, as if bearing something in silence. Then, after a few seconds, she spoke again.

"I remember... the moonstone necklace you gave Elena—it stabilizes a half-blood child's breathing, doesn't it?"

The air seemed to go still.

That necklace. He had fastened it around my neck himself on our wedding day. He had bent close to clasp it, his voice low and serious, telling me it was the mark of a vampire bride—and a protection. As long as I wore it, he would always sense where I was.

In that moment, I truly believed I was loved.

A long silence fell below.

"That necklace is a vampire bride's symbol," Ryan finally said. "It's meant to protect the human who wears it."

"I know." Lilian cut him off gently. "I just want to borrow it for a few days. I'll give it back once I've stabilized."

Her voice was soft enough to melt stone.

"I know you're married to her. I don't mind. And I don't want Elena to feel like I'm taking something that belongs to her."

The words came out light, but the wounded undertone was deliberate.

I heard Ryan draw a long breath.

He was weighing it. I could hear it.

He knew what that necklace meant to me.

After what felt like a long time, he finally spoke.

"Don't talk like that."

"That necklace... was always meant for you."

There was something raw in the way he said it—like he was talking himself into something.

"I only gave it to her because you left and got engaged to someone else. This is just returning it to where it belongs."

Not long after, the bedroom door opened.

Ryan stood in the doorway, and our eyes met directly.

He clearly hadn't expected me to be sitting there, having quietly listened to every word.

For a brief moment, his expression shifted—surprise, guilt, and a flash of frustration.

He even took a step forward, as if to say something.

"Elena..."

He stopped.

I wasn't crying. I wasn't angry. I simply looked at him.

That too-quiet calm seemed to bother him. He frowned.

"You heard everything?"

He lowered his voice, as if testing the ground.

"All of it," I said.

A moment of tension stretched between us.

His gaze dropped to the moonstone at my throat. The silver glinted cold and pale under the light.

His throat worked.

There was a moment of hesitation in him. I saw it.

But almost immediately, he gathered himself and let it go.

"Give her the necklace," he said, forcing his voice back to calm. "You're staying in this room anyway. You won't need it."

"I'll still have someone watching over you. You'll be fine."

He said it as though it were all perfectly reasonable, watching my face carefully.

"All right," I said.

The tension left his shoulders visibly.

"But I have one condition."

He frowned. He was probably already bracing himself for something like a demand to send Lilian away—another scene, more drama.

"What?"

I took a document from the drawer and held it out to him.

"I need your signature on this."

He took it and didn't look closely.

"Asset division? You want more shares?"

He actually laughed softly—the arrogance of a man absolutely certain that the woman in front of him was still the same Elena who had always depended on him, who couldn't bring herself to leave.

"Whatever you want is fine."

The pen came down without hesitation.

Ryan Kane.

Several letters, written steadily and without warmth.

He handed the document back, his fingertips pausing for a fraction of a second at the edge—as though something had struck him belatedly—but he pressed the hesitation down just as quickly.

"Satisfied?"

There was something almost indulgent in his tone, as if he was dealing with a petulant child.

I said nothing.

Ryan stood there watching me for a few seconds, eyes on my face, waiting for the moment I would soften the way I always had—waiting for him to say the one gentle thing that would make me step back from the line.

The silence was unsettling.

He sighed softly and moved closer.

"Stop all this." His voice was lower now, some of the sharpness gone.

He reached out and tried to draw me toward him. The gesture was completely natural, almost habitual—his hand landing on my shoulder, thumb curling in, as if warmth could settle everything.

"Elena." His voice dropped. "You're not going to leave me."

I breathed in the cool, familiar scent of him.

It used to calm me.

Now it only made me think clearly.

I turned and stepped out of his reach.

His hand hung in the air.

Just for an instant, I saw something uncertain move through his eyes.

Then he buried it.

In his mind, I was only calling his bluff. I was trying to unsettle him with distance—because the Elena he'd always known had loved him so deeply, had always come back.

He was sure I wouldn't go.

I lowered my head and, through the ache low in my abdomen, unclasped the moonstone from around my neck and placed it in his palm.

For a moment, without the necklace's protection, I could no longer keep up the appearance of calm. The sharp, stabbing pain in my abdomen drained the color from my face.

Ryan's brow furrowed faintly. Something in the air had shifted—he had almost caught it. But the trace of Lilian's perfume still lingering on his collar pulled his focus away.

"Don't worry.," I said, my voice steady, my expression almost calm. "I won't be asking for it back. Lilian can wear it as long as she likes."

Tomorrow, I would leave.