Chapter 3YEARS OF ONE-SIDED CONTACT

I always thought that if I ever left, he wouldn't even blink.

Logan, one of Darius’s most trusted assistants, was visibly stunned when I handed him my resignation letter. He was one of the few people in the entire company who knew about my relationship with Darius—if you could even call it that.

But Darius's heart was never really mine.

After our marriage, he turned cold. Distant. Like I was just a shadow haunting the corners of his life. He rarely came home. Barely looked me in the eye.

Still, I tried.

To get closer to him, I transferred to Moon Claw Enterprises, hoping to work directly under him. Maybe then, just maybe, he’d finally see me.

He didn’t. He refused outright.

Even the Elders of the Pack tried to convince him to take me on as his assistant. But he wouldn’t budge. Said it was "inappropriate."

I ended up in the research department—buried in tech, data, and silence. Eventually, I became one of his general technical aides, but it was never enough. Logan worried I’d stir trouble, but I kept my head down. Always professional. Always invisible.

I knew Darius hated being disturbed. I worked harder. Longer. Smarter.

Even when I was pregnant, I never asked for special treatment. Gave birth in silence. Returned to work before the scars had time to heal. I followed every protocol to the letter—thinking that if I just did everything right, he’d finally look at me the way a man should look at his wife.

But he never did.

Years passed. I became head of the assistant team. Earned respect. Promotions. Recognition.

From everyone but him.

Logan had always seen the way I looked at Darius. He probably pitied me. But even he was shocked when I resigned.

“Are you… sure about this?” he asked quietly, as though he couldn’t believe I was walking away.

I just nodded.

Maybe he thought Darius had forced me out. It wouldn’t be far-fetched. Darius had always kept me at arm’s length.

“I’ll arrange the handover as quickly as possible,” Logan said, his voice tight with unspoken thoughts.

I returned to my desk and calmly started tying up the loose ends—one meaningless task after another. For years, I’d built a life around a man who didn’t even notice I existed.

Logan logged into the company’s internal system to file his usual evening report. At the end, his fingers hovered over the keyboard. He wanted to mention my resignation.

But he didn’t.

He remembered what Darius had said the year I joined the company: “Regarding Rae… follow protocol. No need to report anything about her to me.”

Even when I was nominated for Associate Director last year, Logan brought it up once.

Darius’s only response?

“Don’t interfere.”

Not even a flicker of interest. My presence—or absence—meant nothing to him.

Darius’s voice crackled through the speaker: “What were you about to say just now?”

Logan hesitated, then swallowed it down.

“…Nothing,” he muttered.

---

At lunch, I caught myself zoning out.

A colleague nudged my shoulder. “What are you thinking about?”

I forced a smile. “Nothing important.”

“You didn’t call your daughter today?”

“Not today,” I replied softly.

What no one knew was that I used to call Lyra every single day—on two different phones, just to make sure we’d always connect. No one in the company knew that her father, the Alpha of Moon Claw and CEO of this empire, was also my husband.

Not that it ever meant anything.

That night, I went to Wolf Hills to collect silver leaves and moon-patterned vines. The corner of my garden had been barren for too long. It was time to let something new bloom.

After dinner, I curled up on the sofa with my phone and scrolled through articles about an upcoming tech exhibition. My fingers hovered over a familiar number before I hit call.

“Save me a ticket for next month’s exhibition,” I said.

There was a pause. “You sure? You skipped the last two. I wasted my connections.”

“If I don’t show this time, you’ll never hear from me again.”

Silence.

Then the line went dead.

Message received.

He’d save me a ticket.

No one knew I was planning a comeback. Before all this, I was a partner in the Research Alliance’s brain-computer interface project. I was someone—before I chose to walk away for my marriage, for my daughter, for a man who never chose me back.

The others weren’t exactly thrilled when I left. I’d fallen off their radar.

If I wanted to go back in, I’d need to prove myself again. No shortcuts. No favors. Just sweat and strategy.

So, for days, I buried myself in work by day and studied late into the night.

I stopped calling Darius. Stopped messaging Lyra.

They didn’t reach out either.

Truthfully, for the past six months, I’d been the only one trying to keep in touch. Every call. Every message. Every desperate attempt to remind them I still existed—it was all me.

Just me.

---

(DARIUS’S POV)

Moon Claw Pack – North Dallas Villa

Lyra woke early, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and called Emma like she always did.

Within minutes, she was crying.

“Aunt Emma’s leaving! She’s going back to her country!”

She ended the call-in tears and immediately called me. I picked up while flipping through documents.

“Dad,” she said, her voice trembling, “did you know?”

“I knew.”

“For how long?”

“…A while.”

“You’re lying!” she screamed, throwing her book across the room. “Why didn’t you tell me?! I don’t want her to leave! If she leaves, I don’t want to go to school here anymore!”

“It’s already being handled,” I said.

She stopped mid-sob. “Wh… what do you mean?”

I looked out the window, my voice even.

“We’re going back home next week.”

*********