Chapter 2

“So... Sophia is back from London?”

Elena's voice was barely above a whisper.

She stared at the screen of her phone, even though the video had already ended. Her mind kept replaying the same few seconds. Adrian standing at the party. Sophia walking toward him. His arms going around her as if they had never been apart.

She couldn't understand what she was feeling.

It was more than jealousy.

It was humiliation.

For five years, she had believed there was something wrong with her because her husband never wanted to touch her. She had spent countless nights wondering if she wasn't attractive enough or if she had somehow failed as a wife. She had blamed herself for a problem she now realized had nothing to do with her.

Adrian had never wanted her.

His heart had belonged to someone else.

Elena wiped her cheeks and looked toward the door.

She remembered the day she married him. She had been nervous, but happy. She had believed that love would come with time, even if it wasn't there between them at the beginning.

Five years later, she was standing alone in their house on their wedding anniversary, watching a video of her husband holding the woman he had loved before her.

She let out a quiet breath.

Maybe she had been foolish to hope.

Her phone vibrated again, pulling her out of her thoughts.

It was the housekeeper.

“Ma'am, your dinner is ready.”

Elena quickly wiped her face before walking downstairs. She didn't want Mrs. Carter to see how badly she was hurting.

The dining table had already been set for her.

She sat down and stared at the food.

Normally, she would have been hungry after a long day, but tonight, even the smell of her favorite meal made her stomach turn.

She forced herself to eat a few bites.

“Are you feeling alright, ma'am?” Mrs. Carter asked quietly.

Elena looked up and managed a small smile.

“I'm fine. I just don't have much appetite.”

Mrs. Carter seemed unconvinced, but she didn't press her.

Elena was grateful.

She didn't know how she would explain what she had seen. How could she tell another person that the man she had called her husband for five years had been calling another woman's name behind a closed bathroom door?

She finished a little of the food and left the table.

She spent most of the night awake.

There was no sign of Adrian.

She didn't know where he had gone, and for once, she didn't have the strength to ask.

By morning, Elena had made a decision.

She was going to take care of her scholarship registration.

No matter what happened to her marriage, she would not throw away the one opportunity she had worked so hard for.

She dressed simply and placed her documents inside her handbag. The scholarship letter was there too. She touched the envelope before closing the bag.

It was the only thing that still made her feel hopeful.

She was about to leave the house when she heard the sound of a car stopping outside.

A few moments later, the front door opened.

Victoria Blackwood walked in with Audrey and Isabelle.

Elena stopped near the doorway.

She had expected them eventually, but she hadn't expected to see them so early.

Victoria looked at her from head to toe.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to see a friend,” Elena replied.

She kept her voice calm.

Victoria frowned.

“A friend?”

“Yes.”

“You've been married for five years, yet you still behave as if you have no responsibilities at home.”

Elena swallowed the reply that came to her mind.

She had learned long ago that arguing with Victoria only made things worse.

“I won't be long.”

Victoria gave a small scoff.

“A married woman should spend more time in her home instead of always running around.”

Elena looked at her.

She wanted to tell her that she was not going anywhere for fun. She was going to secure her future. She was going to do something she had worked for quietly while everyone assumed she had nothing important to do.

But she said nothing.

She didn't want them to know about the scholarship yet.

Audrey looked at her handbag.

“Where exactly are you going?”

“I already said I have somewhere to be.”

Isabelle smiled faintly.

“She's always secretive.”

Elena looked at the three women.

She had spent years trying to win their approval, but it had never worked.

From the beginning, Victoria had made it clear that she would have preferred Sophia.

Sophia had come from a wealthy family. Her background matched the Blackwoods. Elena's family did not have that kind of money.

No matter how hard Elena tried, she always felt like an outsider in her husband's family.

She tightened her grip on her handbag.

“I'll be back later.”

She walked toward the door.

Victoria's voice followed her.

“Just remember that you are married now. You cannot continue living like a single woman.”

Elena stopped for a moment.

Her eyes filled with tears, but she refused to let them fall.

If only they knew.

She wasn't running away from her responsibilities.

She was trying to build a life for herself because she had finally realized that she couldn't keep waiting for Adrian to give her one.

She opened the door and walked out.

The moment she stepped outside, she released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

She got into a taxi and gave the driver the address of the university.

Her hand remained on her handbag throughout the journey.

The scholarship letter was inside.

She had dreamed about this moment for years.

She remembered how many times she had sat alone with her drawings and wondered if she was wasting her time.

Art was the one thing that had always made her feel alive.

When she painted, she didn't feel like Adrian's neglected wife.

She was simply Elena.

A woman with dreams.

A woman who still had something to prove to herself.

When she arrived at the university, she completed the remaining registration process for her master's program.

She submitted her documents and paid the required fees with some of the money she had saved.

When everything was finally done, she stood outside the building and looked at the confirmation papers in her hands.

She smiled.

For the first time since the previous night, she felt a little happiness.

She had done it.

Her marriage might be falling apart, but her future was still hers.

She folded the papers carefully and put them into her bag.

“I can do this,” she whispered.

She didn't know whether she was talking about the master's program or her marriage.

Maybe both.

By the time she finished everything, it was already late in the evening.

She stepped outside and looked at the sky.

Dark clouds had gathered overhead.

She quickly took out her phone and tried to book a cab.

One driver cancelled.

Then another.

The wind became stronger.

The first drops of rain landed on her arm.

Elena sighed and tried again.

No one accepted the trip.

She looked at the road.

People were beginning to hurry toward nearby buildings.

Then she thought of Adrian.

She stared at his name on her phone for several seconds before calling him.

The phone rang.

No answer.

She called again.

Still nothing.

She tried a third time.

This time, the call ended almost immediately.

He had rejected it.

Elena lowered the phone slowly.

She felt something break inside her, even though she had expected it.

She had only wanted him to send someone to pick her up.

She hadn't asked him for love.

She hadn't asked him to apologize.

She hadn't even asked him to come himself.

She only needed help getting home.

But apparently, even that was too much to expect from him.

The rain suddenly became heavy.

Elena covered her head with her handbag and ran across the road.

She spotted a small hotel nearby and hurried inside.

Her clothes were already wet by the time she reached the reception.

She booked a room and went upstairs.

Once she closed the door behind her, the silence felt overwhelming.

Elena stood there for a moment before slowly sitting on the edge of the bed.

She checked her phone.

No message from Adrian.

No missed call.

Nothing.

She stared at his name in her contacts.

For some reason, she wanted to call him again.

She wanted to ask him why he didn't answer.

She wanted to ask where he had gone.

She wanted to ask if Sophia was with him.

Most of all, she wanted to ask him one simple question.

Did you ever love me?

But she knew she wouldn't get an answer she could bear.

She put the phone aside.

Her eyes filled with tears again.

She let them fall this time.

She cried quietly, remembering all the years she had spent trying to make her marriage work.

She had been patient.

She had been understanding.

She had given him space.

She had never embarrassed him in front of his family.

She had never demanded anything from him.

And yet she still wasn't enough to make him choose her.

Elena wiped her face.

“Enough.”

She said it softly, as though she were speaking to another person.

She couldn't keep begging for something that wasn't being offered.

She took a shower.

Exhaustion soon took over.

She lay down and closed her eyes.

The last thought that crossed her mind before sleep came was Sophia's face in that video.

She wondered how long Adrian had been waiting for her to return.

The next morning, Elena woke up early.

For a moment, she forgot where she was.

Then she remembered everything.

She reached for her phone.

Not even a simple message asking where she had spent the night.

Elena stared at the screen for a long time.

She felt the familiar ache in her chest, but this time she didn't allow herself to cry.

She got dressed, checked out of the hotel, and took a taxi home.

The journey was quiet.

She spent most of it looking through the window, wondering what awaited her when she opened that door.

She didn't know if Adrian would be home.

She didn't know if he would speak to her.

She didn't know what she would do if he asked her about the previous night.

But she knew one thing.

She could no longer pretend everything was fine.

When she finally reached the house, she paid the driver and walked to the front door.

She took a deep breath before unlocking it.

The house was unusually quiet.

Then she heard voices coming from the dining room.

Elena walked toward the sound.

She stopped at the entrance.

Everyone was sitting around the dining table, eating breakfast.

Victoria Adrian’s Mom was there,

Audrey was there,

Isabelle was there too.

And Adrian was sitting at the table too.

Elena's heart gave a strange jump.

He was home.

She hadn't expected him to be there.

But before she could even process that, her eyes moved to the woman sitting beside him.

Her breath caught.

The beautiful woman turned slightly, and Elena saw her face clearly for the first time.

It was the same face she had seen in the video.

The same woman Adrian had called for in the bathroom.

The same woman he had held in his arms at the party.

Sophia Bennett.

She was sitting in Elena's home, at her husband's table, smiling as if she had every right to be there.

Elena couldn't move.

For five years, she had wondered what Adrian's first love looked like.

Now she was standing only a few steps away from her.

And suddenly, Elena understood that seeing Sophia on a phone screen had been nothing compared to seeing her sitting in her own home.

Sophia looked up.