Semua Bab The Mafia Ruthless Bride; A revengeful Heart: Bab 71 - Bab 78

ELENA POV I know Alex is watching me. It starts the morning after the dinner last night. Alex comes into the kitchen while I’m slicing fruit, his gaze resting on me longer than usual. His eyes aren’t just warm this time they’re careful and measuring. I force a soft smile. “You’re up early.” “So are you,” he says, voice calm but edged with something harder. “I couldn’t sleep,” I lie, turning back to the cutting board. My hands feel too hot on the knife, my pulse tripping over itself. When I glance up, he hasn’t moved. He leans against the counter, arms crossed, looking like he could stand there all day. “What?” I ask, trying to sound light. “You’re… different,” he says slowly. “Since the kidnapping, since the last few weeks, really.” My chest tightens. “Different how?” His eyes narrow just slightly. “More sure of yourself. Sharper. It’s not a bad thing. But it’s… sudden.” I make myself shrug, forcing a small laugh. “Maybe it’s because I finally feel like I belong h

ELENA POV It doesn’t take long before it all unravels. Alex might have promised to keep pretending, but the moment he steps away from me, it’s like a switch flips. His voice when he talks to me turns distant, polite. At night, he doesn’t pull me close. The space between us in bed feels so sharp it could cut me in half. But it’s Sophia’s face when she finds out that really breaks me. It happens in the study. Alex calls her and Marco in. I stand there, my pulse roaring in my ears. Sophia looks between us, her brows knitting. Marco watches Alex with quiet confusion. Alex’s voice is flat. “There are things you both need to know.” I swallow, my mouth dry as dust. Sophia’s eyes go wide as Alex explains. About the contract. About my lost memory. About how I lied. About how I remember everything now and didn’t tell anyone. The room feels like it stops breathing. “You knew,” Sophia says to me, voice rising, cracking. “All this time, you remembered and you didn’t say a word?” “Sophi

ELENA POV It’s strange how quiet the mansion feels now. Not the peaceful kind of quiet, but something sharp and cold, like a house waiting for a storm that never comes. We barely speak. When we do, it’s about nothing: dinner, schedules, meetings. The important words sit between us, heavy and silent. At night, I hear him on the other side of the bed, so close I could reach out and touch him. But I don’t and he doesn’t, either. It’s worse than fighting. Worse than yelling. It feels like drowning in air. One morning, I walk into the dining room to see him laughing quietly at something Sophia says. The sound freezes me in the doorway. God, it’s stupid how something so small can stab straight through my chest. I sit down, trying to look bored, but my heart hammers. He barely glances at me, nods, and goes back to his coffee. Later that afternoon, I see him again, outside, by the cars, talking to a woman in a tight black dress. Her laugh is too loud. Her hand lingers on hi

ELENA POV The office feels colder tonight. Papers spread across the desk, printouts, screenshots, copies of old hospital records Marco helped me track down. My hands shake as I read each page. The deeper I dig, the sicker I feel. Ava. My daughter. It feels unreal even thinking the word in my head. I trace the name on the forged birth certificate, the signature that isn’t mine. The date that matches my coma, the months I don’t remember. And then the truth unfurls, page by awful page. The inheritance. They needed my child alive to claim it. My grandfather, the man whose face I barely remember, had known. He kept me and the baby alive as long as he could. The baby was born early, tiny, fighting. And then… he died. A car accident, they said. The file hints at sabotage. Another piece of the puzzle I never saw. After that, they took Ava. Daemon and Rachel. And when they had what they wanted, they ordered me dead. A final line in a hospital report, signed by a doctor who refuse