Chapter 44
The house was dead silent when Seb pushed through the front doors. The air felt stagnant, smelling of the expensive lavender candles Elara insisted on burning. She was sitting on the sofa, bathed in the soft glow of a single lamp, looking like a portrait of a concerned wife.
“Seb? Seb, it’s so late. Where have you been?” Elara asked, her voice hitching with a perfectly practiced tremble. She stood up, moving toward him with her hands outstretched.
Seb didn’t move. He stood in the shadows of the foyer, his coat still on, his eyes fixed on her with a coldness she had never seen before.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “Are you really the one who saved me that night? Seven years ago, at the crash site p>
Elara froze for a split second, a flicker of panic so fast most people would have missed it. But Seb was watching. “Seb, what do you mean? I was the one. I’ve told you about that night a thousand times p>
“Someone claimed you’re not,” Seb said, stepping into the light. The bruises on his knuckles from gripping the steering wheel too hard were visible.
“Who said that? Amara?” Elara let out a sharp, mocking breath. “Seb, you can’t trust her. She’s always been bitter. She lost you, she lost Seren, and now she wants to create a rift between us. She’s trying to poison your mind because she’s lonely p>
She stepped into his space, grabbing his arms. “Seb, please let her go. Just breathe. I can be your Amara… you said you loved me once, didn’t you?” Her voice dropped to a pleading whisper. “You can learn to love me the way you loved her. I can wait. For the sake of our family… and the baby I’m carrying p>
She took his hand and forced it against her belly. “Whether you like it or not, we are your real family. I know you married me because I risked my life to save yours, but I love you. I’m the one who stayed p>
Seb looked down at her hand, then at her stomach. The mention of the baby, the child he had always wanted, should have softened him. Instead, it felt like another chain being wrapped around his throat. He remembered Amara’s eyes at the office; he remembered her laugh when he called Elara his savior. It wasn’t the laugh of a bitter woman. It was the laugh of someone who knew a secret that could destroy him.
“Elara,” Seb said, his voice trembling with a mixture of doubt and suppressed rage. He leaned down until their foreheads almost touched. “You’d better not lie to me. If I find out you’ve played me for seven years… I won’t go easy on you. I will ruin you p>
Elara didn’t flinch. She looked him straight in the eye, her expression a mask of wounded innocence. “I’m telling the truth. You have to believe me. Why would I lie about something like that p>
She leaned her head against his chest, hiding the dark, calculating look that crossed her face.
I just need to keep him quiet until the baby is born, she thought. Once there’s a son, it won’t matter who pulled him out of that car.
That night, t he darkness of the bedroom felt like it was closing in on Seb. Every time Seb closed his eyes, he saw the flickering light from the street and the cold, diamond-hard look in Amara’s eyes.
“You got the savior wrong p>
The words haunted him. He rolled over, staring at the empty space on the bed next to him. If the accident hadn’t happened, he wouldn’t have spent years trying to pay back a debt to Elara.
He wouldn’t have deceived Amara with a fake marriage certificate while legally binding himself to a woman he didn’t love. He had destroyed his soul to be a responsible man, but what if the foundation of that responsibility was built on a lie?
Trembling, he grabbed his phone from the nightstand. He dialed a number he hadn’t called in weeks.
“Damien,” Seb whispered into the receiver as soon as the line clicked open. “Have you found something p>
Damien, an old friend with connections in private security, sighed on the other end. “I found the old traffic footage from the junction near the crash site, Seb. As I told you before, it’s a mess. There were definitely two women at the scene that night. One arrived later, but the footage is badly degraded. It’s going to take time to repair the frames to see faces p>
Seb’s heart hammered against his ribs. “Two women? Are you sure p>
“Positive. But I need more than a grainy video,” Damien said. “I tracked down a possible eyewitness, a retired paramedic who was first on the scene before the official ambulance arrived. I’m heading out to see him tomorrow. I’ll be back in two days p>
“Two days,” Seb repeated, his voice hollow. “That’s the night of the alumni party p>
“I’ll call you the moment I have a name, Seb. Just… stay calm until then p>
Seb hung up and let the phone drop onto the silk sheets. He looked at the ceiling, his mind racing. Two days. In forty-eight hours, he would have to stand in a ballroom with Elara on one arm and the ghost of his past on the other.
If Damien called him during that party and told him that Amara was the one who had pulled him from the car, the one who had lost her ability to have children just to keep him alive, he didn’t know if he would be able to stop himself from killing Elara.
The following morning, the atmosphere in the Creed mansion was brittle. Every time Elara spoke, Seb felt a sharp pang of suspicion, but the sight of Seren, her arm still bandaged, her eyes wide and pleading, made his resolve crumble.
“Seb, I heard your alumni are having a party the day after tomorrow. Are you going?” Elara asked over breakfast, her voice casual as she buttered a piece of toast.
“I’m not,” Seb replied flatly. He stared into his black coffee. The thought of walking into a room full of their old university friends without Amara by his side felt like a physical weight. Everyone there remembered them as the ideal couple. He couldn’t face the pitying looks.