Chapter 90: Chapter 90
Elena’s pov
The sound of the door slamming made me flinch as Gideon’s boots faded down. The only thing that remained was silence and the thought that I had been living with a monster.
All this time, how didn’t I see it?
It was like the wool that covered my eyes had finally been removed. I thought he just hated me because he loved his mother so much and thought I was taking her place but this was point hate. This boy was evil.
I turned slowly to face Darius.
He stood near the ruined desk, covered in dried blood, his right shoulder hanging uselessly at his side. He looked old, broken, and hollowed out, a monster stripped of his polished skin.
Good, he deserves even worse. If I was capable of murder, I would kill him myself but I couldn’t do that to my son, I was yet to make amends and the last thing he needed was for me to go away without letting him know that I love every part of him.
Looking at Darius, I couldn’t help but ask. Call me a glutton for punishment.
"Why?"
The single word tore from my throat. I stepped over the shattered crystal on the floorboards, my hands trembling as I stared into his bloodshot eyes.
"Why, Darius?" I asked, "Why did you marry me? Why did you bring me into this house? Why did you hide your sickness, your past, your entire rotted life from me?"
He slowly dragged his left hand over his face, letting out a long, heavy sigh that sounded more like annoyance than remorse. He looked at me with cold, detached eyes, his lips curling into a bitter line.
"If I had walked up to you twenty years ago and told you the truth," Darius said, "would you have married me, Elena? Would you have stepped into this family if you knew I was gay?"
A harsh, hysterical laugh escaped my lips. I threw my arms out in total surrender, gesturing wildly at the ruined room, at the blood on his collar, at the dark corners of the study.
"Is that what you think this is about?!" I shrieked, tears burning hot against my stinging cheeks. "You lied to me from the very first second! Did you marry me because you wanted a wife? Because you wanted a family? Or did you just marry me so you could get your hands on Lysander?!"
My voice broke on my son’s name. The horrifying realization settled deep in my bones, that my sweet, gentle boy had been brought into this house not as a son, but as an asset for a pair of predators.
"Did you bring me here just to use my child?!" I screamed into his face.
He scoffed, turning his back on me to look outside the window.
"I’m not answering this," Darius said coldly, "You’re hysterical. Your son is gone and our marriage is over. Just go to your room, Elena. Leave."
"No," I whispered, wiping the tears from my cheeks with the back of my trembling hand, my jaw setting tight. "I’m not going to my room. I’m going to find my son."
I turned on my heel and walked out of the study, leaving him alone in the wreckage of his own making.
My heels clicked sharply against the marble floor of the grand foyer as I ran toward the front entrance. My mind was a chaotic blur, my chest heaving as panic seized my throat.
I pulled my phone from my coat pocket with shaking fingers. My hands were trembling so badly I almost dropped the screen twice before I managed to unlock it.
I tapped on Lysander’s contact, the simple name My Baby sitting at the top of my recents and pressed the call button.
I shoved the phone against my ear, holding my breath, praying to whatever god was listening.
One ring... two rings...
"The number you are trying to reach is currently switched off or out of coverage area. Please try again later."
The automated voice broke my heart into two.
"No, no, no! Please!" I sobbed, pulling the phone away and tapping the button again.
"The number you are trying to reach is currently switched off..."
"Lysander, please pick up!" I screamed at the dead screen, dropping to my knees on the floor. The phone slipped from my grip, clattering against the stone.
I buried my face in my hands, my body shaking with violent, uncontrollable sobs that tore through my chest.
The horror of the last hour crashed over me, the dark, unspeakable things Gideon and Darius had done to my innocent boy while I sat upstairs drinking wine, oblivious to his agony.
"My baby... my sweet boy..." I wept into the empty hall, my voice echoing off the high ceilings. "What did they do to you? What did I let them do to you?"
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my forehead directly against the freezing marble floor, begging for a miracle. I didn’t care about the estate.
I didn’t care about the money, the divorce, or the scandal. I just wanted my child back. I wanted to hold his small, fragile frame in my arms, to wipe his tears, to grovel at his feet and beg for his forgiveness for failing him so completely as a mother.
If I could just see him one more time just to tell him that I loved him, that I never meant to abandon him, that I would burn the entire world down to keep him safe.
I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, grabbing the phone from the floor. I dialed his number again. Again and again.
Switched off.
Switched off.
Switched off.
The reality made me sink down.
He was gone.
I sat alone on the floor of the empty foyer, clutching the dark screen of my phone to my heart, sobbing into the dark as the cold wind howled outside.
I had no way to reach him. I had no way to save my baby and I was completely, utterly alone.
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