Elena's POV

The night wind hit my face, and I realized I was shaking.

The delayed, almost unbearable wave of anger had locked my body in place.

The first time Ryan and I met, he had stared at me for a long moment, then said he had fallen for me at first sight—and from that day on, he had taken care of me with a kind of gentleness.

His warmth and attentiveness had blinded me to the fact that none of it was real.

All I wanted was to give back the same love to the vampire who had faced down every objection for my sake—and I never once noticed that what he felt for me wasn't love. It was the grief of a man who couldn't let go of Lilian.

If Lilian had never left. If he hadn't been startled when he first saw me—hadn't confused me for Lilian, another woman in a white dress—he never would have married me. He wouldn't even have bothered with the sweet words that made me fall for him.

I was just a human bride used as a substitute. His love and his promises had always been a lie. Now that Lilian was back, every performance of tenderness had been quietly returned to its rightful owner.

I stood under the corridor outside the main building, watching the light pour through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Their silhouettes moved across the glass—Ryan leaning close, saying something, and Lilian resting against him.

This should have been the moment I turned and walked away.

But instead, I found myself thinking about before.

The first month of my pregnancy, I had been exhausted constantly.

A human body was never built to carry a half-blood child easily, and I hadn't understood why—I had just assumed I was simply weak.

One night I couldn't even keep myself standing.

Ryan carried me to bed, cut his own wrist, and brought his blood to my lips.

"Just a little," he said. "Vampire blood helps repair a human body. Try a small amount first."

His voice was quiet. Patient.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here. I'll protect you."

I had believed, in that moment, that I was someone who was cherished.

I believed he was giving me his blood because he loved me. Because I mattered.

Looking back now, I could only find it ironic.

All that tenderness, all that care—none of it had been for me.

It was a series of experiments.

He had been calibrating the dosage. Measuring the effects. Testing what happened when a pregnant human woman drank a small amount of vampire blood, more importantly, whether it brought her relief or caused harm.

And once the person he actually wanted to protect had returned—he handed over every hard-won piece of knowledge without hesitation.

I stood there watching as Ryan lifted his arm and passed a glass to Lilian, my chest rising and falling hard.

The next second, I went back inside.

Lilian was sitting on the sofa, a cup of dark liquid in her hands.

I recognized it immediately.

Ryan's blood.

She was about to drink when I grabbed her wrist and held it.

The cup slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor.

"What are you doing?!" Ryan's voice was almost a shout.

He shot to his feet, grabbed my wrist, and jerked me sharply backward.

"Are you crazy?"

His grip was brutal, his knuckles nearly cutting into my skin.

I stumbled, my abdomen clenching hard with the sudden force, and I instinctively curved my body to protect my stomach.

I looked up at him, my voice rough. "She's drinking your blood, isn't she?"

Ryan's expression turned to stone.

"That's none of your concern."

"None of my concern?" I laughed once, my eyes burning hot. "So when you gave it to me, I was just an experiment?"

Lilian rose from the sofa, hands out, looking as if she'd been frightened by all this.

"Elena, please don't..." she said softly. "I'm just not feeling well. Ryan is worried about me, that's all."

"He took care of you the same way before. Didn't he?"

That sentence lit me on fire.

"Took care of me?" I stared at her. "What you're enjoying right now—I paid for that with my life."

Ryan's expression went completely cold. "Enough."

"The way you're acting right now is pathetic."

"If this keeps up, there's no point in this marriage continuing."

Divorce.

He said it like it was nothing—yet it landed precisely on my throat.

"Enough with the theatrics," he said. "A half-blood with no father, no vampire protection—you really think that child would survive out there?"

"No matter how powerful your father is, he can't stay in the vampire world."

As his words sank in, the emotion drained from my face, piece by piece.

The anger, out of control, the trembling—all of it slowly subsided, leaving behind only an unnervingly calm emptiness.

I lifted my head and looked at Ryan.

He clearly sensed something was off.

In that instant, his brow flickered—a brief hesitation crossing his eyes as he studied my expression.

He had never seen this look on me before. The kind born from hitting rock bottom, leaving nothing but cold indifference.

For a moment, he was genuinely startled. His lips parted as if to speak, and his hand instinctively reached for mine.

But only for a moment.

Just as quickly, he masked that flicker of unease. His jaw tightened again, his expression settling back into its usual confidence and composure.

As if he had already decided for me—decided that I would never dare leave him.

Slowly, I pulled my hand free and stepped back.

"So in your eyes," I said quietly, "my child was just a bargaining chip to keep me in line."

He didn't deny it.

Silence, in itself, was the answer.

After a long moment, Ryan ordered the servants to lock the front gate and told me to go to the side bedroom and reflect on my behavior.

I stared at the closed door, then turned and climbed the stairs without a word.

This time, he didn't follow.

Behind me, I heard Lilian call softly.

"Ryan..."

Her voice was soft, clinging.

He hesitated for a second—then walked back to her side.

Whatever flicker of heartbreak or hesitation that might have been meant for me dissolved into nothing.

I walked into the bedroom, wrapped my arms around myself, and sank to the floor.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Lilian.

"Don't get the wrong idea."

"I was the one who had Ryan use you as an experiment first. He's just feeling a little guilty."

"Don't fool yourself into thinking you still mean anything to him."

The light from the screen burned my eyes.

So that was it.

From beginning to end, I had just been a substitute. Someone to experiment on.

I turned off my phone and took a deep breath.

I had to leave.

No matter what it cost.

Elena's POV

Long after dark, the estate had gone quiet—the kind of quiet that made it feel like an empty shell.

I hadn't closed my door. I left it deliberately open by a crack.

Light from the living room below came up through the banister in long, blurred columns. Lilian's voice drifted up, soft and faint, pitched to sound fragile.

"Ryan, I don't feel well."

His voice immediately dropped in concern. "What's wrong?"

"I feel dizzy. The baby's breathing is erratic." She paused. "The blood from earlier... wasn't enough."

He was quiet for a moment.

I could picture his face—that measured, restrained expression, his brow creasing slightly.

"You can't have any more right now," he said, steadily. "Vampire blood puts too much strain on a human body."

Once, I had accidentally taken too much—and spent the entire night writhing in abdominal pain, unable to sleep until dawn. Ryan had stayed at my bedside through all of it, wiping the sweat from my face, his voice rough and low as he apologized and told me the dosage had been off.

I had found it so thoughtful. It had never crossed my mind that the same careful patience, the same calibrated attention, would one day be transferred to someone else entirely.

Lilian hummed softly, as if bearing something in silence. Then, after a few seconds, she spoke again.

"I remember... the moonstone necklace you gave Elena—it stabilizes a half-blood child's breathing, doesn't it?"

The air seemed to go still.

That necklace. He had fastened it around my neck himself on our wedding day. He had bent close to clasp it, his voice low and serious, telling me it was the mark of a vampire bride—and a protection. As long as I wore it, he would always sense where I was.

In that moment, I truly believed I was loved.

A long silence fell below.

"That necklace is a vampire bride's symbol," Ryan finally said. "It's meant to protect the human who wears it."

"I know." Lilian cut him off gently. "I just want to borrow it for a few days. I'll give it back once I've stabilized."

Her voice was soft enough to melt stone.

"I know you're married to her. I don't mind. And I don't want Elena to feel like I'm taking something that belongs to her."

The words came out light, but the wounded undertone was deliberate.

I heard Ryan draw a long breath.

He was weighing it. I could hear it.

He knew what that necklace meant to me.

After what felt like a long time, he finally spoke.

"Don't talk like that."

"That necklace... was always meant for you."

There was something raw in the way he said it—like he was talking himself into something.

"I only gave it to her because you left and got engaged to someone else. This is just returning it to where it belongs."

Not long after, the bedroom door opened.

Ryan stood in the doorway, and our eyes met directly.

He clearly hadn't expected me to be sitting there, having quietly listened to every word.

For a brief moment, his expression shifted—surprise, guilt, and a flash of frustration.

He even took a step forward, as if to say something.

"Elena..."

He stopped.

I wasn't crying. I wasn't angry. I simply looked at him.

That too-quiet calm seemed to bother him. He frowned.

"You heard everything?"

He lowered his voice, as if testing the ground.

"All of it," I said.

A moment of tension stretched between us.

His gaze dropped to the moonstone at my throat. The silver glinted cold and pale under the light.

His throat worked.

There was a moment of hesitation in him. I saw it.

But almost immediately, he gathered himself and let it go.

"Give her the necklace," he said, forcing his voice back to calm. "You're staying in this room anyway. You won't need it."

"I'll still have someone watching over you. You'll be fine."

He said it as though it were all perfectly reasonable, watching my face carefully.

"All right," I said.

The tension left his shoulders visibly.

"But I have one condition."

He frowned. He was probably already bracing himself for something like a demand to send Lilian away—another scene, more drama.

"What?"

I took a document from the drawer and held it out to him.

"I need your signature on this."

He took it and didn't look closely.

"Asset division? You want more shares?"

He actually laughed softly—the arrogance of a man absolutely certain that the woman in front of him was still the same Elena who had always depended on him, who couldn't bring herself to leave.

"Whatever you want is fine."

The pen came down without hesitation.

Ryan Kane.

Several letters, written steadily and without warmth.

He handed the document back, his fingertips pausing for a fraction of a second at the edge—as though something had struck him belatedly—but he pressed the hesitation down just as quickly.

"Satisfied?"

There was something almost indulgent in his tone, as if he was dealing with a petulant child.

I said nothing.

Ryan stood there watching me for a few seconds, eyes on my face, waiting for the moment I would soften the way I always had—waiting for him to say the one gentle thing that would make me step back from the line.

The silence was unsettling.

He sighed softly and moved closer.

"Stop all this." His voice was lower now, some of the sharpness gone.

He reached out and tried to draw me toward him. The gesture was completely natural, almost habitual—his hand landing on my shoulder, thumb curling in, as if warmth could settle everything.

"Elena." His voice dropped. "You're not going to leave me."

I breathed in the cool, familiar scent of him.

It used to calm me.

Now it only made me think clearly.

I turned and stepped out of his reach.

His hand hung in the air.

Just for an instant, I saw something uncertain move through his eyes.

Then he buried it.

In his mind, I was only calling his bluff. I was trying to unsettle him with distance—because the Elena he'd always known had loved him so deeply, had always come back.

He was sure I wouldn't go.

I lowered my head and, through the ache low in my abdomen, unclasped the moonstone from around my neck and placed it in his palm.

For a moment, without the necklace's protection, I could no longer keep up the appearance of calm. The sharp, stabbing pain in my abdomen drained the color from my face.

Ryan's brow furrowed faintly. Something in the air had shifted—he had almost caught it. But the trace of Lilian's perfume still lingering on his collar pulled his focus away.

"Don't worry.," I said, my voice steady, my expression almost calm. "I won't be asking for it back. Lilian can wear it as long as she likes."

Tomorrow, I would leave.

Elena's POV

Light was already slipping through the gap in the curtains when I woke.

The baby had been restless all night—as if she too sensed something was coming—shifting and pressing in small, insistent movements.

I pressed my hand to my stomach.

"Just wait a little longer.," I said softly.

My father had said he would arrive before noon.

Vampires moved poorly in the height of the sun. The human convoy would come at precisely that hour.

It was the safest time.

I sat at the window, waiting. Without the moonstone, I felt the absence at my throat like a space that had been cleared.

But it wasn't loss. It felt like relief.

Without it, he could no longer track me through that invisible bond—no longer sense the connection between us.

Footsteps sounded below. Heels sharp against marble, light and quick, with that suffocating perfume drifting up like smoke.

The door was pushed open without a knock.

Lilian stood in the doorway.

The moonstone at her neck caught the morning light and glimmered cold and silver.

She reached up and touched it lightly—a small, wordless show.

"Sleep well?"

Her smile was soft.

I said nothing.

She came in slowly and stopped in front of me.

"Ryan stayed up late last night," she said quietly. "He was worried I wasn't stable, so he stayed with me all night."

She said it with her gaze on my stomach.

"You know," she tilted her head, "when I put on this necklace, something occurred to me."

"What?" I asked, evenly.

"Ryan never thought of you as his wife."

The words were light, but they cut like something honed sharp.

"I'm the one he's really protecting now. Even after I was engaged to someone else—Ryan is still mine."

She lifted her chin, triumph undisguised.

"Without that necklace, you're nothing in this house."

I looked at her and felt no anger. No urge to argue.

That stillness seemed to unsettle her. Her expression shifted slightly.

"Nothing to say?"

She moved a step closer.

"Don't tell me you're still waiting for something."

Something tightened in my chest.

"Waiting for Ryan to save you?" She suddenly laughed. "Don't be ridiculous."

I released my grip on my sleeve.

"He was exhausted last night. I slipped something into his drink—he's asleep." She said it flatly. "Don't worry. Ryan and I won't lose any sleep over your child's death."

She raised a hand and clapped once, lightly.

At the far end of the corridor, two shapes appeared.

Not the household staff. Not Ryan's vampire guards.

Ghouls.

Lilian's pupils glinted with something cold. And then, for a moment, I noticed it—the vacancy in her expression, the hollow flatness that mirrored the creatures behind her. She had lost every last trace of her humanity.

Lilian frowned, a little confused by my long stare. She looked mildly thirsty and told one of them to fetch the blood Ryan had stored for her.

I rose to my feet and stepped back.

A sudden, cramping pain seized my abdomen.

"You're insane," I said.

"Insane?" She tilted her head. "We're both human. You think I don't know what you've been planning?"

Her smile turned thin.

"I'm just handling things early."

"The child inside me is Ryan's only heir. His only real heir."

Her gaze went cold.

In that moment, I finally understood.

She had never intended to let me walk out of here alive.

She couldn't accept the possibility that somewhere in the world, there might be another child with any claim to what was hers.

"Ryan won't allow this," I said, stalling for whatever time I could.

Her expression flickered. Then she laughed.

"By the time it happens, he'll only think it was an accident."

"An unstable pregnant woman falling down a flight of stairs. These things happen."

Before she finished speaking, one of them was already moving toward me.

I turned and ran for the stairs.

My body was heavy and slow. I gripped the railing and made my way down step by step, heart slamming, lungs burning.

"Get her."

Lilian's voice came from above.

Footsteps rushed down behind me.

I could see the front door.

Sunlight poured in from outside.

It was blinding. I could barely see.

Just a few more steps.

Just hold on a little longer.

Then a cold hand shoved me hard from behind.

The world lurched.

A tearing, explosive pain ripped through my abdomen.

I watched the edge of the stairs spiral.

My body folded and fell.

The screaming in my ears—I realized too late it was my own.

The impacts came one after another, hammering into bone.

When the last step hit my back, I was nearly gone.

Heat spread rapidly from between my legs.

The red spread across the floor.

Through blurring vision, the front door burst open.

Against the blazing light, a familiar figure came running in.

"Elena!"

My father's voice broke open from somewhere far away.

He had almost leaped from the car before it stopped, the driver too stunned to react.

His footsteps had never sounded like that before.

I saw the terror on his face.

He ran to me.

I tried to lift my hand, but I could barely raise it.

Consciousness fell away in pieces.

The last thing I saw was my father kneeling beside me, hands trembling as he cupped my face.

And above us, on the landing—

The moonstone caught the light for one cold, glittering instant.