Chapter Six

A sharp bitterness gnawed at me as I stared at her—Maya Lài—the woman who had taken what I once thought was mine. The mistress of my man. But the truth? He wasn't stolen from me. To be stolen would mean he had ever truly belonged to me. He was mine in name only, while in his heart, he had been hers.

Maya hesitates to remove her clothes, and I scoff. "It's nothing my husband hasn't seen before."

Maya's face tightens, and though she remains silent, I see the hurt flash across her eyes. 'Good'

Soon she's in the tub, and I turned on the cold water, letting icy droplets cascade over her skin. I watched as she shivered under the biting chill, the gun heavy in my hand, my finger brushing idly against the trigger.

I hate her.

I hated her for confirming the reality I had dreaded for so long—that I was not loved by him anymore.

The man I had called my husband. The man I had offered myself to, cherished with everything I had, was not mine.

He was never my husband in any real sense of the word.

Tears blurred my vision, and for the first time, I couldn't hide behind the façade of indifference. My knees buckled, and I sank to the floor, hand trembling as I turned the water to hot, offering her some relief from the cold.

I didn't hate her...not truly.

I hated that she had him. That she carried the last piece of him inside her. His child.

The child I had always longed for but could never have because of him. The dream that had been an impossible fantasy, now her reality. That was what broke me most of all.

The steam from the hot water filled the bathroom, swirling around us like a thick cloud, but it did nothing to clear the suffocating tension between us. I watched as Maya relaxed slightly under the heat, her trembling easing for just a moment. My hand still clutched the gun, but my grip slackened, the weight of my thoughts heavier than the weapon itself. Oddly enough, the ring felt the heaviest. 

I wanted to hate her. I had every reason to but the more I stared at her, vulnerable and soaked, I realized I couldn't hate her for what wasn't her fault. She didn't force him to betray me. She didn't make him choose her. He did that on his own and yet, she carried the consequence—his child. The very thing he never gave me.

"Do you even know what you're holding inside you?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper, not expecting an answer. My eyes traced the swell of her stomach, her frail body trembling as the heat started to penetrate her frozen limbs.

Her eyes opened slightly, red and glassy. She didn't say a word. Maybe she knew the answer was meaningless.

I sighed and set the gun down on the counter, just out of reach but still within my sight. For now, she needed clarity, not violence and I needed to understand what I was supposed to do next.

"Everything I've built," I murmured, more to myself than her, "everything I've worked for... and it all leads to this."

His child, the heir to our empire.

My imagined key to his affection—a fragment of what I craved.

I thought that if he couldn't love me, perhaps our—his child would.

Twisted, I know.

But what else does a desperate, broken woman have but dreams?

"Do you know why I stayed married to him?" I ask softly, watching the uncertainty flicker in her eyes as they dart to the gun.

Maya hesitates, her breath catching as she weighs her words. "I... I thought he loved you," she stammers.

I scoff, letting out a humorless laugh. "I know you're a chef and a homewrecker but wow, a comedian too?" I lean in. "We both know that's just a pathetic excuse to keep me from pulling the trigger."

She doesn't answer, but her silence is enough. I see it in the way she shrinks from me, in the way her gaze falters when it meets mine.

"To answer my question, I just couldn't leave," I whisper, my voice softening. "Like a battered dog, I stayed-waiting... hoping." My elbow rests on the tub's edge. "I chained myself here with the love I had for him, and like a fool, I barked at anyone who tried to set me free." I close my eyes, though a tear slips down my cheek, betraying the mask I've tried to maintain.

"and it ultimately cost me everyone." I whisper, realization finally settling upon me. "And that," I say, gesturing toward her belly, "is the one person who won't hate me."

I sigh, using the back of my hand to brush away the tear.

"I loved him... And I still do, even though he hated me"