The phone call hit me like a slap. Gideon—my ex-husband—in an accident. They needed me at the hospital.I grabbed my keys without a second thought, shrugging on my jacket as I headed downstairs. I didn’t have time to think about why he’d listed me as his emergency contact after everything he’d done, after the betrayal that had ripped us apart. But here I was, the one rushing to his side.I stepped outside, the cold night air stinging my face, and climbed into the car. The drive to the hospital was quick and silent, each streetlight casting harsh reminders of the past. I didn’t want to remember our late-night drives, his promises, or the way he’d shattered them all. He didn’t deserve even a second of my thoughts.When I pulled into the hospital lot, I felt the weight of the choice I’d made. I could have left him alone. I could have turned off the phone and moved on. But I was here now.I killed the engi
I could feel the shift in the air, thick with the tension that always existed between us. She was tense, defensive—ready for a fight.I couldn’t help but let a small, mocking smile creep onto my lips.“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my dear sister,” I said, making sure to emphasize the word "sister" with heavy sarcasm. "What a surprise to run into you here.”Her lips pressed together in a thin line, and she took a step forward, her expression turning rigid. “What the hell are you doing here, Amethyst?”I tilted my head, my gaze sweeping over her with feigned innocence. “I’m just here to check on my ex-husband’s condition. You know, the man you’re married to,” I said with an exaggerated sweetness that only made my words sting more.“He’s been in an accident, right? I figured I’d at least come by. Family should stick together, don’t you think?”Alexa’s eyes flashed with something between anger and confusion. She took a deep breath, clearly trying to keep her composure. “You’re not family
GIDEON'S POVI stared at the ceiling, the weight of everything pressing down on me. The pain in my body was nothing compared to the ache in my chest.But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.I was alone.The soft tap of footsteps approached the door again, and I didn’t have the energy to open my eyes, not expecting anything good. I was still lost in the storm of my own thoughts when the door opened and Alexa stepped in.My heart sank.She was here. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or angry, but all I could feel was a dull, suffocating tension. Her presence was like a storm rolling in, threatening to tear everything down.Her eyes locked on mine, and she didn’t even bother with a greeting. Instead, her voice came sharp and demanding.“Gideon, we need to talk.”I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. “What is it now, Alexa?”She wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. She stormed closer to the bed, her hands planted on her hips. “Why did you let the hospital call Amet
AMETHYST POVMy knuckles turn white as I grip the steering wheel tightly, my mind reeling from what I had just had to listen from Alexa. How dare she? Question me? Make me feel like I am the bad girl in this sick little drama that she has made up for herself?I still heard her voice, an anguished mix of sadness and anger, spoken as if it was myself, who had shaken everything asunder.Those words kept on ringing in my head, sharper than the piercing wind that was lashing against my car, and I gritted my teeth."I didn't do nothing wrong," I complained to myself, my voice tight with anger. "Your parents put themselves in this position. You can't blame me for their decisions."Slamming down hard on the accelerator, I accelerated home, wanting to get well away from that awful hospital and the confrontation I had just been a part of.I came to the house too early. It was as if my thoughts ran in tandem behind me. I flung the car into park and slammed the door shut on the car and stalked in
Marta didn't bat an eye. She only nodded, calm and understanding. "Perhaps it's absurd, ma'am. But some things just do not make sense-they just… are."I smiled in silence, but her words filled up space in my head, though I wished them away."Love like that-it's a weakness," I said harshly, feeling the regular brew of anger and something else, something I couldn't understand, eating at me inside."That's how people get hurt. Just look at you-look at everything you went through because of him."Marta looked softer, a little sad for that instant. "But of course it hurt. It still hurts sometimes. And bitterness won't fix the pain. It only compounds it." Her voice was calm, and in it there was a quiet strength. "You have built walls around yourself, walls so high that no one can reach you, not even those who love you."I laughed without humor, and the din echoed in the otherwise empty kitchen. "Walls are important, Marta," I said. "They protect me. They stop me from- "I stopped myself unwi
Gideon’s POVIt had been days since I left the hospital. Days that bled into each other without distinction, a blur of pain, frustration, and guilt. I was stuck in a cycle of helplessness, my body too broken to do anything but exist in this state of paralysis. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt like myself. The doctors had promised it would take a month to heal, but they hadn’t warned me how exhausting it would be to simply survive from the accident.I sat in the living room, staring blankly out the window, the house eerily quiet. Too quiet. Alexa was around, but it was like I was the only one here. She moved through the house with that same mechanical efficiency—checking things off her mental list, running errands, doing what needed to be done—but there was nothing behind it. No warmth. No tenderness.She was pregnant. That much was obvious now. But I had come to realize it wasn’t just my injury that was keeping her distant. No, it was the weight of everything else—of us. She
AMETHYST POVThe phone call with Victoria lingered in my mind long after we hung up. Her words still echoed in my head, but I pushed them away. The last thing I needed right now was someone trying to convince me that I should forgive or forget. I had a life to rebuild, and my focus had to be on that—not on the ghosts of the past.But as the day stretched on, a nagging feeling clung to the edges of my thoughts. The silence in the house was deafening, filled only by the clinking of dishes and the soft hum of the air conditioning. I should’ve gone back to work, thrown myself into something that demanded my attention. But instead, I found myself staring out the window, trying to push away the flickers of uncertainty creeping in.That's when the phone rang again.I glanced at the screen. Nicolai.“Hey, Amethyst. I want to tell you something,”Of course. Nicolai had a way of showing up exactly when I needed to hear something that would either soothe or rattle me. I swiped the screen and ans
The silence after Nicolai’s words settled heavily in the air, like the calm before a storm. I could feel the weight of my decision pressing down on me, but there was a clarity in it too. This was my moment. The world Gideon had built was crumbling, and I wasn’t going to wait for the pieces to fall. I was going to make sure they did.I turned toward the window, looking out into the darkening sky. This is it, I thought. The beginning of something new.Before I could lose myself in the plans that were forming in my mind, the doorbell rang. It was sharp, insistent.I froze for a second, surprised. Who could that be? My mind raced. Nicolai had already called—was it him again? Was this an unexpected visit? But no—he would’ve warned me first.I heard the soft padding of Marta’s footsteps down the hallway, the sound of her moving toward the door. I stayed where I was, not yet ready to face whatever Nicolai was about to throw my way. The conversation earlier had stirred something inside me—som
The door to my office slammed behind Nicolai, his presence still lingering in the air like a storm cloud. I stood there, fists clenched, heart racing, as the sound of his footsteps echoed down the hallway. For a moment, I thought I might collapse under the weight of his words. “You owe me, Amethyst. You’re not getting out of this.”I tried to steady my breathing, tried to push the anger and frustration aside. I was done with him. Done.But even as I forced my thoughts to calm, I could feel the storm inside me building. Nicolai hadn’t come to talk—he had come to control, to make sure I stayed trapped in a deal I had made in a moment of weakness. He wasn’t going to let me walk away, but that didn’t mean I had to roll over and let him take everything.I grabbed my coat, my movements sharp and deliberate as I marched out of my office, my heels clicking on the floor with the same intensity that burned in my chest. As I reached the elevator, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nicolai’s eyes
As the finality of the words echoed in my mind, I slammed the phone down onto the passenger seat, my breath coming in sharp, uneven bursts. The engine hummed louder in the quiet, but it did nothing to drown out the storm brewing in my chest. My grip on the wheel tightened until my knuckles were white, the car speeding through the dark streets as though the road could outrun my thoughts.Gideon. Nicolai. Both of them seemed to be haunting me, lurking at the edges of my mind, tugging at the threads of my past like they thought they had any claim to me. But they didn’t. I wouldn’t let them.I had promised Nicolai I would marry him. I hated how his words echoed in my mind, how they pushed into my thoughts no matter how hard I tried to ignore them. He had helped me bring justice to my mother, had fought alongside me when I needed it most. And in exchange, I had given my word—my promise—that I would marry him. A deal sealed in the chaos of a moment, but a deal nonetheless.I closed my eyes
As I drove through the empty streets, the cool night air creeping through the cracked window, I focused on keeping my grip firm on the steering wheel. The hum of the engine was a dull noise against the thundering thoughts in my head. My pulse still raced from the confrontation with Nicolai, but my mind was more preoccupied with the man who had shown up uninvited: Gideon.I shook my head, trying to clear the confusion swirling in my chest. It had been so long since I’d seen him, and yet, here he was, right when I least expected it.Gideon. I could still feel the weight of his gaze, the way his presence seemed to fill every space between us. But no matter how much he tried to be the hero in my life, I wouldn’t let him back in. Not after everything.The past was filled with too many scars, too many broken promises, for me to entertain the idea of letting him slip back into my life. What he did to me, what we had, couldn’t be undone. I wasn’t some helpless girl waiting for him to save me
Nicolai groaned, shaking his head, clearly dazed from the punch. Blood dripped from his split lip as he glared up at Gideon, struggling to get to his feet. “You think you can just show up and play the hero? You don’t know what’s going on, Gideon.”“I don’t need to know the details,” Gideon shot back, taking a step closer to Nicolai, his presence towering over him. “I just know you’ve hurt her enough. And I’m not going to stand by and let it happen again.”I stood frozen, still reeling from the shock of the scene unfolding in front of me. Gideon. Gideon was the one who had intervened. It had been so long since I’d seen him, let alone spoken to him, and now here he was, protecting me—when I least expected it.Nicolai, still on his knees, wiped the blood from his chin and glared up at both of us, his voice dripping with venom. “This isn’t over,” he spat. “
“Meet me at Marble diner,” I replied.Later that evening, I found myself waiting in a quiet café downtown, the place I had arranged to meet Nicolai. It was a small, secluded spot—ideal for a conversation I had no intention of backing down from.My phone buzzed in my pocket. Nicolai’s name flashed on the screen. My thumb hovered over the notification for a long moment. Should I answer? Should I make him wait?Finally, I clicked open the message.I’m here.I took a deep breath and stood, my posture straight, my expression set. No hesitation. I wasn’t about to let my emotions get the best of me.It didn’t take long before he appeared, cutting through the crowd like he owned the room. Nicolai’s eyes locked with mine instantly. Despite everything, I could still feel the old pull between us—but it was no longer enough to make me falter.He reached the table, his usual confident stride faltering for a split second when he saw the steel in my gaze. I didn’t move as he sat down across from me.
Days had passed since that conversation with Nicolai. The days felt like a blur, a haze of conflicting emotions and unanswered questions swirling in my mind. Every time I tried to focus on something, my thoughts inevitably drifted back to the phone call with Gideon, and the way Nicolai’s voice had cracked with emotion when I’d confronted him.It was almost like I was living in two worlds. There was the world with Nicolai, where everything felt so close to being perfect, where I wanted to believe in us again. And then there was the world with Gideon, a world full of regret, accusations, and a past I couldn’t seem to outrun.I tried to push it all aside, to focus on the present. I had to move on. I couldn’t let Gideon’s words—or Nicolai’s mistakes—ruin everything.But when I arrived home that evening, something felt off.I pulled my car into the driveway, the sound of the tires crunching on the gravel a familiar comfort. I grabbed my purse and walked towards the door, my mind still tang
The days that followed were suffocating, each moment heavier than the last. Alexa moved through the house like a shadow, her presence only a reminder of what we had lost, what I had lost. She continued her routine—making breakfast, cleaning, pretending that the life we had built together was still intact. But the more I watched her, the more I realized it was all just a charade.I stayed distant. I couldn’t bring myself to be near her, not after what had been said, not after the truth had finally come out. I kept to myself, retreating into the silence of my own mind, where the weight of the last few days pressed down on me like a physical force. The house felt colder than it ever had before, as if it were rejecting me, as if I were rejecting it. And Alexa? She felt like a stranger now.One morning, I found her sitting at the kitchen table, the same spot where we used to share coffee and talk about our days. Her hands were wrapped around a cup, her eyes distant, lost in thought. I stoo
“Alright,” I said, the words slipping out like a vow I’d made to the devil himself. “But after this, it’s really over. No coming back. No regrets.”The relief that flashed across her face was brief, almost imperceptible, but I caught it. And then it was gone, replaced by the resolve that had brought her here in the first place. She pulled out the papers from the pocket of her robe and set them on the desk with a crisp rustle. The sound echoed in the room, loud and final. I glanced at them, the ink on the page both freedom and a death sentence.With a steady hand, she signed her name, the motion so deliberate, so final, that it made my stomach twist. My heart squeezed in a way that made no sense, as if the world were shifting beneath me, changing forever.“It’s done,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.The weight of those words settled deep into my bones, and I stood there, rooted to the spot, as she turned and walked out of the room. The silence she left behind was deafening,
The tension in my chest was suffocating as I stared at the bartender, the question ringing in my ears: Was it worth fighting for?My jaw clenched, the stinging ache of regret and desire coiling deep inside me. I took a deep, shaky breath and looked at the amber liquid in my glass, the fire of the whiskey biting at my throat, numbing the chaos in my mind.Amethyst. Her name brought an ache that felt like it would crack my chest open. She deserved so much better than me. And yet, the thought of losing her forever was unbearable.I knew it was stupid, reckless even, but I couldn’t stop myself. I would fight for her, no matter how many times Nicolai pushed his way into her life, no matter how many times I screwed up. She was worth every battle, every scar. But I was running out of chances, out of time.“It’s worth fighting for,” I finally admitted, my voice barely more than a whisper, raw and vulnerable. “But I don’t know i