CH.98

Serena fixed Knox with an icy glare that could have frozen hell itself over.

‘He finally knows how to speak?’

"Why do you care if I'm okay or not? You certainly didn't seem to give a damn about my wellbeing when you walked out on me without so much as an explanation of your actions.” she spat through gritted teeth.

Knox frowned. He opened his mouth to respond but Serena didn't give him the chance.

She was on a roll now, all the hurt and anger she had been bottling up for days finally finding an outlet.

"Just get out!" she hissed in a voice trembling with barely contained fury and unshed tears. "I never want to see you again as long as I live, you cheating bastard. Go back to whatever whore you've been shacking up with these past few days. I'm sure she's much more accommodating of your bullshit than I will ever tolerate."

A muscle ticked along Knox's clenched jaw as her harsh words sliced into him like a barrage of daggers.

Serena could see the bright flare of anger that ignited in his eyes at her biting insults. For a brief moment, she tensed, half-expecting him to lash out at her in retaliation.

A tiny part of her almost wanted him to - at least then she would know he still cared enough to fight with her.

But then, just as quickly as the fiery spark was lit, it seemed to extinguish.

Knox's shoulders slumped in defeat as he seemed to rein in whatever retort was on the tip of his tongue.

He pushed himself off the bed with a weary groan and trudged toward the door without uttering another word or even glancing in her direction again.

Serena's ragged breathing was loud even in her own ears as she watched Knox's back through blurry visions.

Her mind reeled, struggling to process the whirlwind of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. How could he be so callous, so utterly indifferent to their marriage?

The hot sting of betrayal burned in the back of her throat, mingling with the bitter taste of bile as fat tears began to streak down her flushed cheeks.

She sat there, frozen in disbelief for what felt like an eternity before finding her voice. "So that's it then?" Serena called out in voice wavering with the intensity of her roiling emotions.

She balled her hands into tight fists at her sides. Her nails were digging sharply into her palms, leaving crescent-shaped indentations in the soft flesh. "You're just going to bail on me like whatever this is between us was meaningless? Like I'm just some meaningless fling you can toss aside without a second thought?"

Knox froze mid-step. His hand on the doorknob gripped it so tightly his knuckles turned white. The taut lines of his shoulders drew up rigidly at the biting accusation in her words.

The muscles in his back visibly tensing beneath the thin fabric of his shirt.

His jaws ticked with the effort of clenching it as he stood there, still facing the door without turning back to look at her.

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, broken only by the sound of Serena's harsh, ragged breathing and her muffled sobs.

Serena roughly swiped at the tears streaking her flushed cheeks using the back of her hand.

"It was you that night, wasn't it?" Her voice hardly raised above a whisper, yet it was loaded with accusation. It wasn't a question, but a declaration of fact.

"You're the one I slept with that led to..." She trailed off, not needing to explain further.

The implication of her unfinished sentence was obvious enough for anyone.

Knox went stiff at her words.

The muscles in his back coiled even tighter like iron cords. He knew this moment of reckoning was inevitable - that she would eventually put the pieces together. And he was finally prepared to come clean with the entire unvarnished truth, no matter how unbelievable it may seem or how much it might hurt them both.

"Is that why you married me? Because of a drunken one-night stand? Some sort of pity marriage for taking me the way you did?" Her voice rose with each question, growing shriller and more frantic.

She swallowed in lump down her throat. “Of course, do I even need to ask?” her words dripped with bitterness, each syllable laced with hurt and betrayal.

Knox remained utterly silent and still as a statue, not offering any response or denial to refute her assumptions.

His lack of reaction only served to fuel Serena's growing anger and desperation.

The hurt and rage rapidly building inside Serena made her feel as if she might crack wide open from the pressure. It was like a living thing inside her, clawing at her insides desperate to be released.

"Was it the reason you helped get me out of jail after my arrest? The reason you helped me win the case against my scumbag ex-husband Alex?" ?" she demanded. "Did you know our one-night stand landed me in the hospital the next day?"

Serena let out a mocking chuckle. The sound brittle and on the edge of hysteria as she shook her head slowly.

Scorching tears blurred her vision, distorting the world around her into a watery haze. "Of course you did," she spat bitterly. "You were the cause of everything, weren't you? This whole nightmare stems back to that one night with you!"

Knox finally turned to face her after what felt like an eternity of weighted silence.

His expression was utterly unreadable as he met her burning glare with his cold amber orbs.

"Yes!" was the single word that slipped from his lips in a low rumble.

Serena felt all the breath leave her lungs in a harsh whoosh like he'd just punched her in the gut.

Her vision hazed red with a fresh wave of blinding fury crashing over her in waves. This was the final confirmation of his betrayal - the ultimate insult to everything she thought they had together.

She had never felt such a potent and all-consuming rage directed at another person before in her life. It was like a living flame inside her, threatening to consume everything in its path.

"What makes you think I wanted any of this? What gave you to right to assume I wanted another loveless marriage?" she spat with venom, all rationale and restraint shattering like fragile glass.

Hot tears streamed down her face in an endless torrent, leaving scorching trails in their wake. "If that's all I am to you, then you should just divorce me and let me go right now! Set me free from this pathetic sham of a union!"

All the hurt, confusion, and pent-up resentment she'd been bottling up for days were pouring out in a torrent of hateful words thrown with the intention to wound as deeply as he'd hurt her.

Her chest heaved with the force of her emotions, each word feeling like it was being ripped from her very soul.

"I'm not some dumb, naive female who puts virginity on a pedestal!" she screamed. "You didn't need to marry me just because you took my V-card in a drunken mistake! I'm a grown ass 26-year-old woman who can take care of herself, not some helpless little girl who needs rescuing!"