He lied, he lied, he lied.
He cheated, he cheated, he cheated.
Leudo whispered in her ear, and her face contorted, going through a broad range of emotions until it finally settled into a mixture of shock and pity.
“… Mate,” she whispered. She continued to stare as I broke down, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Leave us. And donotcontact Victor, or I will have your balls.”
The door closed and after a few moments, I felt her come closer. “I would get down there to talk to you, but it’s really hard with this belly. Any chance you can get up to the couch? When you’re ready.”
I registered the words, but they didn’t reach me for a few minutes as I continued to lose myself in my pain. Finally, I mustered up the will to sit up, and I looked at the gorgeous woman who had married my mate.
She was absolutely stunning, with smooth, tanned skin, dyed golden blonde hair, and tasteful make up. Her baby bump was perfect, adorable in shape, her body remaining slim despite the new life it was busy creating.
And she was even wearing stilettos to match her expensive-looking dress.
The picture of elegance and classic beauty.
“I’m Accalia,” she started.
“I know,” I sniffed, my voice hoarse. “I saw you on the news. Before Victor took my TV. I’m Sage.”
She started to look around the barren space, taking in the lack of personal touch or sign that anyone actually lived there, aside from the book on the floor.
“How long have you two been bonded?” she asked.
“Four years, I… I think. Or maybe almost five. It’s hard to keep track of time here.”
Her brows furrowed. “I don’t follow. What do you mean, it’s hard to keep track of time?”
“I don’t have a calendar, and sometimes I get too depressed and the days sort of blend together.”
She sighed like she didn’t understand, pinching the bridge of her nose and scrunching her eyes. “Can you start at the beginning, Sage?”
I told her everything, how Victor had apparently detected my scent at parade, and then three years later found me working at his event. How he’d chased me through the city and took me from my apartment to live here, and how since then I’d never left.
With each revelation her mouth twisted in greater horror. “Oh, sweet Vorrak, what has he done to you?” She now looked at my skin, taking in the scars. “But no, they’re not all vampire bites…”
I shook my head, my arms wrapped tightly around my abdomen. “That was, um, your cousin.”
She gasped, and then cursed under her breath as she made the connection. “Kain attacked you and then Victor killed him. Our marriage… I knew it was to appease Thangmar, but… this whole time. It was because of you, wasn’t it?”
Her eyes glistened as they continued to trace over my marred skin. She reached out and her fingers hovered over my chest. “And this one?”
“Not Victor’s fault. Surgery. Well before we met.”
“I see.” She turned her head away, taking a moment to process all the new information. She sniffed and then faced me again, saying with a sad smile, “When Victor told me it would be a loveless marriage, I didn’t question him. At our station, no onemarries for love, anyway. And with relations between Noctis and Fenmoor at an all-time low due to Kain’s death, our coupling made sense.”
The rational side of my brain understood every word she was saying, but the cramping in my stomach wouldn’t stop.
She began twisting the large diamond ring on her finger as she continued. “But then on our wedding night, he told me there’d been an emergency, and he needed to leave. I traveled to the private resort in Tideholm by myself, confused and alone. When our allotted honeymoon time was over and he picked me up, making sure our departure was photographed together to give the illusion that we’d spent the week together, I figured he must have a girlfriend. It wasn’t surprising—my own parents hated each other and had plenty of affairs, but I was pretty sure they at least slept together a few times because I exist. That made the fact that he didn’t even want to try was confusing. I mean, I think I look pretty similar to the women he used to date. It shouldn’t have been a struggle.”
Ember slinked back out from the bedroom now that the commotion was over, jumping up on the couch and rubbing his head on Accalia’s belly. She sniffed a small laugh, scratching behind his ears before he headed back towards me and sat on my lap.
“So then I began to think that maybe he was gay, especially when he informed me that we would use IVF to secure an heir. His excuse was that he needed to make sure our child was a vampire, but I knew there was some other reason why he didn’t want to even consider touching me.”
Victor was definitely the type to insist his children all be vampires, so it wasn’t out of character for him to insist on picking out the perfect embryos himself.
I hated how relieved I felt that they hadn’t made their child the old-fashioned way, to know they had never been intimate.And then I felt guilty, because Accalia was obviously in pain over it—another innocent victim stuck in an unfulfilling relationship with the Victor.
