Something in me cracked.
I tilted my head slightly toward him, forcing myself to meet his gaze.
“You really do love your Violet, don’t you?”
The words came out quieter than I intended.
Faint. Fractured.
But they carried everything I couldn’t hold in anymore.
“Even now...” My voice trembled, but I didn’t stop. “Waiting to find out if the child I’m carrying is yours... Violet remains the sole occupant of your heart.”
He didn’t react.
“She’s all that matters to me,” he said, without hesitation.
No second thought.
Just certainty.
The statement hit me like a physical blow.
My breath caught sharply in my throat, as if something inside me had just been squeezed too tightly to function properly.
My chest tightened painfully, the air suddenly thin, like my body had forgotten how to breathe.
Over and over, my heartbeat stuttered—off rhythm, uneven.
I forced myself to look away.
To ground myself in something that wouldn’t shatter under the weight of that moment.
I kept my gaze fixed on the orchid.
How long would I let his words—his actions—hurt me this deeply?
No.
Enough.
I needed to become indifferent. Cold. Untouchable.
Until I found a way to leave him for good.
He would never choose me. Never.
Not when his heart had always belonged to Violet.
That truth had been there from the start.
The only problem was me—still feeling, still hurting, still letting him have that power over me.
It had to end.
And I would make sure it did.
Time dulled things.
