~Elena~
Adrain had travelled this morning so, I decided to visit my mom at the care home to know how she was doing and also because I missed her.
The sound of my mother’s voice broke me before I even stepped fully into the room.
“Where is Elena? She was supposed to visit today… Elena always comes.”
My chest tightened, I forced my feet to keep moving forward, even when my body wanted to run. The care facility was too bright, too clean, too cruel in how it held her trapped inside it.
“Mom,” I whispered softly.
She looked up at me, there was no recognition only confusion.
“Are you… the nurse?” she asked politely, as if I were a stranger standing in her way.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.
“No,” I said, my voice shaking. “It’s me. It’s Elena.”
She frowned, studying my face carefully, like she was trying to place a name that refused to come.
“Elena…” she repeated slowly. Then she smiled faintly. “That’s my daughter. She’s supposed to come today. A very good girl. She never misses visiting day.”
I felt something inside me crack open.
“I’m here, Mom,” I said, stepping closer.
But she already looked away, distracted, as if I had already stopped existing in her world.
The caregiver beside me gave me a sympathetic look. “She’s been having more frequent memory lapses. Some days are better than others.”
Better. Worse. It didn’t matter what they called it, she was slipping away from me piece by piece, I stayed anyway, I helped adjust her blanket. I listened as she talked about a daughter she no longer recognized in front of her. I answered her questions about Elena like I wasn’t the one she was talking about.
And every time she said my name with warmth for someone else… I died a little more inside.
When visiting hours ended, I signed the forms with shaking hands.
“Take care of her,” I said quietly.
“We will,” the nurse replied.
But no one could take care of what was already disappearing, I walked out of the facility with tears I refused to let fall until I reached my car and when I finally got inside, I broke.
My hands pressed against the steering wheel as I tried to breathe through the pain. My mother didn’t know me, not anymore.
I started the car before I could think too much and drove without direction, just needing something, anything to stop the emptiness inside my chest.
That’s how I ended up at the ice cream shop, I told myself it was stupid. Ice cream wouldn’t fix anything. But I ordered anyway, sitting near the window like I could blend into normal life for a few minutes, That’s when I saw the television.
“…breaking news tonight. Vaughn Enterprises CEO Adrian Vaughn has officially confirmed his engagement to heiress Isabella De Luca…”
The spoon slipped from my hand, my body went cold, then hot, Images flashed on the screen, a woman on his arm smiling like she belonged there, my vision blurred as heat rushed through me like I was burning from the inside out. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move, It felt like dying while still being awake.
“No…” the word left my lips without permission.
The anchor continued cheerfully: “The couple has been linked for months, with sources close to the family calling it a perfect strategic and personal match. The engagement solidifies a major business alliance…”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The world tilted violently. This was the man who had claimed me with growled possessiveness—“Mine. Every fucking inch”—who fucked me like I was his obsession, who tossed me black cards and commanded my evenings, the same man whose contract forbade emotions, personal questions, love, I had signed it knowing the terms, no attachments, no jealousy. I was the secret mistress, the hidden luxury in his penthouse. Not the wife. Never the wife.
But I had fallen anyway. Stupidly, helplessly. Somewhere between the first night he ruined me and the hundreds of commands since, my heart had betrayed every clause. I loved the way he possessed me during sex, the rare intensity in his dark eyes, the absolute control that made me feel safe in a chaotic world. I loved him even though he knew nothing of my mother, my struggles, my reasons for signing. The contract demanded ignorance, he asked nothing, I offered nothing, and now this.
Tears blurred the screen as more images played, the happy couple at charity events, speculation about the wedding, the empire they would build together. My hands shook so badly I had to grip the edge of the table. The ice cream melted forgotten in its bowl. Pain lanced through me, sharp like a knife twisting where only he had touched.
But the screen didn’t change, the world didn’t stop and Adrian Vaughn kept standing there like I had never existed at all.
