Nerissa’s POV
I froze the moment I heard his voice.
He had come back. Drawing in a quiet breath, I turned to face him, forcing myself to stay steady.
“You’re just in time. I need you to mark these…”
Before I could finish, the communication stone in his hand lit up.
Devora.
Her name flickered across the surface.
Jasper gave me a brief, reassuring look as he answered, but that expression vanished almost instantly. His face darkened, his jaw tightening as he listened.
Then, without warning, his hand came down across my face.
The force of it made my head snap to the side.
For a moment, I couldn’t even react. Even after everything I had seen and heard, I never thought he would actually strike me.
He lifted his hand again, but paused when he noticed the tears already slipping down my cheeks. Something in his expression shifted, though it didn’t soften. Instead, he turned away abruptly and grabbed the wolf figurines from the table.
With a sharp motion, he threw them to the ground. They shattered on impact, pieces scattering across the floor.
Those figurines had once meant everything to us. He had shaped them himself, even mixing in his own bone, promising they would bind us together for life.
And now, for her, he destroyed them without hesitation.
“You sent someone after Devora?” His voice rose, filled with anger. “She’s carrying my pup, Rissa. Do you even understand what could have happened to her?”
I stared at the broken fragments, my body slowly turning cold.
That was not just an object. It was everything we had built together.
And he crushed it as if it meant nothing.
Tears blurred my vision, my chest tightening until it felt hard to breathe. I wanted to speak, to defend myself, but the words would not come.
Jasper’s anger didn’t grow louder. Instead, it settled into something colder, something far more unsettling.
He stepped closer and gripped my chin, forcing me to look at him. His gaze was sharp, almost unreadable.
“Tell me where she is, I don’t have time for this.”
It was not just anger I heard in his voice.
It was concern. For her.
A faint, bitter smile tugged at my lips as I forced the words out. “I didn’t do it.”
My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears.
I could not understand how we had reached this point. The man who once loved me so fiercely now looked at me as if I were a stranger. Yet no matter what I said, he didn’t believe me.
He shoved me back, his fist slamming into the wall beside me with a dull thud.
“Devora called me in tears,” he continued, his voice tight. “She told me everything. She said you were behind it.”
His eyes darkened further, his next words colder than before.
“Think carefully, Rissa. Your family, your territory… do you really want me to destroy all of it?”
I stood there, my body stiff, barely able to move except to shake my head weakly.
His expression hardened.
Without another word, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me down the hallway. I stumbled behind him, panic rising as I realized where he was taking me.
The storage chamber.
Before I could struggle, he shoved me inside and slammed the door shut.
The sound echoed in the darkness, heavy and final.
For a moment, I just stood there, frozen, before panic rushed in all at once. I threw myself at the door, my hands pounding against it, but it didn’t move.
The space was small, closed, suffocating.
My breathing became uneven as my knees gave out beneath me.
Jasper knew…
He knew I could not endure places like this. He knew what had happened to me as a pup, how I had been locked away in darkness, how it still haunted me.
And yet, he still did this only for her.
My fingers trembled as I scratched weakly at the door.
“Jasper… please… let me out…”
My voice broke, but there was no response. Only silence.
Then, faintly, his voice came from the other side, cold and distant.
“You crossed the line, Rissa. Stay there and think about it. When I find her, I’ll decide what to do with you.”
His footsteps faded, leaving nothing behind.
Tears fell freely, one after another, as the darkness pressed in around me.
I remembered the night I told him about my past. The way he had held me, his voice filled with pain, promising I would never have to face that fear again.
After that, he always made sure doors stayed open. Lights were never allowed to go out. He said it was like his love, always there, never fading.
Now, those words felt like nothing more than a lie.
Time passed, though I could not tell how much.
By the third day, I was barely conscious when the door finally opened.
Light flooded in, blinding and harsh.
The butler stood there, his expression tense as he helped me out. I stumbled forward, ignoring the healer Jasper had arranged.
In my hand, I still held the documents I had prepared in silence, along with the signed bond-breaking papers.
Using what little strength I had left, I made sure everything was completed.
The identity transfer would take two weeks.
Two weeks and I would leave this place behind for good. My son would carry my name. Then Jasper and I would become nothing to each other.
When it was all done, the butler brought me back to the manor.
I hid every document carefully. Only then did my body finally give in, and the world slowly faded as I lost consciousness.
