Zephyr's hand brushed my elbow as he guided me to the chair. The leather creaked beneath me, but I barely registered the sound.
"First, I need to apologize." His face darkened. "About Vesper."
My heart clenched. The mere mention of her name brought back the sterile hospital rooms, the beeping machines, her tiny body wrapped in blankets.
"I tried to get the information to you sooner about the experimental treatments." He leaned against his desk, hands gripping the edge. "If I had..."
"Don't." I swallowed hard, refusing to let the tears fall. "Please."
He nodded, respecting my need to hold myself together. "There's more you need to know. About Ryker."
The way he said my husband's name made my skin crawl.
"Calypso Reign." He let the name hang in the air. "They never ended things."
"What?"
"The marriage to you was arranged. Your family connections, your reputation - that's what his father wanted. But Ryker..." Zephyr pushed away from the desk, pacing. "He kept seeing her."
My mouth went dry. "No."
"She got pregnant around the same time you did." His words hit like physical blows. "He's been keeping them in a villa outside the city. Three million a year in expenses, private schools, vacation homes."
The room spun. I gripped the armrests, my knuckles white. All those business trips. The late nights. The missed birthdays and hospital visits.
"While Vesper needed treatments..." My voice came out as a whisper.
"He's been funneling money to them for years. I'm sorry, Azalea. But you deserved to know the truth."
The worst part? Deep down, I'd known something wasn't right. I'd ignored the signs, buried my suspicions, played the perfect wife while my daughter suffered.
My trembling fingers found Ryker's contact. I needed to hear it from him - his lies, his betrayal. Each ring echoed in my ears like a death knell.
"Don't-" Zephyr reached for the phone, then pulled back. "Go on. You need this."
The line clicked.
"Oh, sweetie." Calypso's honeyed voice slithered through the speaker. "Ryker's a bit... indisposed at the moment. Just finished fucking me senseless, gave me quite the workout, if you know what I mean. He's washing up."
My stomach lurched. Blood roared in my ears.
"What do you want?" I managed to force out.
Her laugh cut like glass. "Want? I have everything I want. The man, the money, the power." A pause. "Well, almost everything. That pesky little problem of your daughter's medical needs kept getting in our way."
"What are you talking about?"
"You know, it's amazing how quickly hospitals respond when there's only one compatible donor left." Her voice dripped with false sympathy. "Such a tragedy about my boy's accident today. Running right into traffic like that... who could have seen it coming?"
The phone slipped from my numb fingers. Zephyr caught it before it hit the floor, his face twisted in fury as Calypso's voice continued to spill poison.
"I knew your precious Vesper wouldn't have gotten that blood transfusion after all. Oops."
My heart dropped. Zephyr's arm remained on my shoulder, keeping me upright as the room tilted sideways.
"You..." The word came out as a strangled whisper. "Your own child?"
"Collateral damage, honey. Besides, Ryker and I can always make more."
"Oh, those voicemails you left." Calypso's voice turned sickeningly sweet. "Begging Ryker to come to the hospital, crying about how Vesper needed his blood type. It was pathetic really. I had to listen to them over and over while he was with me."
The room spun. Bile rose in my throat.
"Couldn't let that happen, could I?" She clicked her tongue. "My boy served his purpose. Two birds, one stone - he's safe with Ryker's blood now, and your precious Vesper..." She laughed. "Well, accidents happen in hospitals all the time, don't they?"
"You monster." The words scraped my throat raw.
"Monster? Please. I'm a mother too. I protected my child. Got him the blood he needed. The fact that your daughter didn't make it?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "That was just a delicious bonus. God, it felt good watching those machines flatline."
The phone cracked in Zephyr's hand. His face had turned to stone, but his eyes blazed with a fury that matched the inferno building in my chest.
My vision blurred red. The perfect wife, the devoted mother - those masks shattered. In their place, something darker emerged. Something that understood exactly why people killed.
"Calypso?" My voice steadied.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"I'm going to destroy you."
Her laugh cut off abruptly. "You? The trophy wife? Please-"
I ended the call.
…
I turned to Zephyr, my hands still shaking from the call. "I don't know how you knew my mother, or why you're helping me. But I need something from you."
His steel-gray eyes met mine. The rage hadn't left them, but something else flickered there too - understanding, perhaps. Or recognition of the change that had crystallized inside me.
"First, I want divorce papers drawn up. Immediately." The words felt foreign on my tongue, yet right. Like stepping out of a cage I hadn't known existed.
"Consider it done." He pulled out his phone, fingers moving across the screen. "I have excellent lawyers who specialize in... complicated separations."
"And then-" My voice caught. I steadied myself against the desk. "I want to destroy them. All of them. Ryker, Calypso, everyone who stood by while my daughter-"
The word died in my throat. Zephyr's hand found my shoulder, solid and grounding.
"They killed her. Used her illness as a weapon." My fingers curled into fists. "I want them to feel what I'm feeling. I want them to lose everything."
"Azalea." His voice carried weight, authority. "Are you certain? This path... once you start down it-"
"I died in that hospital room with Vesper." The truth of it rang through my bones. "The woman they thought they could control? She's gone. And what's left wants justice."
He studied me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then he nodded, once. "We'll need to move carefully. Strategic. But I promise you this - they won't see you coming. Not until it's too late."
"Why?" I asked. "Why help me?"
His jaw tightened. Something dark passed across his face. "Let's just say I understand loss. And what it means to watch someone you love suffer while others play games with their life."
A flicker of understanding passed between us. The weight of his words, the tension in his shoulders - they spoke of a grief as deep as mine. Different, but just as raw. I could see it etched in the tight lines around his mouth.
"I want to die." The words slipped out, but carried none of the despair that had haunted me since the hospital. Instead, they felt like the first true breath I'd taken in months.
His eyebrow raised slightly, storm-gray eyes studying my face with newfound interest.
"Officially," I clarified, my mind already racing with possibilities, pieces falling into place like a deadly puzzle. "The perfect grieving widow, unable to bear the loss of her child, takes her own life. It's what they'd expect, isn't it? The weak, fragile woman they think I am? The one who arranges flowers and hosts dinner parties while her husband builds his empire?"
A slow smile spread across Zephyr's face, appreciation glinting in his eyes. "Oh, I do like a strong woman." He leaned back against his desk, the silver streak in his dark hair catching the lamplight.
"Death can be quite useful when you're planning to rise from the ashes. And darling, you're already burning."
