Chapter 2 Rival request
Elena’s POV
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Mandy snapped as she pulled the duvet over her naked body.
“Elena..?” I heard Daniel’s voice. I turned to look at him. He had a towel around his waist, water dripping down his chest. “How did you get here?”
“All this time? You—both of you…” I said, pointing at them, “have been cheating and lying to me?” Tears burned behind my eyes, threatening to spill.
My heart ached as Mandy’s cold, mocking laughter filled the room.
“Oh, darling, if only you had known. Daniel has always been mine. You were just there—his helping aid, nothing more,” she said casually, sitting up.
“I trusted you. I gave you all I had…” I whispered to Daniel, ignoring Mandy’s venomous tone. That was right. I had given him everything. I made him CEO of my late father’s company. I was an orphaned heiress, and the love I had for Daniel made me so blind that I signed the company into his name.
“I never asked you for it,” Daniel said, walking up to me. “As a matter of fact, Elena, you are so worthless…”
My heart stung at his words. Mandy’s happy laughter echoed behind us.
“You can’t even produce a child for me. Five years of marriage, and you are barren. But Mandy here is carrying my child…”
It felt like my heart stopped beating as I stared at Mandy, who rubbed her flat stomach. Shock. Betrayal. Pain.
“For how long has this been going on?” I whispered.
“Since we all knew each other,” Mandy said, her voice echoing with cruel pride.
A laugh escaped me—a broken, painful sound as everything inside me shattered. My chest hurt, and I lost balance slightly, grabbing the desk for support.
“So all this while, I’ve been living in lies…”
“You took my kindness for weakness,” I whispered. “I helped both of you. I trusted—”
I had left everything for him. My family, my inheritance, my name.
Mandy’s tone was soft, casual, almost bored. “We didn’t want you to find out like this.”
“You bitch!” I screamed, lunging toward her. But Daniel stepped between us, shoving me back hard.
“Stop being dramatic,” he barked. “I’ll send the divorce papers. It’s over.”
My heart crumbled. “A divorce?” I managed to choke out.
“Yes, a divorce. I want nothing to do with you anymore.”
My vision blurred. I couldn’t breathe. The walls spun.
Walls spun. Breath came in sharp, shallow gasps. My vision blurred again. I stumbled, clutching the doorframe for support. Somehow, I found the exit and burst into the street. My tears blinded me.
I forgot to take my car. I was running through the busy road, hearing the yelling of people and the horns of cars.
I didn’t see the cars. I didn’t see anything. The world narrowed to the sound of my own screaming heart.
A blinding flash of light. Screeching tires. A deafening crash.
The first thing I heard was the beeping.
Slow, steady, unnatural.
Then came the smell of antiseptic, cold metal, and something faintly floral beneath it. My eyelids felt heavy, glued together, but I forced them open. The ceiling above me was white and sterile.
My throat burned when I tried to swallow. My head pulsed, like someone was driving nails into my skull. I didn’t know where I was or why my body felt broken and stitched back together.
A woman in blue scrubs appeared at the foot of my bed, her face kind but weary.
“Miss,” she said softly, “you made it.”
Made it? The words sounded strange, distant.
She noticed my confusion.
“You were in an accident,” she explained gently. “You’ve been unconscious for two days.”
My mind scrambled desperately for pieces: hotel lights, rain, a sharp turn, a scream—maybe mine. Then nothing.
“You made it,” she repeated. “And your babies did too.”
My heart stopped.
“Babies?” I rasped, my voice thin and broken. “I… what?”
“You’re one month pregnant with twins,” she said, her smile warm. “Congratulations.”
Twins.
The word echoed through my mind—hollow, impossible. I stared at her, searching her face for a lie, a joke, anything.
But she only squeezed my hand before checking the monitors.
“You should rest,” she said softly. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
When she left, I lay there staring at the ceiling, letting the word pregnant repeat in my mind. My trembling fingers brushed over the flatness of my stomach.
Inside me were two lives I didn’t even know existed.
I remembered Daniel calling me barren, unaware I was carrying his children.
My throat tightened, vision blurring. I had loved him. Defended him. Given him everything.
The door opened.
Rain-scented air swept into the room, followed by the faint hum of expensive cologne—woodsy, dark, unsettlingly familiar.
A man stepped inside.
Everything about him screamed control—precise movements, a suffocating presence. His damp hair brushed across his forehead, droplets trailing along the sharp edge of his jaw. His perfectly tailored suit clung to him like it was sewn from shadows.
He stopped at the edge of my bed. His gaze swept over me, unreadable but intense, as if weighing my existence.
“Hello, ma’am,” he said, his voice low and deliberate. “I’m Adrian Blake.”
The name hit me like ice water.
Daniel’s business rival. The billionaire warned not to cross. Cold. Ruthless. A man who destroyed fortunes with a smile.
He looked down at me, his face carved from stone.
“I ran you over with my car,” he said. “I wanted to apologize for any inconvenience I’ve caused.”
I blinked, disbelief washing over me. “Inconvenience?” My voice cracked.
“You almost killed me!”
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. “You’re alive,” he said simply. “That’s what matters.”
The calmness in his tone made me want to slap him. “Do you have any idea—”
“Yes.” His eyes darkened. “I do. I was there when they pulled you from the street. I carried you in. You were bleeding. You stopped breathing for ten seconds.”
I froze.
Rain. Headlights. Screaming. Everything flickered.
“I know you. And I know what he did to you,” he said, referring to Daniel’s betrayal.
A bitter laugh escaped me. I was shocked—but in their ruthless world of business, rumors spread like wildfire.
“I’m sorry about your husband,” he said quietly.
I met his eyes. “You don’t even know me.”
He tilted his head. “I know men like him. And I know that look on your face.”
I swallowed. “What look?”
“The one that comes after betrayal,” he said softly.
“When the world takes everything from you, and you realize the only thing left… is what you’re willing to become.”
His words cut deep—too deep for a stranger. I hated that part of me understood.
Adrian stepped closer, his presence crackling like static.
“I can help you,” he whispered. “If you want to make him regret everything he’s done.”
My pulse jumped. “Why would you help me?”
“Because,” he said, locking eyes with me,
“your husband has been a thorn in my side for years. And now, fate has handed me his greatest weakness.”
I stared. “You mean me.”
A ghost of a smile appeared. “Exactly.”
The air thickened—dangerous, charged.
He leaned in slightly, just enough for me to catch the faint scent of rain and power on his skin.
“You want revenge, Mrs. Carter?”
My voice trembled. “I don’t know what I want.”
“Yes, you do.” His tone was cool, absolute.
“You want to make him feel what you’re feeling right now.”
I looked away, my throat tight. “Even if I did, I’ve got nothing left. No money, no home— not even a name to call my own.”
“Then let me give you one.”
The words slid through the air—smooth and impossible.
I turned toward him slowly. “What are you saying?”
Adrian’s lips curved into a faint smile, though his eyes remained cold.
“Marry me. Help me destroy him… and I’ll make you whole again.”