Chapter 29 CHAPTER 29
Where is he going to?
The mansion had grown quiet. After a long evening of play in the garden, giggles, and bedtime stories, the quadruplets had finally surrendered to sleep. Chloe lingered in their nursery, smoothing Beauty’s hair and tucking Jamal’s blanket tighter around him. The room smelled of lavender oil from the diffuser, a scent she herself had chosen to calm restless nights.
For a moment, as she looked at the sleeping children, her chest swelled with a bittersweet warmth. They weren’t hers, not by blood, but over the last seven years, she had folded herself into their lives. She had bandaged scraped knees, listened to their secrets, and sung them to sleep on stormy nights. She wanted to believe it made her more than just a caretaker. She wanted to believe, desperately, that one day they’d call her “Mom.”
She leaned down, kissing Pretty’s forehead lightly. “Sleep well, angel,” she whispered.
Then she turned, smoothing her gown and stepping softly out of the nursery. The hallway stretched wide and glittering, lined with chandeliers and framed portraits. Every step Chloe took echoed her own thoughts…restless, uncertain. Tonight, she had decided, would be different. Tonight, she would stop waiting for Ares to come to her.
It had been six months since their wedding, and still, Ares had never touched her…not with affection, not with passion, not even with the absentminded warmth that long married couples sometimes share. He was polite, courteous even. He fulfilled every role of a husband in the public eye. But in private, he had built an invisible wall she could never climb over.
And Chloe was tired. Tired of pretending she didn’t notice. Tired of brushing off whispers about why their marriage seemed so cold. Tired of carrying a love that felt like a weight.
So she made her way toward his bedroom, rehearsing in her mind how she would start. She would be soft, not confrontational. She would remind him that she was his wife, that she had stood by him, that she loved him. Maybe tonight, she thought, she could break through whatever silence bound him.
But when she reached the bedroom door, she stopped. Her hand froze on the brass handle, because through the gap where the door wasn’t fully closed, she could see him.
Ares stood before the mirror, tall and magnetic as ever, buttoning the cuffs of a deep navy shirt. His jacket lay draped over the bed, sleek and pressed. He adjusted the collar, checked his reflection, and reached for his watch. Everything about him showed preparation not for rest, but for outside.
Chloe’s breath caught. This wasn’t a man winding down for the night. This was a man dressing up.
She pushed the door open slowly, her heels clicking softly against the marble floor. “You’re… going out?” she asked, her voice carefully light though her chest constricted.
Ares turned, just slightly, meeting her eyes in the mirror rather than directly. His expression was unreadable, but his movements didn’t pause. He fastened his watch, slipped the jacket on, and reached for his phone. “I have a meeting.”
“Now?” Chloe stepped closer, folding her arms across her chest. “It’s past nine.”
His silence was damning. He slipped his phone into his pocket and reached for the keys on the dresser.
Her composure cracked. “Don’t lie to me, Ares.” Her voice was sharper this time, edged with desperation. “You’re not going to a meeting. Who schedules business this late?”
He finally looked at her fully, his dark eyes steady, but his face gave nothing away. “I said it’s a meeting,” he repeated, calm but final.
Chloe’s throat tightened. She stepped forward, her heart hammering as words tumbled out before she could stop them. “Why haven’t you touched me?”
The room stilled. Her question hung in the air like shattered glass.
Her voice broke as she went on, softer, pleading. “Six months, Ares. Six months of marriage. You haven’t kissed me, you haven’t—l..” Her lip trembled, and she forced herself to continue. “I’m your wife. Why do you treat me like a stranger?”
Ares stood still, his broad shoulders casting a shadow across the room. His hand gripped the keys, the metal glinting faintly under the chandelier. For a heartbeat, Chloe thought he might finally break, might finally tell her what he was feeling, what ghost of the past still stood between them.
But he didn’t. He only turned back toward the mirror, straightening his jacket as though her words had never been spoken.
The silence cut her deeper than any answer.
Tears pricked Chloe’s eyes, her chest tightening painfully. “Do you even see me, Ares? Or am I just filling space until…” She choked on the words, unable to finish. Until what? Until Tessa? Until some ghost he refused to let go?
He didn’t answer. He didn’t even look like he was sorry.
With his phone in one hand and his keys in the other, Ares walked past her, his cologne lingering in his wake. The door opened, then shut behind him, the sound echoing like finality through the room.
Chloe stood frozen, her arms hanging limp at her sides, her heart splitting silently in her chest.
She pressed a hand to her mouth, swallowing back the sob that clawed its way up her throat. Then, slowly, she lifted her fingers to her cheek, brushing away the single tear that had escaped.
Her reflection in the mirror caught her eye. She was beautiful, composed, and elegant.
She whispered into the empty room, her voice trembling. “Why isn’t it enough? Why am I never enough for you?”
The silence offered no answer.
And as Chloe sank slowly to sit on the edge of the bed, her gown pooling around her, the weight of her marriage pressed down harder than ever. She had the ring, the mansion, the title. But she didn’t have him.
And she feared, deep down, that she never would.