Chapter 72 The Place of Grief
Elena's POV
I stared down at the food in front of me, poking at it with the tip of my fork, but I wasn’t really eating.
The steam rising from the pasta curled lazily into the air, and for me, everything bad changed.
“Jack,” I murmured, “what… what are you going to do with Vale Corp? With my father? And now that you've been made partner?”
He paused mid-bite, his fork frozen halfway to his mouth. I saw the flicker of weariness in his eyes. “I’ll… I’ll fix it,” he said slowly, as if measuring every syllable. “Everything your father… everything that’s been broken, I’ll put it back. I’ll make sure Vale Corp runs as it should. And when the time’s right… I’ll make sure you take back what’s yours.”
He would? Trusting him now felt like stupidity.
I swallowed the lump in my throat catching on every word. “And… the cost?” I asked quietly, the words barely more than a whisper. I
He looked up, eyes locking with mine, “I’ll pay whatever price it'll take. I’ll make it right.”
My hands clenched around my fork, “It’s not simple,” I said, voice breaking slightly. “It’ll be difficult and it'll take time.”
“I’ll do it anyway,” he said firmly even though his voice wavered. “I don’t care how difficult it'll be, I don’t care how long, I’ll make it right somehow.. even if it kills me.”
I swallowed.
Well, good thing he's willing to atone with his life... but we were tearing away from each other. That small fact hurt me yet, I believed it'd be best for us both.
"I… I’m glad it’s now over for both of us.” I muttered under my breath.
He looked down at the table with tight jaw. His fists clenched and unclenched, his knuckles pressing into the wood, his body taut with frustration and grief and something else I couldn’t name.
I blinked back the emotion that threatened to give my hurt away.
Then I could see it in the way his shoulders trembled ever so slightly, in the way he kept looking at me and then away, like he was afraid he’d break if he said the wrong thing.
“Yeah,” he said finally, almost to himself. “Yeah… it’s actually over, time to return back to being strangers again.”
I bit back a sob.
I didn’t cry but his words hung between us, heavy, like a storm cloud suspended just above the room. I wanted to hate him for every betrayal, every lie and every secret he'd kept but when I looked at him, I felt hollow and exhausted alongside something else I couldn't name.
"What about Damien? How do you intend to handle him?" I asked before I could stop myself.
He didn't answer right away, he just looked at me like he was processing a million things in his head all at once.
"Even though..." he began to say, "he's intent is to watch Vale Corp crumble, he hasn't been much of a threat ever since your father's move to get rid of you from the board."
I pursed my lips. "Maybe I've always been the major threat to him after all. So I guess now that I'm officially off the board, he'll leave Vale Corp alone?"
"Probably," he said and quickly sipped water before he looked lost in thought again.
"Probably?" I inquired.
Jack nodded slightly. "I'll have to admit that he can be unpredictable, and you should know how much of a wacko he is since he's your ex-husband." His jaw clenched at that.
I bit the inside of my cheek as I let go of my fork on the plate. "Yeah, I know." I mumbled as I remembered during the couple of years we were married.
"Why does he hate you so much?" Jack asked abruptly as my eyes snapped up to meet his before I looked away from him.
Even I, don't know the answer to the question but his hypocrisy about loving me gutted me after I found out he would be willing to sacrifice me and our child for wealth and fame.
I didn’t even realize when a tear dropped in my plate. I immediately snifled. "I don't want to talk about it."
Jack was quiet for a moment and didn't push. "Okay." He said.
But I guess if I intended for Jack and I never to meet again, I at least owe him this truth before we finally get to part ways.
"Damien..." I trailed off as I let my gaze settle on Jack. "He pretended to love me..." I paused to see Jack's reaction but there was none.
"We got married, we traveled to France for our honeymoon and didn't return to New York for most time of our marriage. We simply remained in France and at some point, we thought we'd build our lives together there. I thought we were actually in love with each other. At least, I soon discovered his love was a lie but mine— wasn't. Then when I got pregnant, he told me to get rid of it..." I shook my head in a way to push back the sadness.
"So... Did— you?" Jack asked quietly.
I bit my lip as I stood up and moved away from the dining. I thought pacing around would help my pain to feel less choking.
I felt Jack's eyes on my back. "Damien told me having a child isn't a good idea if I wanted a seat at the board at the time. He said it'd ruin his chances of leading Vale Corp because at the time, he was obsessed with the idea of succeeding my father..."
I wrapped my arms around my body in order to try to steady myself. "I was in love, so I trusted him. When he finally came back to New York, I remained in France and went to a hospital to get rid of my baby..." Tears stung my eyes and despite my efforts to blink them back, I couldn't.
"But I couldn't get rid of my baby—" A sob escaped from the back of my throat as I shook my head. "I had to lie to Damien that I had some business to take care of just so I could give my child a chance to be born and live..." I felt my body tremble and when I turned to look at Jack, he was already a few feet behind me with an unreadable expression plastered on his face.
"But..." my lips trembled.
"But what?" Jack asked taking a step closer.
"The doctors told me my child didn't make it after I gave birth, even Layla had been there to confirm it." my body shook. "That's what happened, I lost my child after trying to bring her into this world, I didn't kill or get rid of my child like my father or even Damien believed."
I became a crying mess as Jack pulled me into his embrace.
Then I sobbed harder against his chest. "I didn't kill her, I didn't kill my child... I desperately wanted her to live. I wanted to be a mother, her mother."
I wept further at the memory of my precious child being bundled away from me.
"I couldn't even attend her funeral..." I sobbed harder. "I'm such a horrible person, I don't even deserve to be a mother...."
Jack tried to hold me steadily even as he rubbed my back. "it's okay, I understand. You couldn't handle it at the time—"
But I wept anyway, because it was actually the first time since my daughter's demise that I allowed myself to feel this much grief after two solid years.
I always avoided and berated myself to keep my head straight and treat weakness like a plague. But now, it finally caught up with me...
And I was going to leave everything behind just to give myself the chance to properly mourn my daughter's death.