Chapter 1 THE DEATH OF AVA
CHAPTER ONE
The Death of Ava
AVRIELLE'S POV
"You are becoming so damn annoying, Avrielle! Do you ever shut up?"
Adrian’s voice didn’t just fill the hallway; it vibrated inside my ribs, an emotional blow that left me gasping. I stood frozen, my vision blurring as hot, thick tears pooled in my eyes
A lifetime ago, this man would have moved mountains to keep a single tear from falling. Now? He watched me shake with a clinical indifference that made my skin crawl.
"Are you serious right now?" I choked out, my voice thin and hitching. "I’m the one who stayed, Adrian! I swallowed my pride while you spent every night with different women. I destroyed myself to keep this home together, and you... I just caught you in our bed! Our matrimonial bed! With her? It could have been anyone else but Ivana?!"
Ivana.
The name was acid on my tongue. She wasn't just a random club girl; she was my stepsister, my rival, the woman we had both spent years claiming to hate. Or so I thought.
"Don't you dare try to paint me as the villain!" Adrian roared, invading my personal space. His eyes held a narcissistic flare that made me recoil. "You should be grateful I’m even sticking to one girl now! and besides…Ivana isn't 'any girl'—she’s my second chance mate."
My heart stopped.
"You’re the reason I rejected my fated mate years ago," he sneered, leaning down until our noses almost touched. "And let me refresh your memory, I only hated her because you manipulated me" He growled.
“She isn't the monster you described, Avrielle. She’s better than you... and she’s mine."
I stared at him, my jaw dropping. He was doing it. He was masterfully shifting the weight of his betrayal onto my shoulders, elevating my enemy while burying me alive in his lies.
"So I’m the villain?" I whispered, my heart fracturing into a million jagged pieces. "After everything I sacrificed?"
"There goes the nagging again!" He yelled, slamming his fist into the drywall right next to my head. I flinched, the sound echoing like a gunshot.
He leaned in, his breath hot and smelling of expensive bourbon. "I am done letting you control me. If you don't want me 'cheating' anymore, then fine—consider this an open marriage and as of this second, it’s official."
"Open... marriage?" I stuttered. "You can't be serious."
"I am dead serious." He growled.
Suddenly, just like a chameleon, his expression suddenly softened into something worse than rage: pity. He reached out, cupping my cheek with a hand that used to feel like home.
"I'm doing this for your own good, sweetheart. That way you won't feel 'wronged' anymore. We can both do what we want." He leaned down, pressing a mocking, dry peck to my forehead. "I love you."
"Adrian! Babe!" Ivana’s voice shrilled from the bedroom. The 'I love you' hadn't even finished echoing before he was snapping his head toward the sound, his face transforming with pure adoration. "Yes, babe!"
I watched, paralyzed, as Ivana sauntered into the hallway. She was completely naked, her skin glowing under the lights.
My eyes betrayed me, roaming over her—the high perk of her breasts, the narrow waist, the unblemished skin of a woman who hadn't spent years stressed to the point of exhaustion. I looked at my own hands, at the faint lines of age and the way my clothes hung heavy on my soul.
Who wouldn't want her?
She walked up to Adrian and wrapped her arms around his neck, planting a deep, possessive kiss on his lips right in front of me.
"Wait for me in the bedroom," Adrian murmured against her mouth.
"No," she purred, her eyes locking onto mine with pure malice. "I want to do it right here. In the living room."
Adrian let out a dark chuckle and spanked her bare backside. The smack was loud and humiliating. Ivana let out a soft, intentional moan as if to mock my presence even more. Adrian smiled biting down on her earlobe and whispered, "Naughty girl."
I could feel more tears trailing down my cheek but I just felt numbed.
Adrian suddenly turned to me, his face turning back to stone. "You heard her. Get out and go find a hotel for the night."
The air left my lungs. It had been two years since he had touched me, and now he was throwing me out like trash for her?
"No!" The last of my dignity sparked into a flame. I marched forward, grabbing Ivana’s arm and shoving her away from my husband. "Get out of my house! Get out!"
I yelled at her face, dragging her toward the door while she screamed, "Adrian! Help me! She’s hurting me!" Like I was slaughtering her.
Before I could reach the handle, a hand gripped my shoulder and spun me around. Adrian pulled Ivana behind him, shielding her as if she were the victim and before I could even blink, his hand whipped through the air.
SLAP.
The force sent me reeling as my cheek exploded in heat. I stared at him, my hand flying to my face, my breath hitching in pure, unadulterated shock.
"How dare you touch Ivana," he hissed. "It seems I've been too lenient with you." He barked and before I could recover, he grabbed me by the collar and the crook of my arm, hauling me toward the entrance and threw me out onto the cold porch.Almost immediately, the heavy oak door slammed shut with a finality that shook the ground.
"Adrian! Open the door!" I screamed, banging my fists against the wood until they bruised, but all I got in response was the click of the deadbolt.
I sank to my knees, sobbing, calling his name until my throat felt raw.
Just then, I heard moaning sounds and body clapping against each other and I could feel my world come to a standstill.
The sounds shattered the last fragment of hope I was clutching. He hadn't just stopped loving me; he had lost every ounce of respect for the woman he swore to love for eternity.
I scrambled toward my car, fumbling with the keys as my vision blurred into a watery mess. I drove, peeling out of the driveway with no destination but to just disappear out of the damn place I used to call home.
I had no friends to call, no family to run to; my own blood relatives were the ones who had spent years body-shaming me, calling me a "waste of space" and a "gluttonous omega."
I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror and winced—a plus-sized, thirty-nine-year-old woman with a shattered soul and a face puffy from crying. Gosh, how did I get here?
I could still remember the day I met Adrian five years ago when I was just a lowly maid for the Beta of the pack. I’d been framed for treason, and the warrant was a beaten-to-death sentence for someone of my rank.
I was seconds away from being beaten to death by the enforcers when Adrian had stormed in. He’d defied his own uncle, the Alpha, claiming I was his woman and demanding a marriage verdict to save my life.
Back then, he was only twenty-one, and I had believed with every fiber of my being that his love was the purest thing on earth because he’d even rejected his fated mate right in front of me just to propose.
He had tended to my wounds, both physical and emotional, even during our early years of marriage. For three straight years after marriage, I was the luckiest woman alive—until the reality of my barrenness set in.
Didn't notice the change in Adrian at first because it was only coming back home late, and he always had a thing or two to do at the company as an excuse.
I believed those lies until I found out he was cheating while going through his clothes. He apologized and promised to never repeat such.
Back then he was really sorry, but the first time turned into repeated action and then a habit and I'd to reside with it cause no one would want a fat, aged, ugly menace like me anyways.
I didn't believe the rumors of him having an affair with Ivana at first, because it was a certainty we both hated Ivana..until I caught them on our matrimonial bed.
‘She’s my second chance mate... she’s better than you’ his voice echoed in my skull, and I let out a choked sob, the steering wheel shaking in my hands.
Suddenly, blinding headlights of a truck surged toward me. A scream tore from my vocals as I swerved the car violently until it collided with a heavy metal banner with a bone-jarring thud.