Chapter 45

The kitchen light hummed above me, sharp and unforgiving. I hadn’t slept properly in two days, not since Dan walked out after I told him the truth.

“I slept with Tyson. I didn’t mean to, I was drunk.” The words still burned my throat. They were stuck there, like glass shards I couldn’t cough up. I could've used better words to tell me, maybe he wouldn't have walked out.

Dan’s phone was off. I’d called so many times my call history looked like a shrine to my desperation, his name stacked one after another, unanswered. Each time the line cut straight to voicemail, the panic in my chest deepened.

I gripped my own phone now, staring at the black screen, waiting for it to light up, praying for his name to appear. It didn’t. It never did. What if he wasn’t just cooling off? What if he had gone to someone else? Someone better. Someone untouched by mistakes and betrayal.

The thought made bile rise in my throat. I pushed the mug of lukewarm tea away, my appetite long gone. I couldn’t sit still anymore. My legs carried me to the window, and I pressed my forehead to the glass. Outside, the sky was dull gray, the world carrying on like nothing was wrong. But I was feeling like everything in my life was wrong. I could've kept my mouth shut, but Tyson would've made my life a living hell.

I pulled away sharply and began pacing, every step scraping against the tiles, every breath short and shallow. He hadn’t come home. He hadn’t called. He hadn’t even left a note. Did that mean he had finally realized what I’d feared all along, that I wasn’t meant for him, that I wasn’t the woman he needed?

“No,” I whispered to myself, shaking my head. “No, he can’t just leave like that.” My hands trembled as I grabbed my car keys from the counter. I didn’t even know where to start, but I couldn’t stay in this house another second, not with the silence pressing down on me.

If he was out there, lost in anger, I needed to find him. Even if it meant scouring every street, every place he might go. Because the thought of him being with someone else or worse, deciding he never wanted to come back, was enough to drive me insane.

I shoved the keys into my pocket, grabbed my jacket, and headed for the door. My heart pounded hard enough to drown out reason. My hand was already on the door when it opened from the other side.

Victoria.

She stepped in like she owned the place, her fur coat brushing against my arm, her perfume. Sharp and suffocating, filling the hallway. “Where is Dan?” she demanded, her voice tight and clipped, as though I owed her an answer.

The sight of her sent my blood boiling. All the whispers, the sabotage, the little games she played to wedge herself between us, they all surged forward like a wave. And now she dared to show up here, when Dan had been gone for two days?

My fists clenched at my sides. “You want to know where he is? Maybe you should tell me! You’ve been trying to tear this marriage apart from the start, haven’t you? You’ve poisoned everything!” Victoria’s brows arched, cold and calculating, like she was amused by my rage.

“If he left you, that’s not my doing, Emerald. That’s yours. Men don’t stay with women who betray them.” The words sliced through me, too sharp, too precise. Before I could think, before I could breathe, something inside me snapped.

Heat roared in my veins. My vision blurred red. I lifted my hand without meaning to, and a ball of fire burst to life in my palm. I hurled it across the hall at her.

Victoria’s eyes widened, not in fear, but in recognition. With a sharp flick of her wrist, a blast of ice shot out from her palm, colliding with my fire in an explosion that sent a wave of steam hissing through the air. The impact slammed her back against the wall, her coat smoking where the flames had licked it.

I stumbled a step back, my chest heaving, my ears ringing from the blast. I hadn’t expected her to fight back. I hadn’t expected her to have power.

She coughed, pressing a hand to the wall to steady herself, shards of ice cracking and melting on the surrounding floor. Her eyes locked on mine, sharper now, dangerous.

“You think you’re the only one with gifts?” she hissed, her voice raw but steady. “You don’t even know what you are, Emerald. But I do.”

The words sank like knives into my chest, leaving me shaken.

Victoria pushed herself off the wall, her eyes glinting with icy fury. Frost spread across the wallpaper behind her, a crackling sound filling the hall.

“You dare raise your hand against me in my son’s house?” she spat, her fingers glowing pale blue as frost began to swirl in her palm.

My chest heaved as the heat inside me rose again. “This is my house too,” I snarled, and another ball of fire roared to life in my hand.

She struck first, shards of ice flying toward me like daggers. Instinct took over. I flung the fireball, melting the shards mid-air, steam hissing between us. The clash shook the chandelier overhead, glass tinkling from the impact.

She lunged forward, summoning a spear of ice, her movements sharper than I would have expected from her elegant frame. But I moved faster. The fire burned through my veins, wild and unyielding. I pushed both palms forward, releasing a torrent of flame that surged across the hall.

Victoria screamed as the fire caught her sleeve. She stumbled back, clutching her arm as her coat began to blacken, flames licking the fur. The sharp scent of burning fabric filled the air.

Her scream echoed, raw and jagged. For a split second, guilt twisted in my chest, but I crushed it down. She wasn’t a helpless victim. She was my enemy, and she had made herself that way. This woman has been fighting me since day one; she deserves everything I throw at her.

Her ice sputtered, the glow fading from her hand as she tried to beat out the flames on her arm. I didn’t give her time to recover. Stepping forward, I tore the half-burned coat from her shoulders, my grip firm.

“I don’t have time for you,” I said through clenched teeth, my voice trembling from anger and adrenaline. “I need to go find my husband.”

Victoria’s eyes blazed with something darker than pain as I turned my back on her. But I didn’t stop to listen to her threats or her curses. I pulled the coat tighter around me and strode out the door, fire still crackling faintly in my palms.