Chapter 96
Sienna's pov
Hearing that answer, I should’ve been relieved.
“Never loved her.” The words were almost too cruel to be true. If Elena heard him say that, how would she survive it?
And yet I couldn’t make myself believe Harrison. I remembered the way he used to look at her, a softness that didn’t match the man in front of me. People could lie with their mouths, but could their faces lie, too?
“Okay,” I said, my voice flat. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
Silence answered. I couldn’t tell whether he was searching for an explanation or choosing what to hide.
“There’s nothing else to say right now,” he finally said.
Something inside me cracked clean through. “I understand.”
From now on, I told myself, stop chasing after love and hate like they’re answers.
Harrison was still holding the cotton swab against my wound. I took it from his fingers and turned slightly. The bleeding should’ve stopped by then.
“Sorry, Mr. Blackwood. I got held up by something unexpected.”
Marcus Barnes hurried in with a takeout box. His tone was careful. “I ran into Ms. Price at the entrance. They were asking about Victor.”
“It’s fine,” Harrison said, opening the lid. “No need to tell them.”
“But they—”
Marcus stopped. I pushed myself upright, tossed the cotton swab into the trash, and looked over. “Why’d you stop? I can’t hear it?”
Marcus glanced at Harrison for permission.
“You can go,” Harrison said. “The plan stays the same.”
The door clicked shut.
“After you eat, we’re going home,” Harrison said.
He unwrapped the utensils, scooped a little porridge, blew on it, and brought it to my mouth with a patience that didn’t belong to him. This wasn’t like him.
The porridge was the right temperature. After days of emptiness, my stomach woke up, and only then did I realize hunger had returned.
After the second spoonful, I reached for the bowl. “I can eat by myself.”
He didn’t hand it over. “It’s hot.”
So I let him feed me, sitting still while my mind searched for where this version of him had been hiding.
“I can’t eat anymore,” I said after half the bowl.
He didn’t push. He set it aside, handed me my flats, and helped me to the edge of the bed. Then he crouched and put the shoes on me himself, firm and efficient. When he was done, he lifted me into his arms.
I gasped and clutched his neck, glaring at him. “I’m not disabled.”
His mouth curved. “You’re my wife. Carrying you home is the least I can do.”
The institute corridor was quiet as he took me out. Most of the researchers were in their labs, and Eleanor Wolfe never seemed to have time for anything else.
In the car, I remembered. “Where’s Alexander?”
“He’s about to get off work,” Harrison said, drawing me closer so my head rested against his thigh. “He went to pick up Luna.”
I went still. “Doesn’t he have a fiancée? He’s not worried about what that does to Luna, being seen with him?”
“He has his struggles,” Harrison said. “But he never forgot Luna all these years.”
I closed my eyes, bitterness rising anyway. “You two are great at defending each other. But have either of you ever cared whether the other lived or died?”
Not knowing the truth, being kept in the dark, being “protected” until it became a cage—that was what Luna and I had both endured.
I didn’t wait. “Do you really think hiding everything from me is for my own good? You’d rather keep me by your side than explain anything?”
His gentleness from earlier made it harder to stay furious, which felt unfair.
My chin was grabbed. I opened my eyes to the familiar coldness.
“You don’t need to know that much,” Harrison said. “Isn’t it better to stay with me and be obedient?”
Again. Just like that, we were back at the beginning.
I breathed in slowly. “Forget it. I’m done asking you for the truth.”
If Harrison wouldn’t give it to me, I would find it myself.
For my mother. For my baby.
“There’s one thing I need to say, whether you believe it or not,” I added, sitting up and leaning back to pull away. “I never wanted an abortion, and I didn’t fall on purpose. When I met Elena, she told me the person behind the fake pregnancy was someone close to me, but she wouldn’t say who.”
I glanced at him; the light made his face hard to read.
“She told me a lot about you and her. I got angry. I fell when I was leaving.”
Jess’s name pressed at the back of my throat, but it was still only a suspicion, so I swallowed it.
For a beat, Harrison said nothing, and the quiet in the car felt sharp enough to cut. Then he spoke, each word measured. “But what I heard was that you’d been taking small doses of abortion pills for a long time, and that’s what caused the miscarriage. The fall was just a cover.”
My breath caught. “What did you say?”
The world seemed to tilt as I stared at him. “So you suspected it was me—taking small doses every day…”
Harrison’s voice was cold. “Weren’t you the one who said you wanted to get rid of the baby? Otherwise why would I use investments to pressure Victor into keeping an eye on you?”
A cold shiver spread through me.
I’d spent so long believing only Elena wanted my child gone.
But it turned out there were so many people who wanted me to miscarry.