Chapter 31 MY SHATTERED (Demilia’s POV)
I couldn’t do as they said. I was staring through the ground, into nothing, into a world that was crumbling beneath me.
Vanessa stepped out from behind the hedge with a satisfied smile on her red lips. Not a smirk, neither was it a grin.
It was a victory smile. That she had won.
“Well,” she said smoothly, adjusting her diamond bracelet, “looks like she heard.”
“Get away from her!” Lena snapped, placing herself between us. “Don’t you dare take another step!”
But Vanessa didn’t stop at all. She came closer, elegantly, gracefully, like a panther approaching an injured prey. Her eyes glittered with the cruelty of someone who enjoyed watching pain unfold.
“You really didn’t know?” she asked sweetly, tilting her head. “Oh, Demilia… how naive of you not to know small details like that.”
My voice trembled greatly out of my throat before I could stop it, I had no control over it
“Ethan… knew? Before the marriage?”
“Of course he did,” Vanessa said lightly. “Why do you think he married you so fast? You really believed it was because he loved you?”
Lena roared, “Vanessa, I swear to God...”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic,” Vanessa scoffed. “I’m simply telling her the truth she deserves to know. Something she should have known long time ago.”
She leaned closer to me, way too close, trying everything to get under my skin. Close enough that her perfume crawled into my lungs like poison. Close enough to whisper:
“He married you because of the baby. He knew you were pregnant. He’s always known. You were never his wife… just his possession.”
Something inside me broke into a thousand pieces.
Lena shoved Vanessa backward with all her might. “Get out. RIGHT NOW.”
Vanessa winked at me as she stepped back, and wearing an annoying smirk on her face.
“Take care, Demilia. Stress is terrible for pregnancies. Especially… complicated ones.”
Then she left like the trouble maker that she is.
Her silk dress swaying, showing off her annoying nature. Her heels clicking, also contributing to her making me furious. Victory dripping from her like perfume.
>>>>>>>>>>>
The moment she disappeared around the corner, Lena turned to me, gripping my face with both hands.
“Demilia...look at me, breathe. Breathe for me.” But I couldn’t breathe, I forgot how to do that. I couldn’t even see her, couldn’t think straight. And worst of all, my voice came out in fragments.
“He… knew?” Lena nodded slowly, her eyes glistening with anger and pain.
“He knew.”
“And he married me… because… because...” Lena held my hands tightly.
“No, listen. Vanessa said it to hurt you. She for sure twisted it to favor ger. She always twists it.”
“But it’s true,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Ethan doesn’t do anything without knowing everything. He… he must have known.” My chest constricted, ad I tried my best to not break, Aa sharp pain shot through my stomach. I gasped, clutching myself.
Lena panicked, her eyes wide open in horror.
“Are you okay? Demilia?! Sit...SIT!” She gently guided me down onto the stone bench. My breathing came out uneven and ragged.
“Okay… okay,” Lena whispered, her voice trembling. “Just breathe. You’re okay. Don’t let her get into your head.”
But Vanessa’s words were already crawling under my skin like parasites. He married you because of the baby. He already knew that I was pregnant before the contract.
You were never his wife… just his possession. My eyes burned with tears I couldn’t hold back anymore. “Everything is a lie,” I choked out. “My whole life...my identity… my past… and now this…”
“Demilia, please....”
“What am I, Lena?” I cried. “Who am I? Why is everything about me something people hide? Something they own? Something they trade?”
She pulled me into her arms, and I melted into her shoulder, trembling uncontrollably.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered. “I can’t keep living like this. Everyone is using me. My brother… Ethan… the secret society… now Vanessa… I don’t even know what’s real.”
Lena stroked my hair affectionately. “You are real. Your heart is real. Your pain is real, and that child is real.”
I pressed my trembling palm against my stomach again.
I didn’t feel joy anymore. The kind from when he was kissing me like his life depended on it.
Just fear. Fear that Vanessa was right...that this child was the reason everything was happening.
Fear that Ethan wasn’t protecting me out of love… but out of ownership. Fear that I had no control over anything anymore. Lena pulled back, cupping my face again.
“You listen to me,” she whispered fiercely. “Vanessa is trying to break you. She wants to stress you. She wants you to lose this baby. That’s her actual plan.”
“She wants to hurt you emotionally,” Lena continued. “Because she knows you’re fragile. Because she knows your pregnancy is complicated and stress can...”
“Stop,” I gasped, my breath shaking. “Please… stop.” But Lena’s voice broke with anger that minute.
“I will kill her, Demilia. I swear, I will tear her apart if she comes near you again.”
I grabbed her hand weakly, grateful that she's by my side. “No. Don’t touch her. That’s what she wants. She wants chaos.”
“So what do we do?!” Lena cried. “How do I protect you? How do I keep you sane? How do I make this stop?!”
I whispered the only truth I had. “I don’t know."
As the day was gradually coming to an end, the sun setting behind the mansion, I sat silently, staring at the stone floor… unable to move… unable to think.
Everything was shattered again, like they never existed, or was never real. My identity was gone within seconds. My past came crawling back, raising it's ugly head. My marriage was all a game of power. My heart was taken for granted, allowed to shatter. My trust was smashed on the ground. And my hope if finding happiness ever again, completely destroyed.
I have no purpose of existence again. Ethan had known all along. He had known before the marriage. Vanessa’s words looped in my head like a curse:
He married you because of the baby. He knew you were pregnant. He had always known.
A tear slid down my cheek freely. I wiped it away angrily, making my back to ache. I wasn’t done breaking, not yet, and that was what Ethan and Vanessa wanted for me. The only person that got my back was Lena.
And from the look of things, more of the heartbreak was coming. Something way darker than the first. Than this. Because deep inside… I felt something else, which was the beginning of anger. The beginning of unknown storm. And God help me, this time…
I wasn’t sure I wanted to survive it.