Chapter 33 SHATTERED TWICE (Demilia’s POV)
“Demilia… just take a breath. Please, just breathe.”
Lena’s voice sounded distant, like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel. Her hands were on my shoulders, warm, shaking me gently...but even at that, I couldn’t feel anything.
I was very numb completely, horrifyingly numb.
“I can’t...” My voice breaking mid-word, my chest refusing to expand properly to accommodate air. “Lena, I can’t...”
“You can, if you try harder,” she said urgently. “You have to, focus on me "
I tried, God knows I really tried. But every time I blinked, I saw the papers all over again before me. From the signatures, to the dates, then again was the clinical language that reduced my life...my body...even that of my child...into ink and cold facts.
I had already cried earlier, and that very moment, I overheard Vanessa arguing with Lena.
She deserves to know everything that happened. You’re doing this just because you want to break her. I had cried then, but it was quietly right into my pillow, hoping it was one of her ways of breaking me down. But this... This was completely different.
This was a different shock I never bargained for. This was the kind that ends up cracking one open from the inside, and your remains for the world to see.
“I heard you two,” I whispered, my voice hollow. “Earlier, but I didn't take it this seriously. I heard you fighting about it, just as you always have my back.”
Lena held me tightly.
“I cried. I told myself it was just Vanessa lying again, just as she used to. I told myself she was trying to poison my mind to not welcome this new Ethan.” My throat tightened painfully on remembering how everything went. “But then I walked in and saw these on my bed.”
My fingers trembled as I lifted the papers again, still sounding like a dream to me. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, making me lose control over my own body.
“Seeing it,” I continued hoarsely, “made it feel like the first time all over again. Like I was hearing it for the first time. Like my heart didn’t recognize the pain yet.”
Lena’s eyes filled with tears, her eyes full of concern.
“Oh, Demi…”
“Why all of these?” I demanded suddenly, my voice rising, and also breaking. “Why would he do such a thing to me? Why would he know… and not tell me? Why would he marry me, or rather, buy me from my brother, knowing all this?”
She pulled me again into her arms before I could collapse completely on the ground.
I broke down. Really broke like a baby.
I didn’t just cry...I was shattered, in a mess.
A sound tore out of my chest, and for some reason, it didn’t even sound human. My knees wobbled weakly, and if Lena hadn’t been holding me, I would’ve fallen straight to the floor like a bag of weightless food.
“I trusted him, at least I started to,” I sobbed into her shoulder. “I trusted him even when I shouldn’t have, considering how we started. I told myself he was cruel but at least honest to me. Cold but direct in his approach. I told myself at least he wouldn’t lie about something like this if he knew. That he would soon welcome MD fully into his life.”
Lena’s grip tightened, knowing fully well that she was my last hope to still exist.
“He shouldn’t have, or maybe, he could have come clean with you” she whispered fiercely. “He had no right to control your life.”
“And Vanessa, that btch,” I choked out. “Vanessa of all people was the one who came to comfort me.”
That part hurt in a way I couldn’t explain, even more than Ethan hiding things from me. The look on Vanessa was more like mockery and not concern.
“She touched my hair like I was a little girl,” I said shakily. “She spoke softly to me. Like she cared about me. Like she wasn’t the same woman who looks at me like I stole her life.”
Lena pulled back slightly, her face darkening with rage, to the point I almost burst out in laughter, forgetting my agony.
“She’s obviously manipulating you.”
“I know,” I whispered calmly. “But that’s what scares me the most. Because what if she didn’t need to manipulate anything this time to actually bring me down? What if the truth did the work for her as she planned?”
Lena sucked in a sharp breath, thinking for a second.
“Demi, listen to me carefully.”
I shook my head violently, not ready to do it again with her. “No. No, you listen to me the way I want. Ethan knew everything. He knew before the marriage even happened. He knew before he suddenly changed and looked me in the eyes and told me I was his.”
My stomach twisted violently, nausea rising, but I controlled myself.
“And he let me believe I was hiding it from him,” I whispered. “He let me live in fear all day. Not because I chose to be pregnant out of wedlock, but because I didn't know what to tell him about the paternity of my baby. He watched me panic to keep our new peace. He watched me get sick. He watched me suffer daily.”
Lena’s jaw clenched so hard I thought her teeth might break into pieces. “I swear,” she said, voice vibrating with fury, “if I see Vanessa ever again...”
“This isn’t just Vanessa's doing,” I interrupted weakly. “This is him too. He's the one who caused everything. Vanessa only used it to get at me.”
Lena looked at me carefully, her eyes burning into mine. “Do you want to confront him?”
I let out a long, but broken, hysterical, humorless laugh.
“And say what exactly to him? ‘Did you know about my pregnancy before you married me or rather, bought me from my brother?’” My laughter dissolved into pitiful sobs. “He’ll deny it outrightly. Or worse...he’ll admit it without guilt since his words are always law, and no one to challenge him.”
She didn’t argue, nor did she make any effort toward that.
Because we both knew Ethan Blackwell, the ruthless billionaire, never apologizes. He's always in control.