Chapter 76: Betrayals and Regrets

Chapter 76: Betrayals and Regrets
Elyse’s P.O.V

I woke with a start, my body stiff and my heart pounding in my chest. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dim light, and when they did, I saw a strange ceiling—one I didn’t recognize. The air smelled unfamiliar, thick with pheromones and something else I couldn't quite place. For a second, I thought I was dreaming, caught in the haze of sleep, but then Cam’s voice hit me like a punch to the gut.

"You need to think about the future, Elyse. We should start a family. Have kids. Take responsibility for what’s coming."

His words echoed in my head, sharp and insistent, drowning out everything else. The weight of them pressed down on me like a heavy fog. I jolted upright in the bed, my head spinning, my pulse racing. The room around me seemed foreign, and it took me a few moments to piece it together.

This wasn’t my room. I could tell that much. But the scent—intoxicating and thick, familiar but different—told me exactly where I was. The pheromones in the air, sharp and powerful, were a dead giveaway. I was in Kyle’s room. Kyle. My mind flashed to the night before—the events of what had happened between us. My stomach twisted into a knot, but I refused to look away, not now. The reality of what had happened hit me harder than I was ready to admit.

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to push the panic away, but the memories came rushing back. Kyle’s touch, the way his scent had wrapped around me, the heat of our bodies together. It wasn’t just the physical—no, there was something deeper, something I couldn’t deny. But that wasn’t what had brought me here. It was Cam.

What the hell had he meant by all that talk about starting a family? The words felt like poison, slipping into my mind and tainting everything. Cam had said it like it was some natural progression like it was supposed to be our next step. But now I knew that I may not be the father of his child after all.

What if I wasn’t the one he wanted in that picture at all? What if he was planning to turn the whole responsibility of the child onto me, to trap me in a role I didn’t want to play?

I couldn’t stop the disgust that bubbled up inside me. Not at the thought of raising a child—though I wasn’t sure if I could handle that just yet—but at the idea that Cam had betrayed me. I had given him everything, trusted him completely, and this was how he repaid me?

I tried to feel guilty for what had happened with Kyle. I wanted to. I wanted to feel like I had made some terrible mistake, but the truth was, I just couldn’t. Not after the things I had learned about Cam. Not after what he had said to me, not after the lies I’d found out about. The betrayal wasn’t just in the words; it was in his actions, in the way he had betrayed me and tried to tie me down with a responsibility that wasn’t even mine.

But there I was, still tangled in the aftermath of a night I hadn’t been sure about until now. I looked around Kyle’s room, my thoughts racing, but I couldn’t ignore the way my body still reacted to the memory of his touch. No, I couldn’t regret that—not when Cam had left me hanging, had fed me lies like they were nothing.

The more I thought about it, the clearer it became. What Cam had said—about starting a family—felt more like a demand than a choice. And in that moment, I realized that I wasn’t the only one being forced into a corner. He was too. This wasn’t about love or trust. This was about control. And if he was going to control me, then maybe it was time I took back some of that control. Maybe…I didn’t owe him anything.

I sat there for a moment, trying to make sense of everything swirling in my head. The way Cam’s words echoed in my mind—family, kids, responsibility—still felt like a slap to the face. But it wasn’t just that. It was the betrayal, the fact that Cam—the Cam, the one I’d trusted for years—had turned into someone I didn’t even recognize.

Why would he do this to me? Why would he try to trap me in something I wasn’t ready for, with a child I didn’t know was even mine in the first place? If this was about getting revenge on me for sleeping with Kyle, there would have been a thousand different ways to handle it. But Cam hadn’t. No, he had gone beyond that. He’d gone to Edmund.

My heart skipped a beat, and my stomach churned. Cam had been playing me. All this time, I thought I was the one in control, the one making choices for my future. But now, everything had been set up, manipulated behind my back, like I was just a pawn in someone else’s game.

That didn’t make sense. Not in the context of revenge. It wasn’t just about paying me back—it was something else. There was something deeper, something I couldn’t quite grasp.

I pushed myself off the bed, feeling the weight of my thoughts pressing down on me, heavy and relentless. I needed answers. I needed to figure out why everything had gone so wrong. So, I decided to talk to Kyle. Maybe he could help me piece this together. I didn’t have anyone else to turn to. Not when Cam had pulled the rug out from under me like this.

As I stepped out into the hallway, I heard voices coming from the living room. I froze. One of the voices was Kyle’s. The other… someone else. A friend, maybe. I wasn’t sure. But they were talking, and the conversation was loud enough for me to catch bits and pieces of it.

“… it makes sense, you know?” Kyle’s voice filtered through the walls. “That day in the elevator— What Edmund had said to me. It makes so much sense now. This was never just about just getting to Elyse.”

My pulse spiked, my feet rooted to the floor as the words sank in. Edmund? What had Edmund said in the elevator? I didn’t know when Kyle had any kind of confrontation with Edmund, but I had to know more. I had to understand what was really going on.

It wasn’t just about what had happened between me and Kyle last night anymore. It was about the bigger picture, the things I hadn’t seen coming. Edmund’s involvement, the manipulation behind the scenes—it all tied back to Cam, didn’t it?

I strained to hear, my pulse pounding in my ears.

I leaned against the doorframe, trying to steady my breath as I processed what Kyle was saying. He was speaking like he knew something I didn’t like he had more of the picture than I did.