Chapter 196
Elena's POV
The door downstairs creaked open. Footsteps echoed on the stairs—slow, measured, deliberate. Each step felt like a countdown to something terrible.
My eyes darted between Nancy's triumphant face and the bedroom door. "Please," I begged. "Whatever you're planning, just let Lila go. She's innocent—"
Nancy laughed. "Don't even think about it. I'm not letting her go."
The bedroom door swung open.
And Ethan stepped inside.
For a split second, I felt relief—but then I looked into his eyes, and my blood turned to ice.
This wasn't the Ethan I knew. This wasn't the gentle professor who'd been my friend.
This was something else entirely.
He moved like a predator, all coiled tension and barely restrained violence. When he looked at me, I saw hunger—raw, desperate, terrifying hunger that made my skin crawl.
"Hello, Elena," he said, and his voice was all wrong. Rougher. Darker. "God, I've missed you."
Recognition slammed into me. The memories I'd been suppressing came flooding back—the night at the gallery, the way his eyes had changed, the terror I'd felt when I realized the man in front of me wasn't the friend I trusted.
"No," I whispered, shaking my head. "No, not again. Ethan, please—you have to fight him. You have to—"
"Ethan?" He laughed. "Oh, darling. Sweet, naive Elena. Still thinking there's some knight in shining armor hiding in here, waiting to save you?"
I searched his face desperately. "You're not him. You're the other one. The one who—" I couldn't finish. The memory of his hands on me, his voice whispering terrible things—it was too much.
"The one who what?" He tilted his head. "The one who showed you the truth? The one who made you see what real passion looks like?"
"The one who hurt me," I whispered. "The one who tried to—"
He paused, his face contorting as if he were having an internal argument. "Elena, darling, I never hurt you. I loved you." But then he pressed his palm against his temple. "No... no, she trusted us... this isn't—" He shook his head violently, and when he looked up, that predatory smile was back.
"Ethan," I called out, desperate. "I know you're in there. Please, fight him. Don't let him do this."
He crossed the room in three strides, crouched in front of me. I pressed myself back against the chair as he reached out to touch my face with disturbing gentleness.
I flinched away. "Don't touch me. I remember what you did."
"Do you know how long I've waited for this?" he whispered, ignoring my protests. "How many nights I lay awake, imagining what I'd do when I finally had you all to myself?"
"You're scaring me," I said, hating how small my voice sounded.
"Good." His smile widened, but then his expression flickered. "No, wait—she's not supposed to be scared of us. We're supposed to protect her—"
"Ethan!" I called out, hope flaring. "Ethan, is that you? Please, you have to stop this. You have to take control back."
"Shut up," he hissed to himself. "You had your chance. You were too weak. Now it's my turn."
My hope crumbled. "He's gone, isn't he? The real Ethan. You've locked him away completely."
He straightened, walked over to where Lila lay unconscious. My heart stopped as he crouched beside her, ran his fingers through her hair.
"Such a pretty little girl," he murmured. "She has his nose, you know. Sterling's nose."
"Please," I begged, tears streaming down my face. "If you ever cared about me—if any part of what we had was real—don't hurt her. She's just a baby."
He looked back at me, his face crumpling with what looked like genuine anguish. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Elena. I can't—I can't stop this—"
I leaned forward. "Yes, you can! Ethan, I know you're fighting him. I can see it. Please, just—"
But the mask slipped back into place, cold and calculating.
"Here's your choice, darling," he said flatly. "You can come with me. Be mine. Love me the way you should have from the beginning. Or..." He pulled out a syringe. "Or I inject this into her IV line when she wakes up. Potassium chloride. Stops the heart in minutes. Looks like natural causes in a child this young."
The sound that came out of me was barely human. "No. No, you wouldn't—you couldn't—"
"I could," he said calmly, though his hands shook. "I can. And I will, unless you give me what I want."
He walked back to me, cupped my face in both hands. I tried to pull away, trembling.
"Choose me, Elena. Choose me over Sterling, over Alexander, over everyone. Be mine completely. And your daughter lives."
"I can do whatever I want," he interrupted, something manic in his eyes now. "Because I'm not the man you knew, Elena. That man—the kind professor, the helpful friend—he was just a mask."
"No," I said firmly through my tears. "That's not true. The Ethan I knew was real. He was kind and gentle and—"
"Weak," he finished coldly. "He was weak. And that's why he's locked away now, screaming in the dark while I take what should have been mine all along."
He pulled out a knife, started pacing, the blade catching the light.
"Do you know what it was like?" he said, his voice rising. "Watching you pine for Sterling? Watching you throw yourself at a man who treated you like garbage? I could have given you everything! But you never looked at me. Not really. I was just your professor. Your friend. Your fucking consolation prize when Sterling broke your heart."
He whirled around, pointed the knife at me, but then his hand trembled. "Don't make me do this," he whispered, and I heard the other Ethan. "Please, Elena, just... just run. Take Lila and run—"
"Ethan!" I cried out. "Ethan, I'm here! Please, you have to be stronger than him!"
"NO!" he roared at himself. "She's going to choose me. She's going to see me."
I slumped in my chair, defeated. I'd seen this battle before.
"And if I don't?" I asked quietly.
He smiled through his tears—the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen.
"Then I kill your daughter," he said simply. "Right here. Right now. And I make you watch."
He walked to Lila again, pressed the knife tip against her small throat. Not hard enough to break skin, but the threat was clear.
"What's it going to be, Elena? Your life for hers? Your freedom for her survival?"
"Stop!" I screamed. "Stop, please, I'll do it! I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt her!"
"That's not good enough." His voice was cold, though his hands shook. "I don't want your compliance. I want you to choose me. To want me. To love me."
He grabbed my chin, forced me to look at him. "So here's what's going to happen. You're going to tell me, right now, that you choose me over Lila. That if you have to pick between being my wife or being her mother, you pick me."
"I can't—" I sobbed. "I can't say that—"
"Then she dies." His voice was flat. "Simple as that."
He raised the knife higher.
"Wait!" Nancy's voice cut through the room. "Ethan, think about this. If you kill the kid now, you lose your leverage."
"I don't care about leverage anymore," Ethan snarled, his voice cracking. "I just want her. However I can get her."
"Fuck Julian!" he shouted. "Fuck Sterling and his perfect fucking face and his money and his power! I'm done playing games! I'm done being second best!"
He turned back to me, madness burning in his eyes. "Choose. Right now. Me or the brat. Your future or her life. Choose!"
I looked at Lila, my beautiful baby girl. I looked at the knife against her throat. I looked at Ethan and saw no mercy there.
And I made my choice.
I gathered every ounce of strength I had left, looked him dead in the eye, and spat in his face.
"Fuck you," I said, my voice clear and strong despite the tears. "I'll never choose you. Never. You want me to pick between you and Lila? Fine. I choose to die so Lila can live."