184

184

Eira’s pov

I slammed the door in his face, the sound thundering through the house like a final gunshot. My hands trembled as I reached for the wall, sliding down until my knees hit the cold marble. My palms cradled the faint swell of my belly,barely noticeable yet, but I felt it. God, I felt everything. The betrayal. The nausea. The terrifying flutter of life inside me.

Draven’s voice was muffled through the door. “Eira, please... please open the door.”
His voice was hoarse. Broken.
But so was I.

I curled tighter, arms wrapped around myself like I could hold my soul together if I just squeezed hard enough. “You took everything,” I whispered, not for him, not even for the baby,just for me. The silence that followed was deafening, save for the throb of my heartbeat and the memories pounding behind my eyes.

I didn’t want this.
I didn’t ask for this.

Three weeks ago, I’d started feeling faint. The same kind of dizzy spells I used to get when I skipped meals back in the old pack house. But I hadn’t been skipping meals. I was eating, hydrating, resting. And still, I was exhausted all the time. Sensitive to smells. Nauseated by morning air. I knew this feeling all too well. My stomach had a memory longer than my brain’s denial.

I didn’t want to believe it. I hadn’t even touched a man since Draven. That should have been a warning, not a reassurance.

I remembered walking into that drugstore like a ghost, my steps unsure, fingers curled around my hoodie strings like they could pull me back in time. I bought the test in silence. Didn’t even look the cashier in the eye. The box burned a hole in my bag the whole way home. I stared at it on my sink for hours before I even opened it.

Two lines.
Two damning lines.

The same color as blood.

I remember the way my hand trembled, how my lungs refused to inflate fully. A scream built in my chest, but nothing came out. Just the cold, suffocating silence of my bathroom.

That same night, I stormed into Draven’s private wing,uninvited, unannounced, and completely done with every trace of caution. I didn’t care who he was meeting. I didn’t care that his guards were stunned into silence when they saw me barge in. I demanded to see him.

“Miss Eira,” one of his men stammered. “Sir Draven is in a meeting...”

“Tell him I’m here,” I snapped. “Tell him it’s urgent. Tell him I will drag him out by the throat if I have to.”

That was all it took.

Minutes later, the door to his study swung open and there he was,Draven in all his tailored perfection. White shirt, sleeves rolled, eyes already burning with questions. He waved off his guests without a word and stepped aside, ushering me in like I was some rare storm he didn’t know how to tame.

“What is it?” he asked, once we were alone. “Is someone hurt...?”

I didn’t wait.
Didn’t hesitate.
My hand flew across his face with all the rage I had buried for months.

The crack of the slap echoed louder than the door ever could.

He didn’t touch his cheek. He just stood there, blinking, jaw tight, like he had expected it. Maybe he had. Maybe a part of him always knew something like this was coming.

“You bastard,” I spat, tears burning my eyes. “You absolute monster.”

His voice dropped, low and careful. “Eira...what happened?”

“I’m pregnant,” I said. No ceremony. No emotion. Just the hard, cold fact between us like a loaded gun.

He blinked again. “You’re...”

“Yes,” I hissed. “Your child. Yours.” I paused to look him over, disgust crawling up my throat. “And don’t you dare pretend like you’re shocked. Don’t you dare.”

His lips parted, but no words came. Just silence. And then a step toward me. “Eira...”

I stepped back like his presence alone could poison me. “Don’t. You stay the hell away from me.”

“Why didn’t you...”

“Tell you sooner?” I laughed, hollow and bitter. “Because you’ve already done enough. You broke me, Draven. You left me with nothing but scars and shame and a name I can’t even bear to speak in front of the mirror. And now this?” I looked down at my belly. “You think I’d come running to you for help? You think I’d let you lay a hand on this child like you laid hands on me and the last one?”

He flinched.

Good.

“That night,” I whispered, voice cracking now, “the way you hurt me… I prayed it would be the last thing you’d ever do to me. And yet, somehow...you found a way to keep destroying me even in your absence.”

“Eira,” he said, softer now. “I didn’t know. I never meant...”

I cut him off with a laugh that felt like it was tearing my lungs apart. “You never meant? You think that’s an apology? What exactly did you mean, Draven? When you chained me up? When you let your people mock me? When you crushed every bone of dignity I had left? Did you mean to break me like a toy? Or was that just collateral damage? But then somehow I managed to forgive you and forget all about these, somehow you managed to make me relieve my terrors.”

“I was angry,” he said. “You know what betrayal does to me. You know what I become when I’m...”

“Don’t you dare blame this on me.” My voice was low now, venomous. “You’re not the victim. You’re not some wounded boy lashing out. You’re a grown man who made his choices. And now? Now you live with them.”

Silence stretched between us like barbed wire.

“I never wanted to hurt you,” he said after a while, his voice barely a whisper. “I was scared.”

“Scared?” My voice trembled with disbelief. “You? Scared? You’re the predator. The greatest mafia lord. The nightmare everyone else has to survive. You don’t get to play scared.”

His eyes dropped to my stomach. “Is it… healthy? The baby?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “That’s none of your business.”

“It is my business,” he said, stepping closer. “Whether you want it to be or not.”

I backed away again. “Then congratulations. You’ve successfully ruined another life.”

He winced. “Let me make it right, Eira. Please. I’ll do whatever you want...”

“You can’t fix this,” I said, voice quiet now. “You can’t undo what you did to me. Not with money. Not with apologies. Not with promises you’ll break again.” I paused, and for the first time, I let him see it. The hurt. The fear. The helplessness I’d buried beneath rage. “I can’t even look at myself anymore, Draven. Do you understand that? I stare into the mirror, and all I see is the girl you destroyed. The girl who trusted the wrong monster.”

“I love you,” he said, voice trembling. “I never stopped.”

“That,” I said, my voice breaking completely now, “is the poison in your apology.”

I turned my back to him, hand cradling my stomach.

“I’ll raise this child,” I said. “I’ll protect it from everything...including you.”

Then I walked out.

No more tears.
No more begging.
Just the sound of my heartbeat,and the soft, faint echo of a second one growing inside me.