“It… it wasn’t h-him,” I choke out.
Alanna pulls away from me and wipes my tears with the handkerchief she gave me. “Then who?”
I sniff, my eyes falling closed as I gather the courage to tell her what happened, not leaving out any detail. I tell them about Sierra’s 21st birthday, the wedding, the pregnancy. By the end of it, I’m exhausted and heartbroken. “I can’t see an end to this,” I whisper. “Is this going to be my life now? Marrying him was supposed to be my happily ever after, yet somehow, it feels like the beginning of the end. Forever this time. If I stay, she’ll keep chipping away at my soul, until I end up a shell of who I once was.”
Alanna rubs my shoulders, her gaze reflecting the sorrow I feel. “Silas and I can tell you a thing or two about meddling siblings and family,” she says, her eyes finding her husband’s. I freeze for a moment, remembering that Alanna used to date Silas’s younger brother. “Trust me when I say that love truly does win in the end. I know that it feels hard right now, and you’ve made the right choice by taking a step back. Being stuck in that environment makes it hard to remember why you chose to marry him in the first place, despite the odds. I think you’ll find that some time away will give you clarity, Raven.”
She looks at Silas. “Can we get the articles bashing her taken down?”
“I was going to request it, but someone has already taken care of it. Whole servers have been taken down all around the world. The news is reporting that at least two large social media channels are completely down right now. I suspect Windsor is behind it. I’m not sure how he’s doing it, but it’s clear he’ll move heaven and earth for his wife.”
Alanna smiles at me and shoots me an encouraging look. “See? I know it’s hard right now, but that man loves you more than anything. I can’t tell you whether that’s enough to make dealing with Hannah worth it, though. I always hated the bitch. I’d gut her if I could.”
I smile despite my tears and shake my head. “You really are insane, aren’t you?”
“Psychotic,” Silas murmurs under his breath.
The doorbell rings, and I tense. I came here because I wanted to escape for a while, not just from the media, but from my family. It should be the one place no one would come searching for me. Silas and Alanna’s house is a fortress.
Silas frowns as he walks to the front door. I hear him groan in annoyance, followed by Sierra’s voice. She rushes into the living room, and Alanna smiles knowingly as she shifts on the sofa, making space.
“I figured you’d be here. Are you okay?” Sierra asks. “I saw the news, and then Ares told me you left. He’s a wreck.”
“Speak of the Devil,” Silas says, showing us the caller ID on his phone. It reads Ares Windsor.
“Windsor?”
He puts the phone on speaker and holds it out for us. “Where is my wife? The bodyguards I had on her told me they lost her trail. They were supposed to be the best you’ve got, so where the fuck is she? The entire fucking world is after her, and your men fucking lost her. If anyone so much as harms one single hair on her head, I will fucking kill you.”
Silas chuckles. “She’s safe.”
Ares falls silent. “Is she with you?”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
Silas ends the call, refusing to answer him. I can’t help but smile at him in gratitude. I need a little bit of space to think, and I can’t do that with Ares around.
“Yeah,” Silas tells me. “He’s definitely in love with you. I have never seen him lose his cool, regardless of what situation he was put in. I once watched him foil a kidnapping attempt on Sierra without a single hint of panic crossing his face, yet you go missing for ten minutes, and his world collapses?”
I wrap my arms around myself and inhale deeply. “All I’ve ever wanted was his love, so shouldn’t that be enough? Am I being selfish?”
“No,” Sierra says. “I wish it was simpler, Rave, but it isn’t just Ares you need to consider anymore. Whether we like it or not, Hannah will now always be a part of your life, of your marriage. If anything, taking some time to think about whether you can accept that is the fairest thing you can do. Isn’t that better than breaking Ares’s heart down the line? Especially once a child is involved. What if they become attached to you, and then you decide you can’t stand being around them after all?”
I nod and lean back, my thoughts reeling. For at least the next few months, I’ll have to endure endless gossip and snide remarks in the industry, and that’s only just the beginning. How much more will I have to take if I choose to stay with Ares? What kind of environment are we creating for Ares and Hannah’s child? No matter how I look at it, me staying results in all of us being unhappy. Eventually, it’ll make the love between Ares and me dim too.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Raven
I’m absentminded as I take a bite of the breakfast Alanna made for me. I tried not to, but I ended up scrolling through my social media feeds all night, and I found nothing but hatred directed at me. Despite Ares’s best attempts, screenshots of deleted content are making their rounds across all channels. We’ve made it into every single gossip magazine, and they’re all scrambling to create timelines of Ares and Hannah’s relationship.
It came to no surprise to me when The Herald reported on Hannah’s pregnancy, which only villainized me further. Now I’m not just the woman standing in between two childhood sweethearts, I’m also the evil stepmother-to-be.
Watching my love for Ares being turned into a spectacle for everyone to witness is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Photos I can’t recall taking are being posted online, showcasing how we used to look at each other when Hannah and Ares were still dating. The media have everyone convinced that I’ve been seducing him for years, trying to break up Hannah and him. Everything about this reeks of her. She’s always done this to me. Every single thing she’s ever done to me, she’s made me take the blame for, twisting our story until I’m the villain. This is what she’ll do to me for the rest of our lives.
What will it be like once the baby is born? Will she somehow manage to use her own child against me too? I have no idea how long it’ll take her to make Ares turn his back on me, but I suspect she eventually will.
I take a sip of my coffee, trying to take my mind off the videos of people destroying my designs, some of which were hand sown by me, all of them citing that they won’t support a two-faced home wrecker. Then there’s the death threats from Hannah’s fans, and the loss of my own fanbase. I’ve had countless modeling contracts canceled without anyone so much as asking me for an explanation. She’s destroying me, step by step, and it won’t stop until she gets what she wants.
Silas chuckles and glances at me. “Windsor bought The Herald and several other gossip magazines. He banned them from reporting on you.”
My heart skips a beat at the thought of Ares. I truly thought we could get through anything together, but eventually, he’ll tire of this battle too. He can’t save me when it’s my own sister that’s executing my fall from grace.