65 Insanity 2
Lucian
I sat on the couch in her hospital room, exhausted. The guilt had started creeping in, sure-but not in the way Tina might have hoped. It wasn’t guilt for being with Mara or moving on. It was guilt for how this mess had escalated. For what it might cost the child.
At some point, I fell asleep, and when I woke, sunlight was already filtering through the blinds.
“Lucian…” I heard her voice. Thin. Soft. Alive.
I turned toward the bed.
She looked smaller somehow-pale, but not frail. In fact, she looked well-rested. For someone who had tried to end her life, she didn’t sound nearly as broken as I expected.
I didn’t soften. Not this time.
“How could you?” I asked her.
Her eyes filled with tears instantly, and her voice cracked, but I could hear the weight behind her words.
“I wanted your attention,” she said. “You ignored me completely, Lucian. I’m pregnant… I have needs beyond money.”
She wept, and I stared, trying to reconcile the woman I once knew with what she’d become.
“I hear you with her… every night. And I’m alone.”
1 exhaled through my nose. She still didn’t get it.
“I’m married, Tina,” I said flatly. “Mara is my wife. Of course I’m with her. That’s what marriage is.”
I stood, because I couldn’t sit still and listen to this twisted narrative she’d built anymore.
“You’re so selfish,” I said, my voice harder now. “Because you weren’t getting the attention you wanted, you put your life— and my child’s life-on the line.”
Her expression shifted. She looked stunned. As if she hadn’t considered the possibility that her stunt might’ve harmed the baby.
“If that child is born with complications,” I continued, “you’ll have to carry that. I won’t shield you from it. My father
certainly won’t take custody now, not if there’s risk. This is yours to bear.”
She started to cry harder, but I kept going. She needed to hear it.
“You say I chose Mara because she’s young? No, Tina. I chose her because she’s everything you never tried to be-strong. calm, selfless. I didn’t fall for her because she’s new. I fell because she gave me no choice. She loved me quietly, fully… without trying to control me.”
I paused, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“You rejected me, Tina. More than once. And now, when I have the title, the company, the mansion-now you want to fight for me? Don’t twist this into something noble. You made your decisions. You gave up on us long before Mara ever entered the picture.”
Tina’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry, Lucian. I really am,” she sobbed.
“I hope you are,” I said, softer now. “Because if the baby is harmed, you’ll have to raise them alone. And I won’t ask Mara to help. I won’t put her through that. She owes you nothing.”
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65 anity 2
1 moved toward the door, needing to breathe air that didn’t feel heavy with regret.
“Where are you going?” she asked, voice shaking.
I turned back just once.
“Home, Tina,” I said. “I’m going home-to my wife.”
And then I left.
I walked out of the hospital with a decision already made.
& Porta
Tina would never be alone again-not for a second-until she gave birth. I’d assign staff to her day and night. Not for her sake. For the baby’s. For my child. She lost the right to privacy the moment she put a life at risk to manipulate me.
2
Even now, I wasn’t sure she ever truly loved me. Not really. Tina loved what I could be for her-the constant, the fallback,
the provider. She loved knowing I’d always be around. And when I wasn’t? When I moved on?
She imploded.
Part of me suspected it wasn’t about love at all-but about loss. The end of the lifestyle, the money, the access. She thought the baby would force me to fold. That I’d go soft again.
But she’d miscalculated. I’d changed.
Mara changed me.
And as I rode back in a cab, passing the thick estate walls, it hit me-I’d never had to spend anything on Mara. Never had
to buy her silence or affection. She had never once asked me for a thing.
She was the gift.
I stepped out of the car and spotted Austin waiting at the door. The concern in his eyes was immediate.
I paid the cab, dismissed it, and walked into the mansion, heart still heavy from the hospital visit.
“Everything okay, Austin?” I asked.
But instead of answering out loud, he linked me. Not a good sign.
“Luna Mara left this morning.”
I froze. “What do you mean?”
“She packed a few things and said she was going to her parents’ place. But… I don’t think she went there.”
A sharp pain hit my chest, deeper than any wound I’d had in battle. She was gone?
No goodbye. No note. Just… gone.
Because of me.
Because I left without a word.
Because I made her feel invisible.
Because I let my past speak louder than my present.
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. “When?”
“Early this morning, Alpha. Right after sunrise.”
I looked toward the hallway, toward the room that felt less like home without her in it.
How could I have been so blind?
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65 insanely 2
Tina may have tried to hurt herself to get my attention, but I had hurt Mara by not giving it.
And if I didn’t fix this soon, I might lose the one woman who ever truly chose me.
2
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