Claimed by the Wrong Wolfe

CHAPTER 2

Tristan’s POV

“The coffee is too cold, you i***t,” Tristan snapped at his new personal assistant, Joseph. Joseph had already prepared it five times that morning, yet Tristan still found something wrong with it.

He was the third personal assistant Tristan had hired since Vivian left. The previous two had quit, unable to deal with his increasingly impossible demands. “So… sorry, sir,” Joseph stammered. “I’ll make another one.” He hurried out.

Tristan yanked at his tie, loosening it as frustration boiled over. “Useless lot,” he muttered. He had thought he could replace Vivian in the snap of his fingers, but now he was beginning to realize how wrong he had been. Tristan sank back into his leather chair and dragged a hand over his face.

Two weeks had passed, and he had realized just how badly he missed Vivian. His heart belonged to her, not anyone else, not even the woman his mother had been trying to convince him to pursue—Laura. Laura Knight was an B-list Hollywood actress, and her parents were influential figures in the business world and longtime family friends, so his mother thought she was the right woman for him and had been doing everything possible to get the two of them to get along.

He didn’t like her. Laura was beautiful, but she wasn’t as lovely as Vivian. Vivian had a way about her that made her impossible to forget. He couldn’t help regretting the way he had spoken to her after she left. But whenever he remembered those videos and the damage they had caused, his anger returned.

He couldn’t bring himself to accept that she had been cheating on him the entire time. He had defied his mother to be with her, only to discover something so shameful. For a man of his caliber, the humiliation was unbearable. How was he supposed to face the world? How could he admit that the woman he had chosen over everyone else had made a fool of him?

He still believed she had betrayed him, even though the videos had mysteriously disappeared from the timeline. He found it odd but paid little attention. Whatever the reason was, it changed nothing.

Just as he about to get up to make himself a coffee, a knock came at the door. “Come in,” Tristan called immediately. The door opened, and Laura stepped in, shutting the door behind her. “What is it, Laura?” Tristan asked as he turned his face away to somewhere else.

Laura stopped midway noticing his attitude. “Seriously, Tristan?” She said. “You have been unnecessarily angry for the past few days. I hope this isn’t about Vivian.”

“Wouldn’t you like to keep Vivian out of your mouth and everything else you say?” Tristan clapped back without even looking in her direction.

“She cheated on you, Tristan. Why are you still letting her occupy your mind? You know what? I’ll leave you alone. When you’re over whatever is going on with you now, I can come back.” Laura walked back out of the office, leaving him alone.

******

Vivian’s POV

Vivian stood frozen, staring at the test strip in her trembling hands. She blinked twice, hoping she had somehow read it wrong, but she hadn’t. The pregnancy test clearly showed two lines, meaning she was pregnant.

For the past few days, she had noticed some changes in her body. She assumed they were a result of the emotional turmoil she had been going through, but when her period failed to come, she realized it was more than mere stress, so she summoned the strength to take a pregnancy test.

The test strip slipped from her hand and landed in the bathroom sink. She knew who was responsible for the pregnancy without having to think twice, but she couldn’t come to terms with it. Tristan was the only man she had slept with in years, and it had been barely two weeks since he had deceived her, slept with her, and left her to discover his engagement to the Laura Knight on television the next morning.

The most painful part was that Tristan had come back pretending to reconcile with her when none of his words had ever been sincere. He had only wanted to satisfy his desire one last time, and he had succeeded because she was too heartbroken and drunk to see through his deception.

Vivian sobbed. She should have known from the onset. Even Madam Wolfe, Tristan’s mother, had never approved of their relationship in the first place. She saw her as a poor girl from a poor background who wanted to marry her way into their wealth through her son. So she had handpicked a wife for him.

Despite that, Vivian had only hoped Tristan would stand by her, but he obviously hadn’t. She had never been lucky with the people she loved. She lost her mother at ten, grew up with an uncaring father and a heartless stepmother, and just weeks ago, she had lost the one person who had finally made her feel like she belonged.

Vivian had walked away afterward, determined to leave everything connected to Tristan behind. But the pregnancy changed everything. No matter how hard she tried to distance herself from him, the child growing inside her would always be a part of him, a constant reminder of the man she had once loved, whether she liked it or not.

She could only imagine what would happen if Tristan found out. He would undoubtedly fight her for custody, and she would be a fool to let that happen.

But the thought of Tristan finding out wasn’t her only concern. How was she supposed to raise a child when she could barely hold herself together? She hadn’t even unpacked a single thing in the house she had rented. She wasn’t emotionally prepared to become a mother, and she was still struggling to get her own life together, let alone find a way to financially support a child.

Vivian wished it were all a nightmare she could wake up from, but it wasn’t. She slowly sank to the floor, her back sliding down the wall as her thoughts began to spiral. She couldn’t keep living like this, drowning herself in alcohol whenever the pain became too much.

She wasn’t living only for herself anymore. An unborn child depended on her now, and she couldn’t afford to keep making choices that could put her baby at risk. With that thought, she forced herself to her feet, picked up the bottle beside her, and emptied its contents into the sink. She was determined not to let alcohol become her escape anymore.

If she was going to give her baby the best possible chance at a healthy life, she needed to start taking care of herself. And if she wanted to give her child the life they deserved, she needed to build something of her own and learn to stand on her own two feet.

Tristan had made her feel as though she was nothing without him, as though she needed him to survive. But she refused to let his words become her reality. If she had to start from nothing, then she would. She would build a life of her own, one Tristan would never have the power to take from her.