Someone Colder
1682 Words
The sun rose, indifferent to the storm it followed.
Jace sat at the head of the boardroom table, suit crisp, jaw tight, soul wrecked. The office buzzed with activity, but all he heard was silence.
His thoughts were still at that door.
Watching her walk away.
Hearing it slam shut like a coffin sealing what used to be love.
He hadn't slept.
Hadn’t eaten.
He had called. Texted. Begged.
No reply.
Lucius walked in with a smug smile, dropping a thick folder in front of him. “Morning, boss. You look like hell.”
“Get to the point,” Jace muttered.
“Numbers from last quarter. Also… your ex is trending on social media.” Lucius tilted his head. “You might want to see this.”
Jace frowned. “What?”
Lucius spun the laptop and hit play on a short video clip already loading online.
The moment it started, Jace’s breath caught.
Elena.
In that red dress.
Walking into the charity gala they were both once invited to—alone.
Chin high. Shoulders back. That same devastating elegance that once made the world fall away every time she walked into a room.
But this wasn’t the same Elena.
This was someone colder. Stronger. Sharper.
The camera flashed as she smiled at reporters, the crowd gasping over her unexpected appearance. Someone asked, “Where’s your husband, Mrs. Morgan?”
She didn’t miss a beat.
“Ex-husband,” Elena replied with a cool smile. “And he’s exactly where he belongs. Behind me.”
Laughter erupted around her. Cameras clicked faster.
Jace's heart dropped.
Lucius whistled. “Well… someone’s glowing.”
Jace stood abruptly, chair scraping the floor. “Clear my afternoon.”
“Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer.
Because he already knew.
He was going to that gala.
****
Later that evening…
The gala pulsed with glitter, gossip, and the clink of champagne glasses. Elena stood beneath the chandelier, back straight, face unreadable as strangers complimented her beauty and whispered about her broken marriage.
She didn’t flinch.
Didn’t fold.
Until she felt it.
That presence.
Him.
Her spine stiffened, and when she turned, Jace was there, in a tailored black suit, cutting through the crowd like a storm dressed in silk.
Their eyes met.
The room faded.
The pain returned.
And before she could look away, he was in front of her.
“Elena,” he said, voice low, gravelly, wrecked.
“Leave,” she said without blinking. “You don’t belong here.”
He stepped closer. “You wore that dress on purpose.”
She laughed bitterly. “And you still couldn’t stay away. You’re predictable, Jace. And pathetic.”
He flinched. “You’re hurting. I get it. But don’t do this here.”
“You don’t get it,” she hissed, stepping in so only he could hear. “You shattered the woman who loved you. Now you get to meet the woman who doesn’t give a damn.”
She brushed past him. But he caught her wrist, gently, desperate.
“Elena, wait. There’s something you don’t know…something about Roxanne.”
She turned back slowly, voice dangerously soft.
“Unless you’re about to tell me she forged a child and blackmailed you with a ghost, I don’t care.”
Jace’s eyes darkened. “She might have.”
Elena blinked. “What?”
“There’s no birth certificate. No proof. No paternity test. Nothing. I’ve been trying to reach her. She’s vanished. It was a setup, Elena.”
She stared at him, heart lurching.
“That photo... the boy...”
He nodded. “Might not even exist.”
But before either of them could say another word..
A loud crash split the room.
Guests gasped.
Security rushed forward.
And from the entrance—Ivy ran in, crying. Pale. Breathless.
“Elena!” she sobbed. “It’s Dad. He collapsed.”
The gala faded behind them like a bad dream.
Sirens screamed through the Brooklyn night, red and blue lights slicing through darkness. Elena sat beside Ivy in the back seat of the ambulance, her father’s hand limp in hers.
“Stay with me, Dad,” she whispered, choking on the lump in her throat. “Don’t you dare leave me. Not now. I beg of you."
Lucas Cross lay unconscious, oxygen mask strapped to his face, his complexion a pale shade of fear Elena had never seen on him before.
She couldn't stop shaking.
Couldn’t stop blaming herself.
Ivy clutched her sister’s arm, whispering through tears. “He was asking for you before he collapsed. He kept saying... he needed to talk to you.”
Elena looked down at their father and swallowed hard.
What if this was the last time?
What if her stubbornness, her rage, had robbed her of the one man who’d always loved her right?
Jace followed in his car, headlights trailing behind the ambulance like a ghost trying to stay close. When they arrived, he was the first one out. His heart pounding, breath uneven.
“Is he still breathing?” he shouted, trying to see past the EMTs.
Elena stepped out, eyes rimmed red. “What are you doing here? Why don't you just stay the hell away from me?"
“I’m not leaving,” he said. “Not again.”
She wanted to scream. Slap him. Fall into his arms. Run away.
But there was no time for any of it.
The ER doors swung open. “Family only!” the nurse shouted as Lucas was wheeled inside.
“I’m her fiancé,” Jace blurted without thinking.
Elena snapped her head toward him, stunned.
The nurse glanced at her.
And to her own surprise, she didn’t correct him.
---
Hours passed.
The waiting room was a graveyard of pacing footsteps, vending machine coffee, and prayers that went unanswered.
Ivy had fallen asleep against the wall.
Jace sat beside Elena, close. But not touching. Every few seconds, his eyes would flick to her, but she wouldn’t meet them.
Finally, the doctor emerged.
“Are you the daughters?” he asked gently.
Elena and Ivy rose at once. Jace stood behind them like a shadow.
“He had a minor stroke,” the doctor said. “But you got him here just in time. He’s stable now. Weak, but alert. You can see him. Just one at a time.”
Relieved.
Elena didn’t hesitate. She moved quickly, clutching her father’s rosary in her pocket like a lifeline.
---
Lucas looked so small in the hospital bed. Tubes. Machines. Beeps that marked the seconds between miracles.
“Hi, Daddy,” she whispered, tears streaming freely now. “You scared me.”
His eyes fluttered open. He smiled faintly. “I couldn’t leave… not without saying what I needed to.”
Elena sat beside him, brushing back his graying hair.
“Rest, please,” she said. “That's what you need right now. We can talk later.”
“No,” he rasped. “Now.”
She leaned closer.
“I know you’re hurting, Elena. I saw it long before the rest of the world. But baby girl, don’t let pain rewrite who you are.”
Her throat tightened. “He broke me, Dad. I really can't forgive him for what he did.”
"Would you rather get him killed? I guess not."
"I'm heartbroken right now." Elena whispered.
Lucas nodded slowly. “So rebuild. But don’t do it from a place of fire. Do it from love. Or you’ll never stop burning.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“Did you love him?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Then forgive him... or forget him. But don’t punish yourself by standing in the fire too long.”
She squeezed his hand, heart thudding painfully.
“I love you, Daddy. You've always been there for me.”
“I know.” He smiled weakly. “That’s why you’ll survive this.”
---
Later that night, after Ivy visited, Elena stepped outside into the hospital garden to breathe. The air was cold, the moon distant, and every breath hurt like glass.
She didn’t hear him approach.
“Your dad’s strong,” Jace said quietly behind her.
Elena didn’t turn. “So was I.”
He moved closer. “You still are.”
Her arms folded. “What do you want from me, Jace?”
“The truth,” he said. “All of it.”
She faced him then, eyes full of unshed rage and exhausted sorrow.
“Fine. You want the truth?”
She stepped into him, chest brushing his.
“I loved you more than I’ve ever loved anything in this world. And you destroyed that. You let her into our life. You lied. You broke me.”
“I didn’t cheat—”
“You did cheat,” she snapped. “Not with your body. But with your silence. With your secrets. With every moment you gave her instead of telling me the truth.”
His jaw tightened.
“Elena... I was trying to protect you.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “You don’t protect someone by keeping them in the dark. You protect them by trusting them to walk through it with you.”
He was silent.
She shook her head slowly, heart breaking all over again.
“You were supposed to be my forever,” she whispered. "But here we are."
Then, just as she turned to walk away, her phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
Same one as before.
She opened the message.
And froze.
It was a video.
Grainy.
Dated.
Jace… and Roxanne… in a hotel room.
Kissing.
The caption read:
"Still think he didn’t cheat?"
Elena’s blood ran cold.
Her legs buckled. The phone dropped.
Jace picked it up.
Saw the video.
His heart stopped.
“Elena…” he whispered.
But her eyes were already glazing over.
She turned and slapped him.
Hard.
Then her voice dropped to a whisper that cut deeper than a scream.
“You don’t get to lie anymore.”
She walked into the darkness.
And this time...
He didn’t follow.
- Writer
