{Elena’s POV}
The silence between us had weight. Heavy. Suffocating. Nico stood by the fireplace, jaw clenched, eyes locked on the flames like he wanted to throw himself into them just to feel something other than the fury boiling beneath his skin. I sat across the room, arms wrapped tightly around myself, watching him, watching the man who had claimed to be my husband by a forced marriage.
I hated how my body still reacted to him. How his presence filled the room and reached out to me like gravity. Even now, when the truth tasted like ash on my tongue.
“What else are you hiding?” I asked finally, my voice low, shaking despite how hard I tried to keep it steady.
Nico didn’t look at me. “Everything I did,” he said, “was to protect you.”
I laughed bitterly. “You bought me at a damn auc
