I hear the car pull up at 10:47 PM.
I’ve been sitting in the living room for the past two hours, phone in my hand, checking it periodically even though I know he’s not going to text back at this point.
He didn’t respond to my ssage from this morning.
Didn’t call back, didn’t send anything to indicate he’d even seen it.
Just... nothing.
All day.
But he’s ho now, and I can tell him in person, which is what I wanted anyway.
I stand up, moving toward the entryway before I fully decide to, and I’m already forming the words in my head...*I placed second, the collaboration starts Monday, they might actually build it*...
The door opens.
Bael steps inside.
And the sll hits imdiately.
Sweet.
Cloying.
Unmistakable.
Xue Lian’s scent, all over him, so strong it makes my stomach turn violently.
I stop walking.
Just stop completely, several feet away from him, and my brain is trying to process what I’m slling while my body reacts on pure instinct.
Another oga’s pheromones.
On my alpha.
My alpha.
The thought surfaces before I can stop it, and I hate it imdiately.
Bael looks at , expression neutral, like nothing is wrong.
Like he doesn’t sll like he’s been—
"Where were you?" The words co out before I can stop them.
Sharp.
Accusing.
His expression doesn’t change. "Working."
"Working." I repeat it flatly. "You sll like him."
"Like who?"
"Don’t..." I stop. Take a breath that makes my stomach worse. "Xue Lian. You sll like Xue Lian."
For a second, he doesn’t say anything.
Just looks at with that controlled, asured expression that gives nothing away.
"Did you fuck him?" The question tears out of , louder than I intended, and I can hear how wrecked my voice sounds but I can’t control it.
His jaw tightens slightly.
That’s the only reaction I get.
"Why are you asking that?" His voice is flat. Controlled.
"Because you sll like him!" My hands are shaking. "Because it’s all over you and you won’t even—"
I can’t finish the sentence.
Can’t get the words out past the way my throat is closing up.
He takes a step toward .
I take a step back automatically, and the movent makes sothing flash across his expression too fast for to identify.
"Runze—"
"Did you?" I ask again, and my voice breaks on the question. "Just tell . Did you sleep with him?"
The silence stretches.
He’s looking at with that blank, distant expression, the one that ans he’s shut down completely, the one I’ve seen him use in business etings when soone asks a question he doesn’t want to answer.
"That’s not your concern," he says finally.
The words hit like a physical blow.
Not my concern.
"Not my..." I can’t breathe properly. "We’re married."
"We are." His tone doesn’t change, stays perfectly level. "And you knew what this was from the beginning."
Sothing in my chest cracks.
Because he’s right.
I did know.
There were no vows about love or fidelity, no promises beyond the practical.
We got married because I was pregnant, because his father’s will required it, because it solved problems for both of us.
That’s all this ever was.
Marriage born from necessity, not choice.
I knew that.
So why does this feel like betrayal?
Why does the sll of Xue Lian on him make want to tear my own skin off?
"Get away from ," I say, and my voice cos out steadier than I feel. "Just... stay away from ."
I turn and walk.
Not to our bedroom.
Can’t go there, can’t be in that space right now, can’t be surrounded by things that sll like him, like us, like sothing I apparently made up in my head.
I go to my old room instead.
The one I used when I first moved here, before everything changed, before I got stupid enough to think this ant sothing it clearly doesn’t.
The door closes behind .
Locks.
And I stand there in the dark, hand pressed against my stomach where the bump is, where our baby is growing, and try to figure out what the fuck just happened.
He didn’t deny it, didn’t say "no, I didn’t sleep with him." Didn’t explain why he slls like that if nothing happened.
Just... shut down.
Told it’s not my concern.
Like I don’t have a right to ask.
Like I don’t have a right to care.
My phone is still in my pocket.
The email is still there.
Second Place: Li Runze
I was so excited to tell him.
Spent all day waiting, checking my phone, wanting him to be the first person I shared this with because for so stupid, delusional reason I thought he’d want to know.
Thought he’d care, thought it mattered to him that I accomplished sothing real.
But he was with Xue Lian.
All day, apparently.
While I was sitting here with good news and nowhere to put it, he was—
I can’t finish that thought.
Can’t picture it.
My stomach lurches again and I make it to the bathroom just in ti, retching into the toilet even though there’s nothing in my stomach to co up.
The sll is still in my nose.
Sweet and cloying and wrong.
Another oga’s pheromones all over the alpha I’ve been sharing a bed with for months.
The alpha whose child I’m carrying.
The alpha I was stupid enough to start falling for.
That thought makes retch again.
Because that’s what this is, isn’t it?
That’s why it hurts so much.
Not because he broke so unspoken rule.
But because sowhere along the way, I started caring.
Started thinking this was more than a practical arrangent.
Started believing that the way he looked at , the way he adjusted his schedule, the way he told to sit properly and stop talking but let stay in his office anyway—
Started believing that ant sothing.
But it doesn’t.
It never did.
I was a convenient solution.
A way to fulfill his father’s will.
Soone who happened to be pregnant at the right ti with the right genetics.
That’s all.
I just forgot.
I got distracted by dinners and cushions for my chair and the way he said my na when he ca inside .
Got stupid enough to think proximity ant connection.
I sit on the bathroom floor with my back against the wall and my hand on my stomach and try to breathe through the way my chest feels like it’s caving in.
The baby moves.
Just a flutter.
Small enough that I’m not entirely sure it’s real.
But it’s there.
A reminder that regardless of what just happened, regardless of whether this marriage ans anything, there’s still a person growing inside who’s going to need to have my shit together.
I close my eyes.
The sll is fading now.
Or maybe I’m just getting used to it.
Either way, I can breathe slightly easier.
I sit there in the dark bathroom of a room I haven’t slept in for months and try to figure out how I’m supposed to go back to normal after this.
How I’m supposed to smile through dinners and sleep in the sa bed and pretend I don’t know what he slls like when he’s been with soone else.
How I’m supposed to stop caring when I apparently can’t control whether I care or not.
The tile is cold beneath .
The room is quiet.
And sowhere in another part of the house, Bael is probably already asleep.
Unbothered.
Because this doesn’t matter to him.
Never did.
I was just too stupid to realize it.
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