Chapter 125
Marcus’s POV
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Marcus sat at his desk in the office with his head in his hands, staring at nothing. The room was dark except for the desk lamp, casting long shadows across the walls. It was past midnight and he hadn’t moved from this spot in hours.
He couldn’t believe they were fighting again. Less than twenty-four hours ago, they’d made up. He’d held Elara in his arms, told her they were okay, promised they’d figure everything out together. And now they were back to this. Back to sleeping in separate rooms, back to angry words and hurt feelings, back to the cold distance that had defined the first weeks of their marriage.
All because of Aurora and her goddamn towel.
Marcus replayed the scene in his head for the hundredth time. The wine spilling, Aurora rushing upstairs, the towel drop. He’d barely seen anything. Had turned away immediately, handed her clothes through a cracked door, hadn’t even looked at her.
But Elara didn’t believe him. Or maybe she did believe him but it didn’t matter because the damage was already done.
He’d seen the look on her face. The hurt, the insecurity, the fear that she wasn’t enough. And he hated that Aurora had put that look there. Hated that his past relationship was poisoning his current one.
Marcus stood up and paced across the office, his hands shoved in his pockets. He should go talk to Elara. Should knock on the bedroom door and make her listen, make her understand that Aurora meant nothing to him anymore.
But what if she didn’t want to listen? What if she was done listening?
The thought made his chest tighten with something close to panic.
He couldn’t lose Elara. Not over this. Not over a woman he didn’t even have feelings for anymore.
Marcus walked to the office door and pressed his ear against it, listening. The penthouse was completely silent. Either Elara was asleep or she was lying awake in their bed, probably crying, probably thinking he didn’t care enough to come talk to her.
He turned the lock and opened the door.
The hallway was dark. Marcus made his way to the bedroom, his footsteps quiet on the hardwood floor. When he reached the door, he saw light coming from underneath it. She was awake.
He knocked softly. “Elara? Can we talk?”
No response.
“Please. I know you’re awake. I can see the light on.”
Still nothing.
16:51 Mon, May 11
Chapter 1254
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Marcus rested his forehead against the door. “I’m sorry. For everything. For Aurora being here, for the towel thing, for making you feel like you’re not enough. You are enough. El. You’re more than enough.”
He waited, hoping to hear movement from inside, hoping she’d open the door
The light went off.
Marcus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Fine. If she wanted to shut him out, he’d give her space. But tomorrow they were going to talk about this whether she liked it or not.
He went back to his office and tried to sleep on the couch, but his mind wouldn’t stop racing. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Elara’s face when she’d said “maybe you should’ve just married her instead.”
Like she actually believed that. Like she thought he regretted choosing her.
The night dragged on endlessly. Marcus dozed off a few times but kept waking up, his neck sore from the awkward position on the couch. By the time morning light started filtering through the windows, he’d maybe gotten two hours of actual sleep.
He got up, showered in the office bathroom, and changed into fresh clothes from the closet he kept stocked for emergencies. When he emerged, the penthouse was still quiet. He checked the time. Six thirty in the morning.
Marcus walked to the bedroom and opened the door quietly, expecting to find Elara still asleep.
But she was sitting up in bed, still in her clothes from yesterday, her eyes red and puffy like she’d been crying all night.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
“You look terrible,” Elara said finally.
“So do you.”
She almost smiled. Almost.
Marcus walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, keeping some distance between them. “We need to talk about this.”
“I know.”
“I’m not okay with how we left things last night. I’m not okay with you thinking I’d rather be with Aurora. I’m not okay with sleeping in separate rooms again.”
Elara pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “I’m not okay with any of it either.”
“Then why did you shut me out? Why didn’t you let me explain?”
“Because I was hurt and angry and I didn’t want to hear you defend her again.”
“I wasn’t defending her. I was defending myself. There’s a difference.”
16:51 Mon, May 11
Chapter 125
Elara looked down at her knees. “It didn’t feel like there was a difference.”
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Marcus moved closer, close enough that he could reach out and touch her if he wanted to. “What do you want me to say? That Aurora doesn’t exist? That we don’t have a history? I can’t change the past, El.”
“I’m not asking you to change the past. I’m asking you to help me understand it. To help me feel like I’m not constantly competing with this perfect memory you have of her.”
“She’s not perfect. Far from it.”
“But she was your first love,” Elara said quietly. “You can’t tell me that doesn’t mean something.”
Marcus was quiet for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Yes. Aurora was my first love. She was important to me once. We had three years together and I thought I was going to marry her. I thought she was it for me.”
He saw Elara flinch at his words but he pressed on. “But that was a long time ago. And the woman I thought I loved? She doesn’t exist. Maybe she never existed. Maybe I was just young and stupid and in love with the idea of being in love.”
“What happened between you two?”
“She cheated on me. With someone she met in London during one of her trips. I found out months later when she just ghosted me completely, wouldn’t return my calls, wouldn’t talk to me. When I finally tracked her down, she told me she was with someone else and I needed to move on.”
Elara’s expression softened slightly. “I didn’t know that part.”
“I don’t like talking about it. It was one of the worst periods of my life. I felt like an idiot for not seeing it coming, for trusting someone who clearly didn’t value what we had.”
“Did you ever get closure?”
Marcus laughed bitterly. “Not really. She came back a few months later saying the guy had a fiancée, that she’d made a mistake, that she wanted to apologize. We talked, I accepted her apology, and we both moved on with our lives.”
“But you slept with her,” Elara said. It wasn’t a question.
Marcus met her eyes. “Once. After the apology conversation. It was stupid and it didn’t mean anything. It was just…” He searched for the right word. “Familiar. Comfortable. A mistake.”
“Do you still have feelings for her?”
“No. Absolutely not. What I felt for Aurora died the day she walked away from me. You can’t just come back and resurrect something like that.”
Elara was quiet, processing this information. Marcus waited, giving her time to think.
“I’m scared,” she finally admitted. “I’m scared that one day you’re going to wake up and realize you made a mistake marrying me. That you’ll look at someone like Aurora who fits perfectly into your world and wonder
16:51 Mon, May 11
*hapter 125
why you settled for someone like me.”
“You want to know the real difference between you and Aurora?” Marcus asked.
AD
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