My heart felt 8

 

Chapter 8 The Morning After The Screams 

Chapter 8 The Morning After The Screams. 

The screams went on all night. 

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Andre stumbled out of the basement at dawn, his clothes stiff with blood. He showered mechanically, then pulled on the suit I’d always loved-the one he’d worn on our first 

He bought a dozen white roses, my favorite, and a diamond so big it caught the light from every angle. It dwarfed our original engagement ring. D 

He drove like a madman toward my father’s gate, convinced that if he’d punished Aurora, forgive him. That I’d come home. 

“Seraphina will forgive me,” he muttered to the empty car. “I made this right for her. She’ll come back.” 

But when the gates opened, he didn’t find an empty driveway. 

There was a man. Tall, handsome, on one knee in the rose garden, holding out a bouquet. 

years. Henrik. The billionaire from the next city over. He’d wanted me for 

“Seraphina, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” His voice carried warm, sure, across the grass. 

I sat in the sun on the stone bench, glowing like a queen. 

Something wild snapped in Andre’s chest. 

“She’s mine!” he roared, slamming out of the car. “Get your hands off her. She’s my 

wife!” 

Henrik stood slowly, brow furrowed. “And who are you?” 

“I’m her husband!” Andre shouted, blood still in his veins from the night before. “She belongs to me.” 

But Henrik just laughed. “A husband? You lost that right when you let Aurora move in.” He nodded toward the gate where his security detail stood waiting. “You need to leave. She doesn’t want you here.” 

Andre couldn’t breathe. He charged forward, but two big men grabbed his arms before he got within ten feet. Held him pinned to the grass. 

He forgot-he’d already lost everything. All the power, all the money. Only a shadow of what he used to be remained. 

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Chapter 8 The Morning After The Screams 

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Henrik looked down at him crumpled on the grass, a faint, cold smirk playing on his lips. 

“Look at yourself. A broken, bankrupt mess. You think you still deserve her?” 

Andre crawled to my feet, snot and tears streaming down his face. 

“Seraphina, I know I was wrong!” he cried. “I punished them! Both of them! Aurora is dealt with, and Arthur is out of our lives for good. Please… just come home. I love you” 

He held up the diamond ring with trembling fingers, the stone catching the light. “Look… bought you a new one. It’s ten times bigger than the old one! And I brought white roses, Seraphina. Your favorite!” 

I looked down at the man before me-snot and tears streaking his face-and felt nothing but raw disgust. 

This was the man I had loved? This was the once-untouchable Andre Volkov, the legendary CEO who moved markets with a word? Now, he was nothing more than a pathetic beggar, groveling at my feet. 

I stood up slowly, walked toward him where he struggled. He stared up at me, hope still bleeding through the rage. 

“Andre,” I said, my voice colder than the winter ice. “You think you’ve earned forgiveness? You think revenge on Aurora fixes what you broke?” 

I stopped right in front of him. My heels glittered sharp in the sun. 

“You were the biggest accomplice,” I said. 

I lifted my foot and drove the stiletto heel straight into his face. 

Crack. 

He staggered backward, skull hitting the stone pillar with a sickening thud. 

Blood poured from his nostril and split lip. The face that once looked so handsome now lay twisted, almost grotesque. 

“If you hadn’t been so stupid-so greedy for betrayal-Aurora would never have touched Jasper or me.” I walked toward him slowly, every step a knife twisted deeper into what was left of his pride. “If you’d believed me instead of her, would my son be dead? If you hadn’t opened our home to her, let her sleep in my bed, would she have ever had the chance to destroy us?” 

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Chapter 8 The Morning After The Screams 

+10 Free Coms 

Andre tried to scramble to his feet, but Henrik’s bodyguard slammed a boot onto his back, pinning him flat against the ground. 

“Stay down,” the guard said, his voice like ice. 

“You were the one who made the choice. Every single day. You believed her tears over my truth. You gave her my home, my husband’s bed, my son’s room. And now you come to me saying you’ve ‘made it right’?” 

I stepped closer, my heels clicking on the flagstone. 

“You’re the one who killed our marriage. You’re the one who let my son die. Don’t blame anyone else. You wanted this. You got what you wanted.” 

“Seraphina…” His voice broke. “It’s my fault. love you. I’ve always loved you. Please. I’ll do anything. Just come home.” 

I looked at him. Really looked. The man I’d loved for seven years. The man who’d betrayed me, who’d let my son die. 

“Love?” I said, and the word came out clean as a blade. “You don’t love me. You loved what I gave you. The name. The connections. The crown. And when you had it all, you threw me away for her. Now it’s gone, and you want me back. It doesn’t work that way.” 

I turned my back on him. Walked back to Henrik. 

Henrik stepped to my side, his voice a low, smooth baritone. “Seraphina, don’t waste time on trash.” 

“He’s yours,” I said over my shoulder. “Throw him out. Don’t let him cross the gate again.” 

He turned his gaze toward Andre, his expression shifting to pure, unadulterated disdain. “Now I see why she left you. A man who can’t even protect his own woman isn’t a man at all.” 

A spark of humiliated fury ignited in Andre’s eyes. “What did you say?” 

He scrambled to lunge at Henrik, but the bodyguard neutralized him with a single, effortless strike, sending him crashing back into the dirt. 

“Is that all you’ve got?” Henrik shook his head, a pitying smile on his lips. “No wonder you let a woman play you like a violin.” 

Andre lay on the ground, blood slicking his face, but his eyes remained locked on mine with a terrifying intensity. 

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Chapter 8 The Morning After The Screams 

10 Free Coms 

“Seraphina… hate me all you want, but I’m not letting you go. I will follow you to the edge of the world. I will haunt you until you’re mine again.” 

I looked down at him, my eyes void of anything resembling emotion. “You’ll never get it, Andre. The second you betrayed me, we were over. There is no ‘us’ anymore. There never will be.” 

I tucked my arm through Henrik’s. “I’m done here. Let’s go.” 

Henrik nodded softly, his touch protective. “Okay.” 

We walked away together, leaving Andre bleeding and broken. 

He watched us walk away, a jagged ache in his chest cutting deeper than any of his broken bones. He reached out, his fingers hooking into thin air, as if he could somehow drag back a woman who no longer existed. 

“Seraphina…” he rasped, my name a broken plea on his lips, his eyes shimmering with a dangerous cocktail of despair and madness. 

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