Chapter 2

2.

Silas left the complex and drove straight to Chloe's luxury apartment. I sat in the passenger seat, watching his white knuckles grip the steering wheel.

The neon lights of the city flashed across his cold, unyielding eyes. He looked like a man on a mission, but his path was paved with betrayal.

"Silas, you're here!" Chloe cried as she opened the door.

She was wearing oversized loungewear, her hair artfully messy. She looked fragile and exhausted, a perfect picture of a damsel in distress.

Silas's expression softened instantly. He reached out to cup her face, his voice dripping with a tenderness I hadn't heard in years.

"Don't worry, baby. I'm looking for Seraphina. She'll take the fall for you, I promise."

Chloe hugged him tightly, burying her face in his neck. "But... what if she refuses?"

"She wouldn't dare!" Silas said firmly. "I have ways to make her cooperate. As long as I'm here, no one will touch you."

I watched them from the corner of the room. To him, I was nothing more than a tool to protect Chloe.

My only purpose was to be her shield and her scapegoat. It had always been that way since she came back.

Chloe looked up, her eyes rimmed with red. "Silas, it's all my fault. If only I hadn't had those drinks that night..."

"Don't blame yourself," he whispered, his heart clearly breaking for her. "It's Sera's fault for disappearing when she's supposed to be helping you."

"When I find her, she's going to pay for making you worry like this!"

He showered her with affection, the same way he used to treat me. Back when he first started his business and failed, I was the one who stayed up with him.

I was the one who told him everything would be okay. But once he hit it big, he didn't need me anymore.

The day Chloe returned, he ditched a crucial board meeting just to pick her up. She told him she left years ago because of a terminal illness.

He believed her lie without question. From that moment on, all his love and patience belonged to her.

I was pregnant and near my due date when I got into a car accident. Chloe told him the baby wasn't even his, and that I staged the crash to hide the timeline.

It was such a pathetic excuse, yet Silas chose to believe her over me. That was the day I realized there was no room for me or Trixie in his heart.

As night fell, Chloe wrapped her arms around his waist. Her voice was low and seductive.

"Silas, you're so good to me."

He pulled her closer and whispered, "I owe you this much."

He let her hands wander under his shirt, meeting her touch with a hunger that made me look away.

He once promised we would be together forever. Now, he wouldn't blink if he had to trade my life for Chloe's comfort.

At that moment, I became incredibly curious. What would he do when he found out the truth?

What would happen when he realized the woman he was protecting was the monster who killed his daughter?

I couldn't wait to see the look on his face.