enjoyebooks Chapter 18
Chapter 18
KAEL’S POV
I couldn't breathe properly as I stood outside the grand ballroom, my tie suddenly too tight, my collar strangling me.
The invitation I'd received—no, intercepted—burned in my pocket like a hot coal. A wedding invitation. Her wedding invitation. To another man.
Zorina. My Zorina.
My hands trembled as I adjusted my suit one final time. I hadn't planned what to say; I only knew I had to stop this farce.
The memories that had been trickling back for months now flooded through me in a torrent—our wedding day, her nervous smile, the way she looked at me as if I were her entire universe.
How had I forgotten? How had I let her slip away?
I pushed open the doors with more force than necessary. The chatter instantly died as I entered, but I only had eyes for one person.
There she stood, radiant in white, her hand intertwined with his. She called herself Celestina now, but she would always be Zorina to me.
"Zorina!" My voice echoed through the stunned silence, sounding foreign even to my own ears—too desperate, too raw.
She turned slowly, her face draining of color as our eyes met. Time seemed to freeze as we stared at each other across the room. How long had it been since I'd truly looked at her? Since I'd seen her?
"Kael?" she whispered, and just hearing my name on her lips again sent a jolt through my body.
I crossed the distance between us in long strides, barely registering the murmurs of the guests. My heart hammered against my ribcage, blood rushing in my ears.
"You belong to me," I declared, the words pouring from my lips before I could temper them. "Zorina is my wife!"
Gasps rippled through the crowd. I knew how I must appear wild-eyed, disheveled, making outrageous claims. But they didn't understand. They couldn't possibly comprehend what she meant to me, what we had once been to each other.
Her new... husband stepped forward, his face a mask of controlled anger. "You're mistaken," he said with infuriating calm. "Celestina is my wife now."
I turned my attention to him briefly, sizing him up. Dimitri Volkov. A man of power and influence. A man who thought he could simply take what was mine.
"You don't understand," I insisted, my voice rising despite my efforts to control it. "We were married first. She's mine. She's always been mine."
Zorina—Celestina—stepped forward then, her face resolute. "Stop this, Kael. You have no right to be here."
Her words cut deeper than any blade could have. "No right?" I snapped, disbelief coursing through me. "You're my wife! I remember our wedding, Zorina. I remember standing beside you, saying those vows. How can you stand there and pretend none of it mattered?"
Something flickered in her eyes—pain, perhaps, or anger. "Because you made sure it didn't!" she shot back, her voice like ice. "You never treated me like a wife, Kael. You ignored me, dismissed me, and left me feeling invisible. You lost any claim you had on me long before this moment."
Her words struck me like physical blows. The worst part was knowing the truth in them. I had been blind, focused on everything but what mattered most. But I had changed. I had remembered.
"I was a fool," I admitted, my voice breaking. "But I remember now, Zorina. I remember you. And I won't let you go."
Dimitri stepped closer to her, his voice deceptively gentle. "She's already gone. You need to leave, Veridan."
Rage surged through me at his presumption. Who was he to tell me to walk away from my own wife? "You think you can just take her? Like she's some prize you've won?"
His expression darkened. "I didn't take her. She chose me. And you'd do well to respect her choice."
Before I could respond, Zorina positioned herself between us, her eyes locking with mine. "Kael, listen to me. Whatever you think we had, it's over. It's been over for a long time. I've moved on, and so should you."
Looking at her, I felt my resolve crumbling. I reached for the only weapon I had left—our shared past. "I remember how nervous you were on our wedding day," I said softly, watching her reaction carefully. "You smiled at me like I was the center of your world. How did we get here, Zorina?"
For just a moment, I saw her composure crack, a flicker of something unreadable crossing her face. But then it was gone, replaced by cold determination.
"We got here because you never gave me a reason to stay."
Six words. Just six words to demolish everything I thought I knew, everything I had come here to reclaim. The truth of them drained the fight from me, left me hollow and aching.
Guards approached cautiously, their hands hovering near their weapons. I almost welcomed the idea of them trying to remove me by force, at least physical pain might distract from the agony in my chest.
"Escort him out," she said quietly, turning away from me.
As the guards surrounded me, I caught one last glimpse of her face. The woman I had lost through my own blindness. The woman I had remembered too late.
They didn't need to force me out. I left willingly, my steps leaden, my mind replaying her words over and over.
Outside, the cool evening air did nothing to clear my head. I loosened my tie, gasping for breath that wouldn't come easily.
I made it to my car before the full weight of what had happened crushed me. Gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white, I closed my eyes against the flood of memories—both old and new. The life we'd shared. The life I'd squandered.
In my arrogance, I had assumed that remembering would be enough. That she would fall back into my arms simply because I had finally opened my eyes to what had been in front of me all along.
I had never considered that while I was busy forgetting her, she had been busy rebuilding herself, creating a new life, a new name, a new love.
Zorina was gone. In her place stood Celestina, a woman I no longer knew.
The engine roared to life beneath my hands, but I didn't pull away immediately. Instead, I stared at the glittering lights of the venue where I had just lost everything for the second time.
"Goodbye, Zorina," I whispered to the empty car.