Chapter 6 You Were Just the Best Choice

Elena's POV

Elena held Vanessa's gaze. "If nothing changed, why do you keep looking at my wedding ring?"

For the first time, Vanessa's smile faltered.

"Because there are things Damian clearly never told you."

She lowered herself into the chair beside her, leaning on her cane. Damian's coat was still draped around her shoulders, the oversized collar nearly swallowing half her face.

"You know I was in an accident on your wedding day. What you don't know is that I was on my way back to Ravenport." Vanessa paused. "And you don't know where Damian went after the wedding."

Elena's fingers slowly curled into her palm.

"He went to the hospital," Vanessa said. "When I woke up, he was outside the ICU. He came back every day after that."

Soft jazz still drifted through the antique shop, but all Elena could hear was the pounding of her own heart.

She remembered that night.

The reception hadn't even ended when Damian took a call. He'd only said a friend had been badly hurt before leaving in a hurry.

Elena had sat beside the window in her wedding dress until well past midnight. The champagne went flat. Dinner went cold. The front door never opened.

She had told herself it didn't matter.

Their marriage was a contract. She had no right to expect anything more.

So the friend had been Vanessa.

"You stayed together that entire night," Elena said.

It wasn't a question.

"My surgery took hours," Vanessa replied quietly. "The doctors said that even if I survived, I might never walk again. He didn't leave."

Cold crept into Elena's fingertips.

Damian had kept every promise he'd made after their marriage, and somewhere along the way, she had convinced herself that his absence on their wedding night no longer mattered.

Now she knew the truth.

He had simply gone to be with the woman he actually wanted beside him.

"Are you telling me this because you expect me to feel responsible for your accident?"

"No." Vanessa answered immediately. "Coming back was my choice. The accident was just that--an accident. I'm not blaming you for it."

She paused, then met Elena's eyes again.

"I only think you should know that while you spent your wedding night alone, Damian was outside my operating room."

"If what you had with him is really that strong, you shouldn't need to prove it to me."

Some of the softness disappeared from Vanessa's expression.

"You really don't care?"

"Caring doesn't mean I'm going to fight you for him."

Elena's voice remained calm.

"Damian decided to end our marriage, and I'll accept that. But that decision belongs to him and me. Not to you. I don't need you to remind me where you think I belong."

The bell above the door chimed.

Damian walked back into the shop carrying a cup of warm water. His gaze went first to Vanessa, then to Elena.

He picked up on the tension almost immediately.

"What did you two talk about?"

"Just the past." Vanessa accepted the cup from him. "Elena understands you better than I expected."

Damian frowned. His attention shifted to Elena's pale face.

"Are you feeling sick again?"

He reached for her forehead.

Elena stepped back.

His hand stopped in midair.

"I'm fine. I want to go home."

"I'll have the driver take you."

"I can call a car."

"Elena."

"You already agreed to help Vanessa pick out a gift." She picked up the bag containing her medication. "You don't need to change your plans because of me."

Damian studied her for a moment, clearly trying to read something in her face.

Elena gave him nothing.

She turned and walked out of the antique shop.

When she got back to the apartment, she didn't turn on the lights.

She simply sat on the couch for a long time.

Her pregnancy report was still locked in the bottom drawer of her vanity.

That morning, she had almost let herself waver because Damian refused to let her out of his arms.

Now she finally understood.

A baby might make him take on more responsibility.

It would never make her the woman he chose.

At nine that night, the front door opened.

Damian stepped into the living room and shrugged off his coat. When he saw Elena sitting in the dark, he stopped.

She switched on the floor lamp beside her.

Damian walked over. "What did Vanessa tell you?"

"She told me you spent our wedding night at the hospital with her."

"She was in surgery."

"You told me it was just a friend who'd been hurt."

"Who she was had nothing to do with our agreement. There was no reason to explain more."

He didn't even hesitate.

Elena looked at him and realized the truth didn't hurt as much as she had expected.

Maybe the worst of it had already happened back at the antique shop.

Now there was only one question she still needed answered.

"Why me?"

Damian didn't answer right away.

"There are plenty of women in Ravenport who could have agreed to a contractual marriage." Elena held his gaze. "Why did you choose me?"

This time, he seemed to understand that she wasn't looking for an easy answer.

And, to his credit, he didn't try to soften the truth.

"I needed a wife who could follow a three-year arrangement," he said. "You didn't have complicated family connections. You weren't tied to any interests inside Hawthorne Group, and you weren't likely to use the marriage to secure positions or shares for your family."

Elena listened without interrupting.

"I knew your situation. I also knew the agreement would solve the immediate problems you were facing. It worked for both of us, and you didn't ask for anything beyond the original terms."

"So you knew I would say yes."

"I thought you were the most likely to agree."

Every word was measured. Logical. Precise.

Completely Damian.

That was what made it hurt.

He paused before continuing.

"You take commitments seriously. You understand boundaries. As long as the terms were clear, I knew you would honor them instead of trying to turn the marriage into something else."

His gaze stayed on hers.

"You were the best choice."

For two years, Elena had let herself believe there had been something about her that stood out to him. Something that made him choose her for the role of his wife.

There hadn't been.

He had simply calculated that she was desperate enough to agree, grateful enough not to demand more, and sensible enough not to become a problem.

She wasn't special.

She had just been the lowest risk.

"Do you regret signing the agreement?" Damian asked.

"No." Elena's answer was quiet. "I needed it back then. You gave me a way out, and I signed willingly."

She wouldn't deny her own choices just because the ending hurt.

And she wouldn't rewrite the past to make herself feel better.

"I only realized today that the reason you chose me and the reason I eventually fell in love with you were never the same thing."

Damian's expression darkened slightly.

"I never broke our agreement. And I never mistreated you."

"I know."

He had kept every promise. She was the one who had mistaken his reliability for love.

Elena rose from the couch and looked at him calmly.

"So I'll keep my last promise too."

A faint crease appeared between Damian's brows.

She didn't explain further.

"Okay."

Then, just as calmly, she said,

"Seven days from now, I'm leaving."