She didn’t even think she could share something this important with me. It hadn’t been like this when she was pregnant with Kai.

The memory slams into me.

Five years ago. Roxie’s face had been shy, hopeful. She’d handed me the report with trembling hands.

“Ravi,” she’d whispered. “I’m pregnant.” And how had I reacted?

Back then, I stared coldly at Roxie’s face, finding her smile unbearably irritating. I even shot her a look of pure disgust.

I gave her a cold sneer. “Roxie, you’ve gotten what you wanted. Are you happy now?”

When I saw her smile fade, her face go pale at my words, I felt a ridiculous sense of vengeful satisfaction.

I couldn’t share in her joy, so I made sure she bore the brunt of my anger instead. Only now do I realize how cruel and absurd I was.

I used those words to drag an innocent person down into the same abyss I was in.

And now every one of those words that once pierced Roxie’s heart has become a boomerang, slamming violently back into my own chest.

I clutch my chest, the pain unbearable. I stagger, nearly losing my balance.

The phone drops from my hand and hits the floor with a hard thud.

“Alpha!” Kayden rushes to steady me, his voice tight with urgency. “Are you alright? Should I call the doctor?”

I stay silent and shove him away. I steady myself with one hand on the desk, my gaze fixing on the vase of roses across from me.

Kayden brought them in earlier, saying they’d help with work stress.

The flowers are beautiful. They’d brighten anyone’s mood. But right now they only make my own expression look darker by contrast.

Kayden hovers nearby, wanting to reach out but afraid to. He shifts on his feet, unable to hide his concern. “Alpha...”

The next moment I reach out and grab the entire bunch with one hand.

The stacked files scatter with a loud rustle. The roses tremble, two petals drifting down to the desk.

I clutch my aching chest with my right hand while my left tightens around the stems. The thorns dig into my palm one by one, breaking the skin. Blood flows immediately. Kayden’s eyes go wide. “Alpha!”

Blood runs down the rose stems and drips into the water, turning it red.

I can’t feel the pain. Instead my tightly pressed lips curve upward because of it.

I’m smiling, but my eyes reflect a soul in complete despair — as if something has shattered inside me that will never be whole again.

Kayden is terrified by my frozen stare and that smile. He reaches quickly for his phone to call the doctor.

All of my rage and pain have one name. Roxie.

I heard what she said to me that night at the Ivy Hotel, after everything she’d endured.

“Ravi, I stopped loving you a long time ago. When our cooling-off period ends, we’ll be complete strangers.”

I heard every word. I just refused to accept that she would actually leave.

But now I can almost see her — walking away, looking liberated and at peace. Her clothes light around her, her steps gentle and steady, not a trace of attachment in them. After all, the man who caused her so much pain has nothing to do with her anymore.

She doesn’t want Kai. She doesn’t want me. Cruel. But decided.

I, who only understood the truth after being abandoned, finally see it — my certainty these past days was nothing but a joke.

“Roxie.” My voice drops low, hoarse, carrying a threatening edge like a beast finally provoked. “If you think you can leave, you’re dead wrong.”

I watch my left hand bleed from the rose thorns, drop by drop into the water below. The metallic scent hangs heavy in the air.

Pain is the best catalyst. It ignites everything that’s been lying dormant and turns it into something I can no longer contain.

“Roxie.”

I say her name again. And again. Chewing on those two syllables, swallowing them. Even the bitterness makes my chest tremble. But my eyes only grow more intense.

Obsession. Pure and undeniable.

“Whether heaven or hell—I will follow you to the very end.” A pause. “I absolutely, absolutely will not let you go.”

To be continued...