Valerie’s breath stalled unexpectedly, confusion colliding with dread inside her chest. “I am sorry, what exactly do you mean by that statement,” she asked carefully, her tone restrained yet trembling beneath growing unease.
Sabine’s eyes lowered deliberately toward Valerie’s rounded stomach before returning upward with chilling composure. “While you decorated his life with domestic comfort, he promised me a genuine future, a legitimate family, and a love unburdened by obligation,” she replied calmly, each word landing with calculated precision.
Valerie turned instinctively toward Connor, her pulse accelerating violently. “Connor, please tell her to stop this immediately, because this situation makes absolutely no sense whatsoever,” she pleaded, her voice cracking beneath disbelief.
Connor remained silent.
He neither intervened nor protested, his expression drained of color, his posture rigid with the unmistakable paralysis of exposure rather than defense. Valerie’s heart pounded painfully as realization began seeping through denial’s fragile barrier.
Sabine laughed softly, her composure unshaken.
Then her hand moved.