Her smile returned, thin and cold.
“Men like him don’t fall in love with women like me for nothing,” she said, voice bitter. “They want devotion. Gratitude. Control.”
She glanced at Elena like she was looking at a locked door.
“And if there’s a daughter in the way… a fragile little reminder of a past I didn’t choose…”
Viven shrugged, like she was discussing a stain on a dress.
“You remove the obstacle.”
Fernando’s face went white.
The words hit him like punches.
Elena made a small sound, halfway between a sob and a gasp.
“So I was just… in your way,” Elena whispered.
Viven looked at her without shame.
“You were inconvenient.”
The sirens were louder now, approaching, real.
Fernando stepped forward, voice trembling with fury and grief.
“Get out of my house.”
Viven’s eyes flicked toward the door, calculating again, but her power was gone. The truth had stepped into the light, and it refused to leave.
Elena’s fingers tightened around Immani’s hand.
Fernando crouched beside Elena, forehead nearly touching hers.
“You are not an obstacle,” he whispered. “You’re my heart.”
His voice cracked.
“And I should have protected you sooner.”
The police arrived first, then paramedics.