Chapter 55: Soren’s determination

Alex was speechless momentarily. He parted his lips to respond, but he quite didn’t know what exactly he should say.

A while later, he finally found his voice back. "Didn’t you always hate her? You never cared about her. You neglected her for seven years. The only woman you seemed to care about was Tahlia. We all saw it. One call from her, and you’d rush to her side, abandoning everything else."

He shrugged. "We all believed you loved her crazily and that Elowen was nothing more than an obligation. You never valued your marriage. And now, with Theron back in the picture, you suddenly remember that Elowen is your wife?"

Alex shook his head. "I don’t understand, man..."

Soren’s jaw clenched and unclenched. The truth in Alex’s words sounded harsher than he had expected.

He had done those things in his past life. He had rushed to Tahlia whenever she called. In doing so, he had repeatedly neglected Elowen and Seraphina.

His friends had all believed he had been in love with Tahlia. He couldn’t blame them. His own actions had convinced them of it.

Soren regretted his actions.

"Yes, I once liked Tahlia," he admitted. "We dated since high school, but she broke up with me as if our relationship meant nothing to her. I tried to stop her, but she had already made up her mind. She didn’t want to be with me."

His gaze turned sharp. "From that moment on, I was done with her. I never intended to get back together with her."

"Really?" Alex stared at him in disbelief. "If you were done with her, why did you keep rushing to her every time she called? Why did you treat her as if she were the only person who mattered to you? You grandly celebrated her birthdays while ignoring your own marriage anniversaries. Do you have any idea what that made Elowen believe?"

Soren’s jaw flexed.

Of course, he knew now. Every time he had abandoned Elowen for Tahlia, he had given his wife another reason to believe that she would never matter to him. Every time he had chosen another woman over her, he had driven another nail into their marriage.

"I can’t undo what I did," he said, his tone heavy with guilt and regret. "But I won’t let Tahlia come between us again."

Alex studied him for a long moment, still struggling to reconcile this man with the Soren he had known for years.

"And if Tahlia refuses to let you go? What will you do?"

A chilling smile touched Soren’s lips. "Then she will learn the man she once abandoned is no longer the man standing in front of her."

Alex tilted his head slightly as he regarded Soren doubtfully.

"You know what I remember? You spent three days in the hospital beside Tahlia when she underwent appendix surgery. You didn’t go home, no matter how many times Elowen called you. She was your wife, Soren. She was waiting for you. And you didn’t even bother to call back to her."

His expression grew more doubtful. "All you cared about was Tahlia. If that wasn’t love, what was that?"

His questions started to grate on Soren’s nerves.

"No, it’s not love," Soren snapped. "I was only trying to stay away from Elowen. I was running away from the truth."

Alex fell into a stunned silence.

Soren’s fingers curled into fists under the table.

Deep down, he had always known the truth about that night at Enchanted Bay Hotel. In his heart, he had known that he had been the one who had ruined Elowen’s innocence under the influence of the drug.

Instead of facing the possibility that he was responsible, he had clung to his pride.

Soren Vale had been too arrogant to admit he was wrong. Accepting the truth would have meant admitting that he had blamed the innocent woman for something he had done himself.

So he had avoided Elowen.

Every cold glare, every harsh remark, and every time he had left her alone had been another way to avoid the truth. He had made her suffer because looking at her reminded him of the one night he couldn’t bear to confront.

And Tahlia?

She had become the perfect excuse.

Soren had used her as a reason to stay away from his wife, pretending that his distance from Elowen was a matter of his choice.

The memory made his chest tighten painfully.

His eyes turned sharp as he looked back at Alex.

"I’m already married." Every word carried absolute certainty. "Elowen has been the only woman in my life for the past seven years. And she will remain my wife as long as I live."

That possessive declaration stunned Alex. "Have you fallen in love with her?" he blurted.

Soren didn’t answer immediately.

He had already been in love with Elowen before he understood what she meant to him. The irony was that he had realized his feelings only after destroying her completely.

At first, he had genuinely hated her.

Every time he looked at her, he remembered the night that had changed his life. He had resented the fact that he hadn’t been allowed to choose his life partner himself, but because of the situation, he had to marry someone he had barely known.

Soren had been furious with his grandfather for taking that choice from him and forcing him into a relationship he had never wanted. But he couldn’t confront the old man. So, he had taken out his anger and frustration on Elowen instead—because it was easy.

He had convinced himself that if he had made her miserable enough, he could somehow regain control over his life. He had used his silence to wound her, his indifference to humiliate her, and his anger to remind her that she had never been the woman he wanted in his life.

Yet she had endured everything silently.

Her patience reminded him how weak he was, while she was steadfast. No matter how hard he had tried, he couldn’t break her steadiness.

The more she had been patient, the angrier he had been.

He had done everything he could to hurt her and break her. But in that process, he had not even realized when Elowen had become his habit. And that habit soon transformed into something he couldn’t live without.

He had grown accustomed to her presence. Every time he had returned home, his eyes would search for her before he even realized what he was doing.

He had found her waiting for him no matter how late it was. Sometimes she would ask if he had eaten. Sometimes she would leave food for him without saying a word.

He had barely acknowledged those simple gestures. But her presence had kept him grounded.

He had believed she would always be there waiting for him. But the news of her death left him shattered.

The confident, decisive, and vindictive Soren Vale, who had survived corporate wars and built an empire from the ashes of his father’s death, had broken into pieces that he had never been able to gather in his past life.

At that very moment, the realization dawned on him.

Elowen had never been the burden he once believed her to be. She had been the one who had given him a home, the one whose absence had left him with nothing but emptiness. She had been the only woman who mattered to him.

Elowen had never needed him to survive. It was he who couldn’t live without her.

Soren forced the memories back into the depths of his mind. When he spoke again, his tone was firm, leaving no room for doubt.

"She is the woman I’ve been with for seven years. We have a lovely daughter together. What do you think? Of course, I love her."