Chapter 89: Confrontation

Astrid’s POV

Life after the wedding was sweet.

They said marriage was the main deal and the wedding was all aesthetic. That might not have been entirely true for us.

Ethan and I remained alone and all by ourselves for days. We woke up to see each other’s face and came back home to meet the same. Just us, morning and night.

The internet was on fire with my wedding.

"The husband snatcher finally snatches him as they tie the knot," one headline read.

People just couldn’t mind their business, and the so-called journalists and article writers were so damn stupid.

"Don’t entertain any interviews, Astrid," Ethan said to me.

"Okay, baby." I didn’t even plan on it.

So I ignored the cameras on my way to work and kept a straight face. They wanted to use my entire life as content. Fools.

The congratulations kept flying in and I kept receiving gifts from my colleagues at work, even after the wedding was long over.

The night of the wedding itself, Ethan and I were too drained to do anything. We couldn’t even look at each other and think about sex. We just kissed ourselves to sleep. We both understood without saying a word.

But the next night? That was different.

That was when I planned to show him every drop of love I had saved up for him.

"How do you want it, husband?" I asked, posing in my Bom shorts. There was no way he could resist it.

"I’ll give you back shots ... come here," he said.

I went straight to him.

"So this is my property now, isn’t it?" he said, gripping me.

"Of course it is."

I made him suck like a little pup ... the way he went at my breasts. Hard and hungry, like he was trying to claim every inch of me. So he’d know I was already his.

On that couch, I kissed him until we were breathless. We ended up fucking on the couch and then on the bed.

That was our first time as a married couple.

So what was next? Apart from the sex and waking up to each other’s face every single day as husband and wife?

It was a question we were both sitting with, staring at each other but not quite sure how to put into words.

What I was expecting next was a child.

I wanted to fall pregnant for Ethan. I had never been pregnant in my life ... unlike Selene, my reckless sister who never seemed to check herself. I had always been careful, always tracked myself before having unprotected sex, and I had been right every single time.

But now I needed that pregnancy. It would seal the bond between Ethan and me. Nothing would ever be able to break us after that.

That night I gave myself to him completely was the night I was supposed to take in.

I hoped for the best and said nothing. I wanted it to be a surprise for Ethan.

Ivy and I were talking in the office when she handed me some files.

"Oh, the marriage is fine and my husband is even finer," I said when she asked how things were going.

"I wish you and Ethan all the best," she said with a soft smile.

"Ivy, go and get married too. You should have a boyfriend by now."

Her face changed. Just like that.

"We broke up some time ago," she said quietly. She didn’t want to revisit it ... I could tell. But I wanted to know.

"Really? I’m so sorry. What happened?"

"I caught him cheating. With my best friend."

Damn. That was tough.

Those were the kinds of things that shouldn’t happen to anyone. The kind that made you want to give up on love entirely, fold yourself shut and never open again.

"Don’t worry. You’ll love again," I told her.

"I don’t think I can," she said. "I gave him everything. My whole heart belonged to him and he just broke it into pieces."

I stood up from my seat and hugged her. It must have been really painful.

And then guilt crept in.

Because I had been that person once. The one who slept with someone else’s person without blinking. When I had gone after Selene’s mate. I thought about how she must have felt ... and now that I was married, I couldn’t bear the thought of it happening in my own home.

I felt like a hypocrite. Doing to others what I would die before letting happen to myself.

I patted Ivy on the back.

"You’ll find love again. And when you do, it’ll be the kind that blooms properly."

I just wished more people were like me in the way I handled attachment. You didn’t have to cry this much if you didn’t hand your whole soul to someone before knowing what they were made of.

I had fucked Raven and walked away clean. No tears, no collapse.

I had fucked Draven ... and that was its own mess, sister sins and all. I had genuinely believed I couldn’t survive without him. He had felt like oxygen to me. Crazy, all-consuming, terrifying. But then the trial happened and the separation came, and I discovered I could actually live without him. Thrive, even.

I was in a better place now. And maybe everything that had happened to me had happened for this exact reason ... so that I could arrive here.

Ivy was smart. Too smart for unsolicited advice. If I told her half of what I just thought, she’d look at me like I was the villain of her story. And maybe I had been, once. So I stayed quiet.

She left my office with the documents.

I exhaled.

I wanted to be a cool-headed woman now. No drama, no recklessness. I didn’t want any hiccups in my marriage so I had decided ... quietly, firmly ... to behave myself.

Ethan was a sweet man and I was an intentional wolf. We could make this work.

He had already told me he was taking me to a hotel that weekend when work was off. That was the kind of thing he did. Simple, thoughtful gestures that made me feel safe in a way I hadn’t expected to feel.

I was smiling about it in my car on the way home ... moving at a steady speed, soft music playing ... when a heavy-looking jeep swung sharply in front of me out of nowhere.

The tires screamed against the road.

The car sat dead in front of mine and I couldn’t move forward.

This person had done it deliberately. Whoever they were, they had a problem ... and I was already pissed.

"What the fuck! Get out of the way!"

That was when the driver stepped out, and I could see her from behind ... black hair, a woman. She turned.

My mouth fell open.

Ethan’s ex-wife.

I went completely silent. The kind of silence that swallows you whole. Because why would she come at me like this in broad daylight? Who did she think she was ... an armed robber?

She walked up to my car. Unhurried. Confident. Like she had been planning this moment.

"Hello, Astrid." She smiled like she had all the time in the world. "I knew you wouldn’t stop to give me an audience willingly, so I had to do it this way. I’m sorry."

"What brings you here?" I managed to keep my voice steady. Barely.

"In case you don’t know ... I’m Thalia. Ethan’s wife. The one you made him divorce." She smiled again. Clean and cold.

"I know who you are, miss. Not the name, but I know you," I said.

"The man you married is dangerous," she said. "But not nearly as dangerous as the woman he divorced. I’ll go straight to the point ... actions have consequences, Astrid. And you’re not walking away from this scot-free. I’m going to make your life a living hell until you run out of that marriage."

"Really?" I smiled back at her. Slow and deliberate.

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?"

"Just watch," she said.

Then she stepped back into her car and drove away.

I hadn’t even been married a full week and the threats were already rolling in.

Wasn’t that just wonderful.