The three of them gathered around Elara. Sebastian, hovering protectively, his mother beaming, Seren smiling wide, celebrating a future that had no room for Amara.
He felt no guilt at that moment or any hesitation. No memory of the woman who had sacrificed everything, the woman he promised to love for the rest of his life. Just then, the elevator doors slid open.
Amara stood there, her face pale but composed, with the freshly discharged papers in hand.
She saw them. All of them. Laughing. Touching Elara's still-flat stomach. Dreaming aloud.
Her lips curved, not into a smile, but into something colder. Julian stood beside her, quietly taking her bag, steady and unassuming. She stepped into the elevator, eyes never leaving the scene.
As the doors began to close, she whispered, not in rage, not in tears, but with terrifying calm:
"I'm here now. And I swear… I'll avenge you." She touched her belly, still thinking of the baby, the baby she had lost because of him.
