I push Sarah’s wheelchair through the garden, stopping to admire different flowers. She loves the feeling of the sun on her face and the fresh air. I can’t blame her, she’s been cooped up in a room for years.
We’ve converted one of the guest rooms on the ground floor into a fully equipped medical room for her, so at least we can keep her at home now. We got her an electric wheelchair too, and she’s enjoying being able to move around the house a little.
It took almost two months before we could take her home from our private clinic, and even now she requires round-the-clock care. She’s had to learn how to breathe by herself again, how to speak again, and even how to eat. Watching Elena’s heart break every time her mother struggles to relearn something is tearing me apart.
“I heard her, you know,” Sarah says, and I pause.
She still struggles to move her limbs. In a way, she’s like a baby. Her body is mostly fine now, but she needs to relearn how to do basic tasks and how to get her body to listen to her. Thankfully, the neuromuscular electrical stimulation Elena paid so much for prevented muscle atrophy. There’s no damage to her joints either, thanks to the stretching her nurses did for her twice a day, so she should be able to walk again within a few months.
I sit down on the grass beside her and look up at her.
“I heard Elena when I was in my coma. I had no concept of time, but I heard her cries and her undying belief in my recovery.”
My eyes widen. Sarah surprises me every day. Not only is she recovering far quicker than her doctors expected, but she’s also sharp as hell. I thought her mind would for sure be affected by her coma, but it isn’t.
“I know Elena isn’t at work right now. I know Alaric and Matthew aren’t on a business trip, and I know you’re married to my daughter—not engaged. I know why you married her, and I understand Elena doesn’t want me to find out. In turn, I don’t want her to know that I could hear most of what she told me throughout the years.”
She’s just like Elena, always startling me. I tense, unsure what to say. Elena has been handling the lawyers herself, and she’s the one that’s been coordinating with Elliot and our security team. She’s asked us to ensure that either Lucian, Mom, or I accompany her mother at least once a day, when she is unable to be here herself.
I don’t know what to say to Sarah. I don’t know what Elena would want me to say.
She smiles at me and shakes her head gently. “I need your help to prepare the required documents to turn all my accounts and assets into joint assets between my daughter and me. I won’t have Elena depend on anyone ever again—not even you, Alec.”
I nod at her even as a shiver of fear runs down my spine. She’s ensuring Elena can gain independence from me. If Elena no longer needs me, will she stay? Our wedding ceremony hasn’t taken place yet, and my grandfather hasn’t been informed of our marriage either. If she wanted a divorce now, I have no way of denying her one.
I breathe a sigh of relief when Elena walks up to us, and rise to my feet. She presses a kiss to her mother’s cheek, and I narrow my eyes at her. It takes her a good minute to even notice me, and my mood drops even further. Sarah looks at me and laughs, and I cross my arms over each other. When Elena finally turns to look at me, I’m full-on sulking. Elena grins at me and rises to her tiptoes to kiss me, and I glare at her involuntarily.
“So you did see me standing here, then?”
Elena laughs and pulls me closer, kissing me properly. She wraps her arms around my neck, her lips brushing past my ear.
“You’re always the first one I see, no matter where I am, no matter how many people there are. Always, Alec.”
I smile reluctantly, and Elena’s eyes twinkle in amusement. “You’re crazy, you know that, right?” she murmurs.
I grin at her and lean in to kiss her again, properly this time. “You did tell me I should be crazy about you, didn’t you? Careful what you wish for, baby.”
Ever since her mother woke up, I’ve discovered a new side to my wife. She’s assertive, hardworking, and as ruthless as I am. She’s perfect. The way she’s orchestrating the Rousseau takedown is going to become legendary, I just know it. I’m pretty sure even my grandfather will be impressed once this all goes down.
Sarah grabs Elena’s hand and smiles at her. “Honey,” she says. “I need to talk to you.”
Elena nods and kneels down in front of her mother, a serene expression on her face.
“Where is your father?”
Elena freezes, and I tense too.
“Is he with Jade?”
Elena stares at her mother, a confused expression on her face. “How… I mean…”
“What about your brother?”
She looks at me, a lost expression on her face, but I don’t know what to say either. I kneel down and wrap my arm around her.
Sarah sighs and squeezes Elena’s hand. “I think it’s time I tell you a story, sweetheart.”
Sarah inhales deeply and looks away. “Your father and I were childhood sweethearts. We fell in love young, and I… I was naive. Your father was of the same social standing as I was, but his family was on the brink of bankruptcy. Because of that, my father wouldn’t allow me to marry Alaric.”
Sarah looks at Elena and cups her cheek. “Until I was told I’d never have children.” She tenses, as though the memory still hurts. “All of a sudden, I wasn’t deemed a good potential bride for the men my father wanted me to marry. It wasn’t until then that I was allowed to marry your father.”
She smiles, her smile bittersweet. Elena stares at her mother in shock, a thousand questions flashing through her eyes.
“For a few years, everything seemed perfect. My dowry helped save your father’s family, his legacy. I helped him start his own company, and we thrived. I was happy.”
Sarah pauses, her mind seemingly somewhere else, as though she’s gathering all her courage before continuing her story, and I wrap my arm around my wife, knowing that whatever is about to come will hurt her.
“Then one day, your father brought home a little boy—Matthew. He was only two years old, and he was the most adorable little boy I’d ever seen. Your father told me he’d messed up. That he wanted children so badly that it’s all he could think about. He told me he’d never stray again, and he begged me to give him one more chance.
I had many questions, of course. But your father had an answer for all of them. I was torn, Elena. I was mad, but I also always wanted children. And Matthew? He hadn’t done anything wrong. So I asked to meet Matthew’s mother. That’s when I first met her… Jade.”
Elena gasps, her entire body trembling. I hold her as tightly as I can, wanting to offer her all my support, yet unsure how to. “What?” she whispers, her voice breaking.
“Jade knew that she could never offer Matthew the life that I could, so she told me she’d stay away. That she’d never see her child again, that he’d be mine. She vowed to stay away from my family—from your father.”
“Mom,” Elena says, her tone anguished. “Please, tell me, am I—”
Sarah smiles and nods. “Yes, you’re mine. Of course you are. You’re my little miracle, Elena.”
Elena nods and rests her head in her mother’s lap, trying her best to hold back her tears. Sarah strokes her hair gently, and it amazes me how sweet and caring she looks around Elena, when she’s so cunning around everyone else. I guess that’s where Elena gets it from—she’s exactly the same.
“For a while, everything went back to normal. Your father and I… we managed to work things out, though it was never the same. I was fine, though, because I had Matthew. And not too long after, I had you. Both of you were my entire world, and that was enough for me. At the time, I didn’t realize that your father was still seeing Jade. I didn’t know that he’d been taking Matthew to see her every month. I didn’t know that Matthew was aware that I’m not his real mother. I had no idea that not only did he stay with Jade, they had a daughter together too. I didn’t find out until a few days before my car accident.”
I look at Sarah in disbelief. Elise is Elena’s half-sister? Elena raises her head to look at her mother, her eyes red. She looks so heartbroken, so hurt.
Sarah smiles and cups Elena’s cheek. “So tell me,” she says. “Tell me what you’ve been up to. Tell me what you’re planning. Tell me what you need from me, Elena. I’ve given your father and brother everything… and now I want it back.”
