Chapter 57 - 0057: What Choice Did I Have?

Chapter 57: Chapter 0057: What Choice Did I Have?

Elena’s Point Of View

The moment I pushed open the heavy glass door of the café, the sharp, brassy jingle of the chime sounded like a death knell. I knew Lexi was going to eat me alive, spit out the bones, and then order a second espresso just to wash down the lingering rage.

And there she was.

Seated in the corner booth near the floor-to-ceiling windows, she looked like a lethal hawk poised to strike. Her arms crossed so tightly over her chest that her knuckles had gone white, her dark lips pressed into a paper-thin line. The second her eyes locked onto mine, that left sharp brow of hers shot up into her hairline with terrifying precision.

I froze mid-stride, my heart doing a panicked flip-flop against my ribs. A nervous, breathless chuckle escaped me as I brushed a rogue strand of hair behind my ear, trying desperately to cover up the sheer, unadulterated anxiety knotting my stomach into pretzel logic. My palms had already started to sweat.

"Heyyy... Lexi," I sang out, waving a feeble, pathetic little hand as I approached the table like a prisoner walking toward a firing squad. Each step felt heavier than the last. I pulled out the wrought-iron chair across from her, sitting down slowly, deliberately prolonging the judgment about to rain down on my head.

Lexi didn’t move an inch. Her sharp, dark eyes narrowed until they became two lethal slits.

"Start talking," she barked, her voice flat, dangerously calm, and vibrating with absolute impatience. "And God help you, Elena, it better be the narrative of a woman who just survived a hostage situation, because what the hell was that phone call?!"

I exhaled a long, shuddering breath, resting my forearms on the cool marble tabletop. My fingers instantly went to work, nervously tearing the edge of a paper napkin into tiny, pathetic shreds. I couldn’t even bring myself to ask if she’d ordered yet. There was no room for polite, suburban pleasantries in the wake of Lexi’s wrath. The air between us crackled with tension.

"Okay," I started, keeping my voice down to a strained whisper. "First of all, I need you to promise you’re going to breathe, drink some cold water, and not interrupt until I give you the full picture."

Lexi leaned forward, the wooden chair creaking violently under the sudden shift. "Elena. You called me at eight in the morning, purred ’Hey baby’ into the receiver, told me you loved me, talked about waffles like we were in a low-budget rom-com, and hung up on me before I could ask if you’d had a stroke!" Her voice rose with each word. "Do you have any idea how close I came to calling an ambulance to the Sinclair estate? Or better yet, a SWAT team?!"

"I know! I’m sorry!" I hissed, glancing around the cozy café to make sure the hipsters drinking matchas weren’t listening in. The last thing I needed was to become tomorrow’s viral Twitter thread. "I had to! It was an emergency!"

"An emergency?!" Lexi’s voice cracked into an incredulous whisper-shout. She slammed her hand flat against the table, making our water glasses rattle and drawing a startled look from a nearby customer. "Elena, I almost ran three red lights! I thought Graham had finally lost his damn mind and held a gun to your head!"

"He didn’t hold a gun, okay?" I said, my voice trembling slightly. "But he was executing me emotionally in front of his mother and his mist..."

"Wait, wait, back up." Lexi cut in, her index finger pointing directly at my nose like a loaded weapon. Her entire body had gone rigid. "Did you just say mistress? As in, plural? As in, the pregnant golf ball is actually living in the house now?!"

I closed my eyes, letting my forehead drop into my palm for a brief, shameful second. The weight of the past few weeks pressed down on my shoulders like a physical burden. "It started a few weeks ago, Lexi. Graham came home from the office, sat me down in the study, acted all solemn and corporate, and said..." I paused, the words still tasting bitter on my tongue. "He said he wanted us to try an open marriage."

Lexi stared at me. Five seconds passed. Then ten. Her jaw slowly unhinged, and I watched the color drain from her face before flooding back in a furious crimson tide.

"He... he said what?"

"You said no interruptions!" I reminded her, waving my hands frantically, though I knew it was futile.

"I don’t give a damn what I said!" Lexi yelled, instantly drawing a sharp glance from the barista behind the counter. She didn’t care. She leaned over the table, her eyes practically firing real lasers at my forehead. "He proposed an open marriage?! That arrogant, spineless, limp-dick excuse of a man had the absolute audacity to ask you... his wife of five years, who gave up her entire career to build his social circle, for an open marriage?!"

"He said he wanted to be honest with me!" I whispered desperately, my throat tightening as the sheer humiliation of that conversation rushed back over me. The memory made my chest constrict painfully. "He claimed he’d met someone special, that he wanted to see where it would go, but he still wanted to stay married to me! He had the nerve to call it a ’necessary evolution’ of our relationship! Like we were upgrading a software package!"

Lexi looked like she was about to vomit right into her empty espresso cup. Her face had gone pale except for two bright spots of color high on her cheeks. "I am going to kill him. I am literally going to go to his office, walk past his three secretaries, and beat him to death with his own mahogany nameplate."

"Lexi, listen to me..."

"No, Elena, he’s lucky!" Lexi snapped, her face turning a deep, furious shade of red, her hands clenching into tight, white-knuckled fists on the table. A vein pulsed visibly at her temple. "He’s so damn lucky I wasn’t in that dining room this morning! I swear to God, I would have broken his stupid, symmetrical nose! I would have shattered it! He doesn’t deserve you, Elena! He never deserved you! Not for a single second of the last ten years!"

The sheer, raw fury in her voice was like a shield thrown over my bruised soul. Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes, hot and stinging, but I bit my lip to keep them from falling. My best friend’s fierce loyalty, even in the midst of this nightmare, made my heart ache with gratitude.

"I didn’t know what to do, Lex," I choked out, looking down at my hands. The napkin had been reduced to confetti. "I was angry... I was completely shattered. But part of me still loved him. Or maybe I was just terrified of being alone. I couldn’t tell the difference anymore." I swallowed hard, fighting the lump in my throat. "I asked him who she was, and he looked me straight in the eye and said she was just a ’distant family friend’ going through a tough time."

Lexi let out a sharp bark of humorless laughter. "A family friend. Right. And I’m the Queen of England."

"Turns out that family friend is Lillian," I whispered, the name tasting like ash on my tongue. Just saying it aloud made me feel sick. "The white lotus herself. She’s currently living in our master suite wing, wearing designer maternity clothes, occupying my chair at the head of the dining table, and calling his mother ’Mom’ while I get relegated to the guest room like an unwanted houseguest!"

Lexi blinked rapidly, processing the absurd, twisted nightmare. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she found words. "You... you let her sit in your chair? You let her move into the estate?!"

"What choice did I have?!" I burst out, my voice cracking under the weight of it all. Several heads turned in our direction, but I was beyond caring. "He told me it was either I agree to the arrangement, keep my mouth shut, and act like a happy, modern family for the press, or he’d file for divorce, tie me up in litigation for the next decade, and make sure I didn’t get a single penny!"

My hands trembled as I pressed them flat against the table. "I was scared, Lexi! I was so damn scared! I didn’t know where I’d go, what I’d do. Everything I had was tied to him, to that house, to that life."

Lexi reached across the table, grabbing both of my wrists in a grip so firm, so grounding, that it instantly stopped my trembling. Her hands were warm and steady, an anchor in the storm.

"Elena, look at me," Lexi commanded, her voice thick with a mix of fury and fierce, protective love. "Look at me right now." I raised my eyes to meet hers, and the intensity I found there nearly undid me. "You do not need his money. You never needed his money. You were brilliant before you met that corporate vampire, and you will be brilliant long after he’s bankrupt!"

"I know, but..."

"No buts!" Lexi hissed, her eyes glistening with unshed tears of pure rage. Her grip on my wrists tightened, almost painfully, as if she could physically transfer her strength to me. "And what happened this morning?! Why did you call me making me sound like your secret lover?!"