Chapter 162: Break Up

When Elias said that, confusion filled his eyes.

He looked like a newborn deer staring at the hunter who had hurt him, unable to understand why that same hunter had suddenly reached out with gentle hands.

Serena pressed her vivid red lips together.

She seemed about to say something, maybe an explanation. In the end, she stopped herself.

She had promised to listen until he finished.

Elias noticed that tiny movement and let out a very soft laugh.

"See? That’s exactly it," he said. "That sudden tenderness. It makes me think maybe you aren’t as bad as I thought."

It was like a few thin threads of light appearing in the dark. The place was still black. Still damp and airless. But that small brightness gave a person a reason to keep going, to wait for the next bit of light, even if they had no idea when it would come.

"Later, you really did treat me a little better," Elias continued. "And somehow, I actually felt grateful."

"It looks like maybe isn’t the right word. I really am cheap."

"The person who humiliated me and hurt me was you. But if you gave me one tiny bit of kindness, I would still feel grateful enough to cry over it."

Serena looked at Elias’s calm face, and the unease in her chest grew stronger.

Before this, he had hated these words most.

If she said anything like this, he would flare up instantly. His eyes would burn. His whole body would sharpen with rage.

But now, he was the one degrading himself.

"But fine," Elias said softly, as if he had already given up on himself. "Cheap is cheap. No matter what, you saved my father’s life. You also pulled my mother back from the edge. To them, you’re their benefactor. Completely. So I guess that makes you mine, too."

For one strange moment, Serena felt relieved.

She was relieved that Elias did not know the truth.

His parents were still grateful to her.

Then Elias’s gaze slowly filled with tenderness.

"Do you know something?" he asked. "I think I might really have started liking you during this time, when you were treating me so well."

The words struck Serena with surprise first.

She had known Elias had feelings for her.

But hearing him say such a clear answer himself was different. This was the first time.

It was a crucial step forward.

Serena did not get to enjoy that joy for long.

A strong sense of crisis followed almost immediately, and she realized she could not let Elias keep speaking.

"Enough."

But that was only self-deception.

What had already happened could not be covered over by pressing a hand to someone’s mouth. It could not be made into something that had never existed.

A faint smile flashed through Elias’s eyes.

Anxious now?

She knew to be anxious now?

Too late.

Even if Serena noticed in time and tried to turn back, Elias would never let her truly recover.

His relationship with Serena Blackwood had no meaning if it was not used for a breakup.

Elias prepared to give her the final blow.

The tenderness in his eyes gradually faded into distance.

"And just now," he said slowly, "when you told me you had already torn up the contract, I think there might have been one instant when I loved you."

Loved.

That word was too deep. Too heavy.

Serena had never imagined what it would feel like for that word to leave her own mouth, and she had never imagined hearing it from Elias.

So when she really heard it, her chest shook.

It felt like a hammer striking straight into her heart.

Serena could not bear it anymore and instinctively tried to speak.

"Eli..."

"Even now, you’re still pretending?" Elias gave a small laugh, but the curve of his mouth carried a chill. "You lied to me so well. You made me think you might really have started liking me too. And now I finally understand. It was all wishful thinking."

"What kind of person exposes the body of someone they like in front of someone else?"

"What did you think I was?"

"I can’t understand it. I really can’t."

Elias’s face was cold, but tears shone faintly in his eyes.

At last, Serena understood where she had gone wrong.

She had been wrong to test Liora in this way.

She had forgotten Elias’s feelings.

Panic, the kind she had not felt in a long time, rose in her chest. Acting on instinct, she lowered her head and tried to kiss his pale lips.

She touched nothing.

Only a tear slid from the corner of Elias’s eye.

Then came his hoarse voice, carrying a broken edge of tears.

"Serena Blackwood, I’ve had enough of you."

"Let’s break up."

The bedroom went dead still.

A moment earlier, the room had been intimate. They had been tangled together, holding each other in the aftermath, wrapped in a warmth that almost looked beautiful.

Now that warmth had been destroyed completely.

Only coldness remained between them.

In the next second, Serena’s voice turned sharp.

"Impossible."

Elias smiled. "Not pretending anymore? How many times is this now? How many times have you shown me your real face?"

He was smiling, but it was a ruined smile, bleak enough to hurt.

Serena took a breath.

Then she softened her expression again and smiled gently.

"You’re this angry? An apology isn’t enough?" she asked. "Or do you need to hit me hard before you can let it go?"

As she spoke, she lightly took one of Elias’s hands and placed it against herself.

"Hit me. However you want."

To Serena, this was probably an unprecedented retreat.

No one who saw the powerful, untouchable Serena Blackwood lower herself like this, soft and yielding in front of them, would refuse to forgive her.

Elias was exactly that exception.

He ignored her completely and pulled his hand back as quickly as possible.

That meant he did not accept it.

He did not forgive her.

Serena’s expression cooled too. Frost seemed to settle over that beautiful face, and her phoenix-shaped eyes turned cutting as she watched Elias sit up, clearly intending to leave.

"Don’t you dare."

Elias did not look back.

"What? If I take one step out of here, are you going to send someone to break my legs?"

Serena choked slightly.

She really had almost said that.

So she had to change her words.

"It’s late," she said flatly. "If someone assaults you outside, don’t blame me."

There might still have been a trace of joking in that sentence.

But Elias’s face held no humor at all.

"You don’t need to worry about that," he said. "A body like mine doesn’t matter. It makes no difference who takes it."

"The thing worth cherishing was already taken."

"There’s nothing left to protect."

Under words like that, Serena also went stiff.

"Then you still can’t leave," she said. "If you die outside the Blackwood residence and end up on the headlines tomorrow, I’ll be the one dragged into it."

Her voice tightened.

"Sleep first. Once tonight passes, we’ll talk."

President Blackwood clearly had no experience handling a scene like this.

All she could do was delay.

She seemed to think that if she could push this into tomorrow, there would still be a chance to fix it.