(A spin-off of “Submitting to My Ex-Uncle”. However, can be read alone)

………
He ruined her once.
Now, she belongs to another man.

Three years after Elias shattered her heart and disappeared, Amara has rebuilt her life. Or at least, pretended to. Her books are bestsellers now, her name was highly adored, and her smile well practiced.

However, when the ghosts of her past resurface, she does the unthinkable. She immediately marries Travis Alden.

Cold. Brilliant. Dangerous. A man who doesn’t believe in love but needs a wife for reasons of his own.

It was supposed to be a business arrangement. No touch. No feelings. And no complications.

Until Elias returns. Her first love, and her greatest sin. A fire she thought she buried comes roaring back to life.

Travis tempts her with safety and devotion. Slowly, he even began to show her what love really felt like.

Meanwhile, Elias drags her back into the darkness she once called home. He still looks at her like she’s the only prayer he ever learned to say.

And when he whispers mine against her skin, the line between past and present blurs dangerously.

In a world where desire is a weapon and love is the deadliest addiction, Amara must decide which man she’s willing to burn for. 

The husband who would kill to keep her,
or the ex who already destroyed her once?

………. 

“I love my marriage, Elias.” She said it too quickly. The words escaped her lips like a reflex, and not a truth.

Elias’s eyes darkened. He stepped closer, slow and deliberate, until the air between them felt charged enough to burn them.

“Do you?” he asked, voice low. Too low. It trembled with everything between pain and hunger. “Then why do your pupils dilate when I walk in, Amara?”

She swallowed hard, her spine pressing lightly against the wall behind her. He was close enough for her to feel the whisper of his breath near her temple 

“You don’t get to do this anymore.” She gasped at him.

He smiled. “Do what? Remind you what it felt like to actually want someone?”

Her pulse raced; she hated that he could still read it, and still hear it.

“Stop it.”

Elias reached up, brushing a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear. His fingertips grazed her skin, light as a ghost, and yet she felt it everywhere.

“You can tell him you love him all you want,” he murmured, his lips just an inch from her ear, “but just don’t look at him like this when you do.”

She exhaled sharply, trying to turn away, but he caught her wrist gently, not to restrain her, just to remind her.

“Because that look…” he whispered, his voice breaking slightly, “this look used to be mine.”

The phone rang just as Celeste's car slid past her empire. She barely glanced at the screen before answering.


"Amara?" Her tone was soft at first, distracted. Then the silence on the other end stretched long enough for her to look up. "What's wrong?"


Celeste's face fell immediately. "What happened? Why do you look like that? Did someone hurt you?"


"Celeste…" Amara's whisper cracked, her voice faint against the hum of city traffic. "He's alive."


Celeste's hand froze mid-air. Her knuckles whitened around the phone. "…Who?"


Celeste froze. For a full three seconds, she didn't blink. "No. No, that's not possible."


Celeste shook her head rapidly, disbelief flashing across her face. "That can't… Amara, he's dead. He was shot. You told me. Dominic said—"


Her voice trembled, but there was a strange steadiness beneath it. "But he's alive. He's in New York."


Chapter 20 - He's alive.