CHAPTER 21
Confrontation
We must have stayed like that for hours. Curled into each other, our bodies still warm from the intensity of the night, the ocean wind brushing softly against the glass walls of the bedroom. At some point the exhaustion finally catches up to us.
And we fall asleep.
My phone buzzing pulls me out of the darkness. The sound is sharp in the quiet room. I open my eyes slowly.
Dominic.
His name glows across the screen and my body stiffens instantly. I sit up and ignore the call. The phone stops vibrating. Then the screen lights up again.
I glance at the time. 3:02 a.m. “Fuck,” I whisper under my breath.
I must have fallen asleep. Dominic must be home now.
His sixteen-hour shift is probably over.
A small wave of panic creeps into my chest. Beside me, Lucien shifts slightly in the bed.
He must feel the tension in my body because he opens his eyes almost immediately.
He lifts himself onto one elbow and presses a soft kiss against my bare shoulder.
“He needs to know,” Lucien murmurs.
A small knot twists inside me.
“I need to call Dominic,” I say quietly. “I’ll be right back.”
Lucien studies my face for a moment, then he nods. Understanding. I slip out of the bed and grab my phone before stepping out of the bedroom. Only now do I really notice the house.
It’s enormous. Massive open spaces, high ceilings, glass walls that overlook the dark ocean and the sleeping city below.
The architecture is sleek and modern, the kind of place designed for someone with more money than they know what to do with.
I didn’t notice any of it earlier tonight. Earlier I was too distracted.
Too overwhelmed by Lucien.
I make my way downstairs and step into the kitchen, the ocean view stretches endlessly beyond the windows. My fingers tremble slightly as I scroll through my contacts.
Dominic. I press call. He answers almost instantly. “Era?!” His voice comes through the phone frantic and breathless. “Where are you? Are you okay?”
I swallow hard, forcing myself to stay calm. “I… uh… I’m at my sister’s place.” The lie slips out automatically. “Dom… I need time.”
There’s a pause.
I can almost hear the confusion through the phone. “Time for what?” he asks.
A quiet, unbearable weight settles in my chest. “This has been a lot, Dom,” I say quietly. “And you know it.” There it is again, my cowardice. The part of me that still can’t bring myself to say the words out loud.
Dominic exhales slowly, like he understands exactly what I mean.
“Era,” he says softly, “if you need time, I’ll give it to you.
” His voice cracks slightly. “But please… come back to me.” My heart pounds harder.
“I… I need to talk to you,” he continues.
“No more hiding. I need to tell you the truth.”
My breathing stutters, uneven and shallow.
This is it.
His confession.
I force the words out. “Nadia… my coworker. She’s Sophie’s sister.” There’s a pause on the other end. “Sophie is missing.”
Silence. Dense and pressing. Like the world has stopped moving. And in that silence, I know. He knows I know. The affair, the blood on his hands. Everything.
“Yes,” Dominic finally says. “I know.” The words feel like ice running through my veins.
My voice barely comes out. “Did you do it?” I cover my mouth immediately, trying to silence the sob that escapes me.
Dominic doesn’t answer right away.
Then I hear it.
Crying.
Soft at first.
Then deeper.
“I… I think I did, Era.” His voice breaks. “I think I did.”
The world around me feels like it suddenly tilts.
For a second I don’t breathe. The words echo in my ears, repeating over and over like my mind can’t quite accept that they’re real.
I think I did.
Tears blur my vision until the kitchen lights smear into soft streaks of gold and white. My hand tightens around the phone as if it’s the only thing keeping me standing. The man I thought I knew. The man I married. The man I trusted with every part of my life.
He’s gone. And the truth crashes into me slowly, painfully, like a wave pulling everything away with it.
There were signs. So many signs. The late nights, the lies, the feeling in my gut that something was wrong long before I ever had proof.
But I ignored them. Because loving someone sometimes means convincing yourself the darkness you see isn’t real.
My chest aches as the memories flood back.
Five years.
Five years of birthdays, holidays, quiet mornings, and late-night conversations. Five years of believing we were building something real together. And now I realize something that feels even worse than the confession itself.
That life… the one I thought we had…
It doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe it never did. A quiet grief spreads through me. The kind that settles deep in your bones when you finally understand that something is truly over. There’s no fixing this. No pretending. No going back to normal.
Even if Sophie somehow survived…
Even if Dominic never touched her…
The truth is already here, the truth has already broken us. I feel fear too. Not just of what Dominic may have done. But of the man I suddenly realize I never fully knew.
Because if he’s capable of this…
Then what else was hiding beneath the life we built together?
My voice trembles as I try to steady myself, wiping at the tears on my face.
Somewhere deep inside me, a quiet certainty settles in.
This is the end. There is no version of our marriage that survives this.
No version where we pretend everything is okay, no version where we go back to the life we had before tonight.
The man on the other end of the phone is still crying but the man I loved is already gone. “Era please,” Dominic whispers through the phone. “I need to tell you everything. But not like this… please come back to me.”
I wipe the tears from my face.
“No more lies, Dom,” I say quietly. “I need to know the truth.”
“Yes,” he says quickly. “No more lies.”
My chest rises and falls slowly.
“Okay,” I whisper. “I’ll come back home today. I’ll see you at the house.”
“I’ll come pick you up,” Dominic says immediately.
“No,” I interrupt. “Wait for me at the house.”
A pause.
Then his voice softens.
“I love you, Era. Always. I’ll wait for you.”
The call ends.
I stand there for a moment, staring at the phone in my hand. Then I turn and walk back upstairs. Lucien is sitting up in the bed waiting for me. The moment he sees my face he already knows something is wrong.
“Lucien…” My voice shakes. “I need to see him.”
His expression darkens instantly.
“No fucking way,” he says. “I’m not letting you go near him.”
“I know Dominic,” I say quickly. “He would never hurt me.”
Lucien scoffs softly.
“He’s already hurt you.” His eyes burn into mine. “He’s fucked up so many times, Sera. I’m not letting him near you.”
Something about his words catches in the back of my mind.
He’s fucked up so many times.
I never told Lucien Dominic cheated before. Is it really that obvious? I shake the thought away.
Lucien steps closer.
“There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go alone,” he says firmly. “And I’m not asking.” He cups my face in his hands and presses a soft kiss against my lips.
I exhale slowly.
“Okay,” I whisper.
“Okay.”
Lucien and I get dressed in silence. The room still carries the warmth of what just happened between us, but neither of us speaks about it. There are no teasing words, no lingering smiles, just the quiet understanding that the world outside this house is still waiting for us.
We walk downstairs together and step back into the night. The ocean wind feels colder now. We climb into the car, and Lucien starts the engine. The headlights cut through the darkness as we pull away from the house and onto the winding road that leads back toward the city.
Neither of us says anything. Instead, he reaches over and takes my hand.
His fingers lace through mine naturally, like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
I grip his hand tighter than I mean to. Like I’m trying to hold on to something.
Because somewhere deep inside me, it feels like a piece of my life is slowly slipping away.
The road hums quietly beneath the tires.
We’re about ten minutes into the drive when my phone suddenly rings. The sound startles me. I glance down at the screen.
Nadia.
I took her number earlier at the office after we talked about Sophie. I told her I’d call if I heard anything. My stomach twists. She’s probably calling to ask if I found something, If I know anything.
I answer quickly.
“Nadia?”
All I hear at first is crying. Not quiet crying, panicked, frantic.
“They found her, Era,” Nadia gasps through the phone. “They found her car.”
My heart drops.
“What?” I whisper.
“She— she was in it,” Nadia says, her voice breaking as the words stumble over each other. “It was in a ditch. The police just called me. I—I don’t even know what happened.”
She’s crying so hard I can barely understand her.
“I’m sorry,” she says quickly between sobs. “I’m sorry I called you. I know you’ll understand. I just— I don’t have anyone else right now and I’m scared.”
Her voice cracks again.
“My son is asleep and I can’t think and I’m just— I don’t know what to do.”
I feel a tightness settle inside me.
“Nadia,” I say softly. “I’ve got you.” I glance out at the dark road ahead, my voice steady even though my heart is racing. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
For a moment, the words feel strangely familiar. Like I’ve said them before. A memory flickers at the edge of my mind. Me saying the same thing to someone else.
I’ve got you.
I’m here.
But the image is blurry, out of reach. The feeling that comes with it is stronger than the memory itself.
A strange ache.
Like the slow, painful feeling of losing someone. The sensation slips through my fingers before I can understand it. I shake the thought away. This isn’t about me right now, this is about Nadia.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers again after a moment. “I should go. I just… I wanted you to know.” Before I can say anything else, the call ends.
I can’t get that memory out of my head. It sits there in the back of my mind, just out of reach. I keep trying to grab it, to pull it into focus, but every time I get close it slips away again.
I try to remember.
Who was I saying it to?
I’ve got you.
I’m here.
But the memory won’t come, only the feeling remains.
A heavy one.
Loss.
It presses against my chest like something is missing, like a piece of me was once there and somehow vanished without a trace.
Not drifted away, not faded, gone. Completely gone.
My fingers curl against my chest as if I can physically hold my heart together.
The emptiness scares me, I shove the feeling away, push it down before I can think about it too much.
I don’t understand it. And right now I don’t have the space to because another thought pushes its way forward.
Dominic.
A sick feeling settles in me. Why did he say he did it?
If Sophie’s car was found in a ditch…
Did he run her off the road?
Did he—
My breath catches. Oh my God. The image flashes through my mind before I can stop it. Dominic standing over her, the blood on his hands. Something inside me recoils. I cannot believe he’s capable of something like that. Something so cold. So evil.
Lucien’s voice breaks through my thoughts.
“Sera.” I look at him. His eyes flicker toward me briefly before returning to the road. “No matter what happens,” he says quietly, “I’m here.” His voice is steady. Grounding. “I’m here for you. No matter what.”
He squeezes my hand gently before lifting it to his lips.
He kisses the back of it softly while his other hand steadies the wheel.
The car continues down the dark road. For a while we drive in silence again.
I stare out through the windshield, watching the empty road stretch endlessly ahead of us.
The headlights slice through the darkness.
Then, my heart stops.
A pair of headlights approaches in the opposite lane.
At first it’s just another car passing by.
Until it gets closer.
Closer.
And suddenly I see the driver.
Dominic.
He’s staring straight at me through the windshield of his car.
His face is filled with confusion, shock, recognition.
Like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. Like he can’t believe who I’m sitting beside.
For a split second, time freezes. Then he jerks his wheel violently.
His car swerves to the side of the road.
Lucien startles beside me.
“Fuck—what the fuck was that?”
My heart slams against my ribs. In the rearview mirror I see Dominic’s car spin around. Tires screech against the asphalt as he makes a hard U-turn. Panic shoots through my chest.
“It’s Dominic,” I say breathlessly. “He saw us.”