Chapter 13 Chasing Shadows

Lila POV

I was checking in for my flight at Charles de Gaulle Airport when my phone began buzzing incessantly with calls from Marcus's number. I'd been expecting this—the discovery of the papers in his safe would have led him directly to the airport as I'd planned.

From my position in the first-class lounge, I watched the departure board count down the minutes until my escape would be complete. Air France 447 to Paris was boarding in twenty minutes, and Marcus was three thousand miles away, frantically realizing he'd lost everything.

My phone rang for the fifteenth time. This time, I answered.

"Marcus." My voice was calm, controlled. "I see you made it to the airport."

"Where are you? I need to talk to you. About the baby, about everything—" His desperation carried clearly through the connection, and I could imagine him pressed against the security barrier, watching helplessly as passengers flowed past him toward the gates.

"I'm at my gate. And no, you don't need to talk to me about anything. We're past talking."

"Lila, please. I had no idea you were pregnant. If I had known—"

"If you had known, what? You would have thrown Vera away like yesterday's newspaper and pretended to want our child instead?" I kept my voice level, though my free hand moved unconsciously to my stomach where our actual child continued growing in secret.

"I fucked up. I know I fucked up. But we can fix this. We can—"

"There's nothing left to fix, Marcus. You made your choice when you decided I was broken. You made your choice when you started planning a replacement family while I was still sleeping in your bed."

"The baby—"

"The baby is gone." The lie came easily now, practiced. "The doctors said the miscarriage was because of the wolfsbane damage. So congratulations—your affair didn't just cost you your wife. It cost you your first child too."

I heard him make a sound that might have been a sob, and felt nothing. No pity, no regret, no desire to comfort the man who'd planned my obsolescence while I'd been carrying his heir.

"I love you," Marcus whispered, the words sounding hollow and desperate.

"No, you don't. You love the idea of me when it's convenient. You love having a wife who makes you look good at pack events. But you don't love me enough to choose me over easier options."

Through the lounge windows, I could see ground crew preparing my plane for departure. Freedom waited just beyond that jetbridge, along with a future that belonged entirely to me.

"Lila—"

"My plane is boarding. Don't follow me to Paris. Don't send private investigators. Don't contact my family. We're finished."

I hung up and powered off my phone, severing the last connection to the life I was leaving behind.

As I walked toward the gate, I felt lighter with every step. The wedding rings I'd worn for four years were already in an envelope addressed to Marcus's office—a final return of property that no longer held meaning.

The flight attendant smiled as she scanned my boarding pass. "First class to Paris?"

"Yes," I said, settling into the spacious seat that represented the beginning of everything new. "I'm going home."

As the plane lifted off, banking over the lights of the city I was leaving forever, I placed my hand over my stomach and whispered a promise to the child growing there: "You'll never have to wonder if you're wanted. You'll never be anyone's second choice."

Somewhere below, Marcus was probably still standing at that security barrier, staring at the departure board that confirmed his loss. He thought he was mourning a marriage and a miscarried child, unaware that the greatest treasure of his life was flying away from him at thirty thousand feet.

The baby I carried would grow up bilingual, bicultural, and completely loved. This child would never know the weight of a father's disappointment or the sting of being considered damaged goods.

Marcus had wanted a simple solution to replace his complicated wife. Instead, he'd lost everything that mattered while I escaped with the most precious secret of all.

The plane banked toward Europe, and I didn't look back.