Chapter 70: Impulsive decisions.
July 11 2026, 10:15am.
By this time, Elara was already getting better. Most of her injuries had completely healed, and due to her speedy healing abilities, her mangled flesh was all closed up, healed, and... completely back to normal.
Right now, she sat on her hospital bed, propped up on her elbows and eating from a food bowl that Tristan had provided.
Her face was scrunched up into a frown, and her fingers gripped the fork tightly as she shoved forkfuls of pasta she couldn’t taste into her mouth.
For a moment, none of them spoke. Neither she nor Tristan spoke, and after what felt like forever, she finally lifted her head, looked him dead in the eyes, and asked; "Why again did you decide to tell our parents that I did this to myself?"
"Because did you not?" Tristan bit back without hesitation. Hell, one would think he had been waiting for this moment for so long.
He dropped the book he was reading face down and lifted his head to meet her gaze. His eyes seemed to hold nothing but absolute tiredness as he spat; "Did you not douse yourself in the dye?"
Her voice was small, almost nonexistent as she whispered; "I did... but—"
"But nothing," Tristan cut in again, sounding harsher with each passing moment. Elara who noticed this too frowned deeply. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes and she begrudgingly placed the fork into the bowl and pushed it several inches away from where she was sitting.
She looked up at him with puppy dog eyes— pitiful eyes which for some reason did not stir the exact reaction she wanted from him— and cried; "It was both our fault, Tristan! I did it because I was hiding from Flyn—"
"And I told that story to our parents because I did not want them to ask too many questions and escalate this further than it should. I did that to protect you. I mean, I protected myself as well, but it was mostly to protect you!" He rasped, causing Elara to clamp her lips shut.
For a couple of minutes, Elara didn’t respond to him because there was sincerely nothing she could say to counter his claims. If anything, he was right.
And she knew.
However, another thing that still stood out to her was the way Flynn had never shown up to visit her once. Not even as a mistake.
She frowned.
"I asked our parents not to inform Flynn about your accident..." Tristan suddenly said as if he could easily see her thoughts. At the sound, she lifted her head and frowned at him.
"Why?"
"Because he saw you in my closet. He saw you sprawled on the floor, covered in corrosive dye and blood... and if he finds out afterward that you were in a freak accident— one involving a corrosive dye that ate away your flesh, then it wouldn’t take him a moment to figure out what this is... what had happened last week in my room... and what had happened that day at the rooftop, the day the princess died."
As soon as he said that, silence settled between them. Elara wove her fingers together, her brows furrowing until they almost appeared like a unified brow.
She didn’t return to her food. She couldn’t because strangely, she felt suddenly full.
However, at this point, she felt done.
Done with waiting on a man who doesn’t seem to want her anymore. Done with hiding her illicit relationship with her stepbrother who loved her more than he loved himself. Done with watching Nyx’ara win over and over again no matter how hard she tried.
And done with allowing the events of that particular night to keep haunting her.
Her heart pounded against her chest as she turned to look at Tristan and with a voice barely above a whisper— but he heard her— she said;
"I think we should come out of the closet."
Tristan frowned in confusion. "Huh?"
"I think we should tell our parents the truth about us and end my engagement with Flynn." She tried again,
However, as soon as she said that, Tristan jumped to his feet. He aggressively palmed his hand over her mouth as if stopping her from saying something more and with his eyes wide open, he hissed;
"No!"
"No?" Elara was stunned. She thought he wanted that too. She thought he’d always wanted that!
"No! Goddess, are you insane?!" He whisper-yelled at her. "Do you know what that will do to me? To you? To our family?!"
It took her more than a second to see the reluctance in Tristan’s actions and words. But what she didn’t take long to realise was how different he seemed now.
How he no longer watched her face like she was the only girl for him.
How he no longer tucked away her stray hairs even though a lot now fanned her temples.
Her face fell and so did her heart. She hissed fiercely, slapping him off: "Goddamn! I was kidding! You don’t have to be so rough!"
And as soon as she said that, Tristan let out a sigh and let her go. He then walked away from her to check the door but he didn’t see the way she watched him darkly nor the several red flags now ticking violently in her head.
—
A couple of hours later, her mother and stepfather returned to her ward after attending some important meeting, and this time, when they came, they seemed delighted to see her in a better state.
Her face and skin were back to normal but some of her hair, the ones that had melted off from the tips, still looked slightly mangled, so Kai shot a look at it and said; "You should go to a stylist as soon as you are discharged."
Elara’s head whipped up from her books and as she turned to glare at Kai, but upon the realization that he was only looking out for her, the corners of her lips twitched slightly, lifting into a smile.
"I will."
"You should also visit the spa with your mother tomorrow. Your skin looks pale and not as moisturised as it used to."
Something about that caught her attention and she found herself looking between her mother and her stepfather, her brows scrunching up as she hissed;
"Is there an occasion?"
"Yes!" Celine screeched loudly, feeling unable to hide her excitement. "Your fiancé, Flynn, just secured a deal with the Singaporean business tycoon, Vincent Lau Jian-Hao, and we were all invited to the gala celebrating his success."
"Especially youu!" Celine added, "he thinks you went away to visit my mother... so he’s expecting you to be there!"
As soon as Elara heard that, a smile bloomed across her face. She subtly glanced in Tristan’s direction to find him smiling too and she could not help but be grateful that he’d refused to agree to her impulsive request earlier.
She smiled.
"Okay. I’ll go to the salon first."