Chapter 66: Tahlia’s persistence

Soren stared at the monitor, barely registering the doctor’s words. His fingers tightened around Elowen’s hand.

"Elowen." His voice came out rougher than expected. "Is that really our baby?"

She laughed softly. "Yes, Soren. Our baby."

Another wave of joy swept through him, so powerful that his chest tightened. But beneath that joy lay a sharp, unbearable pang of regret.

Elowen might have seen this before when she was carrying Seraphina. She must have heard their daughter’s heartbeat just like that. Perhaps she had smiled at the sound. Perhaps tears had filled her eyes.

And he...

He had missed every single moment. He had not been there standing beside her and holding her hand.

’What kind of husband had I been?’

Elowen had carried their child while enduring his coldness. She had faced the fear of pregnancy without the comfort of her husband’s presence.

He had never tried to know how her appointment had gone.

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

He bent down and kissed her knuckles.

"I am sorry," he whispered.

Elowen looked at him with surprise. "For what?"

"I should have been beside you," Soren almost choked with his emotions. "I should have held your hand. I should have asked if you were okay and if our baby was growing safely. I should have been excited with you."

His fingers trembled around hers.

"But I left you to face everything alone."

He met her eyes. "I missed you, Elowen. I missed the chance to hear our Sera’s heartbeat for the first time and to share your happiness and fear. I can’t even imagine how lonely you must have felt."

His throat burned.

"And I can’t forgive myself for being the reason you had to go through it all alone."

Elowen’s own eyes glistened.

For years, she had wished he would care about her, even a little. She had wanted him to ask about her health, to notice him when she was tired, and to show some interest in her.

But all she had received was coldness. She had learned to swallow her disappointment and pretend she didn’t need him.

Now, hearing him acknowledge the very things she had once cried over in silence stirred emotions she couldn’t put into words.

"Soren..."

"I know saying sorry won’t give me those moments back. It won’t erase what you went through. But I don’t want to miss anything this time. I want to be there for every checkup. I want to know when our baby starts moving and feel those little kicks with you."

Her heart ached at the sincerity of his voice. There were still wounds between them, and trust would take time to rebuild. But this was the first time she had seen him grieve not only for what he had done to her but also for the memories he had thrown away himself.

She squeezed his hand. "You can be here now. You can’t change what happened, but you can choose what you do from now on."

He nodded frantically, holding his tears back. "I will. I promise. I will."

~~~~~~~~~~~

At the Blackwood residence...

Tahlia stormed into her father’s study.

"Papa, you have to do something." Her shrill voice shattered the quietness of the room.

Nolan Blackwood lifted his eyes from the documents he had been checking. "Where is your etiquette? Why are you yelling?"

His brows drew together, a sign of irritation.

"Soren fired me," Tahlia snapped.

Nolan went still, shock clouding his face. For a moment, he couldn’t react. He couldn’t find a word to express his shock.

"He fired me without a second thought," Tahlia continued with the same sharp voice. He disregarded our years of friendship and showed no respect for the relationship between our families. One impulsive decision, and he threw everything away."

She marched toward his desk and gripped its edge. "I am so angry. What do you expect me to do in this situation?"

She leaned forward. "You have to help me. You can’t let him get away with humiliating me like this. I am your daughter, the Blackwood heiress. You can’t just stand by and watch him treat me like I am nothing."

Nolan was still silent, trying to make sense of her outburst. Then his expression hardened.

"Soren is not someone who makes impulsive decisions. If he fired you, he probably had a valid reason."

His response only fueled her anger. "Are you taking his side?" she snapped, her patience fraying. "He humiliated me. Your daughter. And you are defending him?"

"Tahlia..." Nolan waved dismissively. "Stop yelling, and tell me what happened."

Tahlia’s lips trembled. She let her tears fall. "He fired me because of a mistake I made in the past. You have to talk to him. Make him apologize to me and tell him to give me my position back."

Nolan didn’t give in to her demand.

"What mistake are you talking about?" he asked, his tone growing cold.

Tahlia suddenly fell silent. She pursed her lips tightly, her gaze dropping to the floor. She had hoped to gain her father’s support without revealing the truth, but his sharp gaze remained fixed on her.

"What did you do, Tahlia?" Nolan demanded.

Tahlia still said nothing, debating whether to tell him the truth.

Nolan’s voice grew sharper. "If you don’t tell me, how do you expect me to defend you?"

Tahlia twisted her fingers together. "I spiked his drink."

"What?" Nolan froze. For several seconds, he didn’t move.

’I spiked his drink.’ Those words echoed inside his brain.

Then his face darkened, and the veins in his neck bulged.

"What did you say? You drugged him?"

Tahlia’s composure threatened to break. She swallowed nervously, but she forced herself to explain.

"I love him. I wanted to reconcile with him, but he kept rejecting me. I was desperate."

"So drugged him?" Nolan repeated, struggling to believe what he was hearing.

Tahlia felt helpless beneath his disapproving stare. She had expected him to comfort her, support her, and perhaps even promise to fix the situation. Instead, he looked at her as though she had committed an unforgivable crime.

This was not how she had expected the conversation to go. The realization that her father might not help her only made her more desperate.

"I wanted to make him mine," Tahlia exclaimed to convince her father to understand her point. "I wanted to marry him. But he told me he didn’t want me anymore. I didn’t know what else to do. I thought if I drugged him, I could force him to marry me. But..."

Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest.

"But what?" Nolan hissed, his expression turning frigid.

Tahlia chewed the insides of her cheeks, hesitating.

"You still won’t speak." Nolan slowly rose from his chair. "I spent years building this family’s reputation. I’ve maintained our relationship with the Vale family for decades. And you’ve put everything at risk because you couldn’t accept rejection?"

"I just want to marry him," Tahlia blurted out.

"Is that so?" Nolan roared. "Then explain something to me. Weren’t you the one who broke up with him? You insisted on going abroad just to get away from him. If you wanted to marry him, why did you end things with him in the first place?"