Married To The Billionaire Alpha King Chapter 3 - unfair

3

~Elara’s POV

Aunty Stella, my mom’s younger sister, grabbed by the arm and yanked up from the floor. "What is wrong with you?!" she scread. "Have you lost your mind completely?!"

I tried to talk, but my voice cracked. "I... I just wanted it to stop... please...."

Before I could finish, her hand hit my face, hard. The slap stung so bad that I stumbled backward and hit the wall.

Three slaps in a day!

"Don’t you dare!" Stella scread, her voice trembling with rage. "You took her from , and now you want to run from your punishnt? Coward!"

I didn’t move. I didn’t speak. I just stood there, my cheek burning, my heart heavy. I’d heard all of it before, every word, every insult, every reminder of what she thought I’d done.

"Shut up!" she shouted again, even though I hadn’t said a thing. "You dare try to take your life before you’ve even paid for your sins?"

Her eyes were wild, her hands shaking as she pointed at . "You killed your mother!" she scread, voice cracking on the last word.

My chest tightened. The sa words. Always the sa. Since I was a child, she never stopped blaming . She had already decided I was guilty, that I had stolen the only person who ever loved her.

I pressed a hand to my face, crying harder. My chest felt like it was caving in. "Please... I can’t take this anymore..."

She hissed loudly, her eyes filled with disgust. "You don’t get to decide what you can or can’t do! You will get up tomorrow, wear the clothes they tell you to wear, and marry that man they chose for you. That’s how you’ll start paying for what you did."

I froze. "You can’t an that..."

"Oh, I do," she snapped. "The makeup artist and your clothes will arrive very early tomorrow morning. I’ll tell them to wake you up before sunrise."

My throat tightened. "I don’t even know him...."

"Enough!" she shouted. "You’ll do as you’re told! If you ever, ever try sothing like this again, Elara..." She stepped closer until her face was right in front of mine, her voice low and sharp like a knife. "I will kill you myself. For real this ti."

My whole body shook. She looked at like I was dirt.

She glared for a long mont before turning toward the door. "Pathetic girl," she muttered under her breath.

Then she walked out, slamming the door behind her.

The sound echoed in the room, leaving in thick silence. I fell to the floor again, curling into myself. The rope above still swung slowly, and just looking at it made feel sick.

I started crying again, loud, painful sobs that ca from deep inside my chest. I didn’t care who heard.

"Why?" I cried out, my voice echoing in the room. "Why do you all hate this much? What did I ever do to deserve this?"

I hit my fists against the floor, over and over until they hurt.

Minutes passed. Maybe hours. I couldn’t tell. My tears had soaked the floor. My head hurt. My body ached. I just sat there, shaking.

When I finally got tired of crying, I looked toward the table and saw my phone. My only connection to soone who ever truly cared, Janae.

Janae was the only friend I had. The only person who ever saw for .

With trembling fingers, I picked up the phone and dialed her number. My hands shook so much that I almost dropped it.

The call barely rang twice before she picked up.

"Elara?" Her voice was soft, worried. "Hey, are you okay? You never call this late."

The mont I heard her voice, I broke down again. "Janae..."

"Elara, what’s wrong?" she asked quickly. "You’re scaring ."

I tried to speak, but the sobs ca out too fast. "I... I can’t do this anymore."

"What happened? Talk to ," she said, her voice gentle but firm.

"Lina?" Her voice was soft, worried. "You sound terrible. What happened?"

That was it. I broke. The words poured out between sobs. "She stole it, Janae. She....Lira took my project. She presented it like it were hers. They all believed her."

"Oh my God," Janae breathed. "Are you serious? Elara..."

"And Ronan," I choked out. "I went to find him after the eting. I thought...he’d believe and make feel better. But he was with her. Kissing her. Right there. And he said....he said I was stupid for believing that he would love soone like ."

"What a bloody jerk!..." Her voice cracked. "I’m so sorry that you had to go through all that, Elara. I don’t even know what to say."

"I feel like I don’t exist," I whispered. "Like I’m just this... spare part they use when Lira doesn’t want sothing."

There was silence on the other end for a mont. Then Janae said softly, "You’re not disposable, Elara. You hear ? You deserve more than the scraps they throw at you."

Her words made my throat tighten. "Then why doesn’t anyone see that?"

"They will," she said firmly. "But not if you let them keep breaking you."

"I don’t have a choice," I whispered. "They just told I’m getting married."

"What?" Janae gasped. "To whom?"

"I don’t know," I said bitterly. "They won’t tell . Just that he’s older and Lira was too ’good’ for him. So they picked instead."

"That’s insane!" Janae snapped. "You can’t let them do that!"

"What can I do?" I said quietly. "I’m nothing but a maid. I don’t even have my project anymore. Or my boyfriend. Or... myself."

There was a long silence. I could hear Janae’s breathing. Then she said, "You still have you, Elara. Don’t let them take that too."

I stayed quiet for a long mont, trying to steady my breath. "Janae?"

"Yeah?"

"I don’t want to be anymore," I whispered.

"Don’t say that."

"It’s true," I said, my voice shaking. "Every ti I try, I lose. Every ti I love, it’s used against . I don’t even know who I am without them telling what I can’t be."

Janae was crying now, too. "Then promise you’ll at least be fine till tomorrow. I will co over to your place to check on you."

I nodded even though she couldn’t see . "I’ll try, but I can’t promise..."

We stayed on the phone for a while. She told to breathe, to drink water, to rest. When I finally hung up, the silence in my room felt louder than before.

I clutched my phone tighter, holding it against my chest like it could stop my heart from breaking apart. Janae’s voice still lingered in my head, soft and full of concern, but it did nothing to ease the dread twisting in my stomach.

The silence in my room felt deafening. Reality hit hard. Tomorrow, I’d wake up trapped in an engagent I never agreed to. And worse, I had no idea who the groom even was.

A sharp sob escaped before I could stop it. I pressed my palms to my face, but the tears ca anyway, hot, helpless, endless. My chest ached.

"This is just so unfair!" I scread, the words tearing from my throat before I could stop them. My hands shook as I grabbed the flower vase from the table and hurled it at the wall.

Why ? Why ?

I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to calm the wild rhythm of my heartbeat. But nothing helped. The anger burned hotter, mixing with the fear, the betrayal, the helplessness. I wanted to scream until the walls cracked, until soone finally listened.

Tears blurred my vision as I whispered, "I didn’t ask for this... I didn’t ask for any of this."