Chapter 370 Say Sorry First

Sebastian’s POV

Emilia opened her eyes. I reached for her face, my hand shaking, but she didn’t turn toward me. She just lay there, staring past me as though I wasn’t in the room.

I wanted her to yell at me, curse me, even throw something at my head. Anything would have been better than this silence. At least then I’d know she was still willing to speak to me.

Eve was silent too. Ryder paced restlessly in my head, whining, and for once, I had nothing to say to him.

“Emilia, cry if you need to. Shout at me. Hit me.” I struggled to keep my voice steady. “When you’re ready, I’ll explain everything. Please, just don’t look at me like that.”

I pressed my forehead to hers and closed my eyes. “I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.”

My voice broke, and my tears fell onto her cheek. Seeing her so quiet, without even the anger I deserved, hurt more than I could bear. I stayed close, waiting for her to move or say something.

She did neither. Not a single tear fell, and I began to understand that she wasn’t simply holding back. She was hurting so badly that she couldn’t even respond.

“Emilia, please.” I held her shoulders and shook her gently. “Say something. Don’t keep it all inside.”

Every second made it harder to stay still. I would have done anything to take that pain away from her, even hurt myself if it could have helped. Instead, I could only sit there, knowing I was the reason she was like this.

“Why her?” she asked at last. “If you wanted a child, I would have given you one. I would have found a way. Why did it have to be her?”

Her voice was flat. She didn’t shout or accuse me, but the question left me unable to speak. Of all the women in the world, it was Abigail, the one who had humiliating her.

Emilia’s grief came through the bond, and I couldn’t find the words to answer. She slowly looked up at me. One tear slipped down her cheek.

“That was the last bit of dignity I had.”

“No, Emilia. It’s not what you think. I swear on my blood.” I pulled her into my arms, unable to stop crying. “I love you. I would never choose to betray you.”

This was the second time I’d cried for her. When Abigail left on our wedding day, I hadn’t shed a tear. I’d already stopped expecting anything from her, but Emilia was different. I’d never been a man who cried easily, and now I couldn’t stop.

I wanted to explain what had happened and make her understand that I hadn’t chosen any of it. But she needed more than a defense of my innocence. She needed me to acknowledge what this had done to her.

A decent man didn’t make his own defense the first thing that mattered. Whatever had happened that night, I’d kept it from her, and now she was suffering because of it. Before I asked her to believe me, I had to say I was sorry.

Someone knocked, and my parents came in. My father looked from Emilia to me, his jaw tight. My mother covered her mouth when she saw Emilia’s face.

“Sebastian, explain what happened,” Mila said, coming to the bed. “I refuse to believe my son would do this.”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to remember the night I’d tried so hard to forget. If Abigail hadn’t come to our house that morning, I would have kept it secret for the rest of my life. Now I had to tell them.

I explained everything. When I finished, my father slammed his fist into the wall.

“She’s just like her mother,” Titus said angrily. “The same disgusting trick. Her mother did it to me twenty years ago.”

He took a breath and shook his head. “We both thought we were clever, and we still fell into their traps. It makes me sick.”

“Like mother, like daughter,” Mila said. “But being angry won’t fix this. We need to decide what to do.”

She sat beside Emilia, her expression softening. “Emilia, sweetheart, I know how much this hurts. But Titus, Sebastian, and I are on your side. We won’t let that woman destroy this family.”

Emilia didn’t respond. She hadn’t reacted to my explanation either, and nothing my mother said seemed to reach her. She just sat there, looking down.

Perhaps all she could see was Abigail in our living room, announcing that she was carrying my child. I could explain how it had happened, but I couldn’t make that fact disappear. For her, it was still another woman carrying her husband’s baby.

Then Emilia pushed herself up and got out of bed. She walked to the wardrobe, took out a suitcase, and laid it open on the mattress.

I stood immediately and gripped the bed frame. “Emilia, where are you going?”

“To the beach villa. I’m going to stay there for a few days.”

She took a few pieces of clothing from the wardrobe and packed them without looking at me. Then she closed the suitcase and headed for the door. I stepped in front of her.

“Will you forgive me?”

She finally met my eyes. “Do you really expect me to say it doesn’t matter? That you got another woman pregnant, and I’m fine with it? Is that what you want me to say?”

I had no answer. Of course she couldn’t say that, and I shouldn’t have asked her to. I’d wanted reassurance from the person I’d hurt most.

She lowered her head and walked past me. I turned to follow her downstairs, but my father caught my arm.

“Let her go,” he said. “Give her some time to calm down.”

“Your father’s right,” Mila added. “No woman could accept something like this so easily. She needs to be alone for a while and sort through what she’s feeling.”

I listened as Emilia went downstairs, then rubbed my forehead. My chest hurt, and I was exhausted by everything that had happened. I’d come home hoping to leave that night behind me, and now my wife was leaving because of it.

“Don’t worry,” my mother said. “Emilia is strong. She’ll get through this.”