He Turned My Love Into a Grave Chapter 01

He Turned My Love Into a Grave Chapter 01

Elara Voss scrolled past a post about physical attraction online—the kind that made you obsessed with someone’s scent, their skin, even the way they dressed.

Smiling, she picked up her phone and commented.

[Exactly. I love the way my husband smells. He always has this sweet, milky scent.]

Seconds later, a strange reply popped up beneath her words.

[I bet you guys have the most adorable little baby. Congrats, by the way!]

Elara and Silas Voss had been married five years. They’d agreed on no kids. Their lives belonged to each other.

Laughing, she replied: [We don’t have children!]

A long pause followed. Then another reply surfaced.

[Wait, how is that even possible? Like, even if he chugs milk or uses some milk-scented body wash—that sweet, creamy smell doesn’t just stick to someone’s skin. Not unless you’ve had a baby. That’s exactly how my husband smells.]

The words detonated inside Elara’s skull. Her mind seized on a memory from two months ago. Silas’s company had launched an overseas project, and since then, he’d been gone exactly fifteen days a month for negotiations.

That sweet, milky scent had appeared two months ago too.

It was her birthday. Silas had rushed home and wrapped his arms around her the second he walked through the door. He murmured against her ear, “God, I missed you.”

The faint fragrance drifted into her nose without warning. Elara had laughed and teased him. “You smell so good. Kind of sweet and milky.”

A flicker of hesitation crossed Silas’s eyes before he kissed her cheek. His explanation came smooth and composed. “I just got back. Didn’t wanna hear you complain, so I grabbed a shower at my assistant’s place. Used his body wash.”

He was always meticulous—obsessed with appearances, intolerant of any flaw. So Elara let it go. She even teased him some more.

“Then don’t switch it out,” she teased. “I like this smell on you.”

Silas didn’t answer. He scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed. The heat of desire drowned that tiny discrepancy in a tangle of limbs and skin.

Back then, desire had drowned out every doubt.

But now, that stranger’s comment replayed in Elara’s head over and over, making her chest tighten with fear.

That afternoon, Elara got her hands on Silas’s itinerary. She followed him, determined to uncover the truth.

The plane touched down fast. She tailed that understated Bentley Mulsanne all the way to a sprawling estate. Hawthorne Estate rose before her like something out of a dream.

In front of the massive garden fountain, a tall man cradled a woman in his arms. And in their embrace, they held a baby.

The blood in Elara’s veins froze solid.

Applause thundered through the air. Beyond a pyramid of champagne glasses, the man’s familiar voice drifted toward her. “Thank you all for coming to celebrate my son. Every guest here tonight walks away with a serious check. No exceptions.”

Silas’s best friend shouted his congratulations. “Silas, you’re living the dream. Got a kid with the woman you actually love, and a wife on paper to keep the empire steady. Best of both worlds, man.”

The woman he loved.

Elara’s gaze snapped to the woman on stage—Lila Hale.

Memories hit her like a tidal wave.

Lila was Silas’s first girlfriend. They could have walked into a perfect future together, but after Lila won a ballet competition and caught the eye of the International Dance Association, she dumped Silas for her dreams. She vanished for three years.

When Silas found out Lila had a new boyfriend overseas, his faithful, waiting heart got doused in ice water. After that, he started hunting for a strategic match. After evaluating every option, he set his sights on the Voss family.

But Elara had grown up spoiled and proud. She couldn’t stomach marrying a man whose heart belonged to someone else. And she sure as hell wasn’t sharing a bed with a man she didn’t love.

So she fought back. She provoked him, hoping he’d walk away.

He scheduled an International Conference. She bombarded his phone with a dozen prank calls, derailing his entire rhythm.

He gave her a white Supercar. She casually handed it off to a male model at a bar, calling the color bad luck.

He took her dancing. She stomped all over his feet with clumsy steps and sneered, “I’m not some polished, well-behaved heiress. I’m not good enough for you, Silas.”

Everyone assumed her recklessness would eventually drive him away. They were wrong. No matter how wildly she acted, Silas indulged her.

He shifted his international calls to the middle of the night, never missing a single one of her calls—even the prank ones.

When she partied late at bars, he waited with endless patience and drove her home himself. He made her greasy hangover breakfasts.

That time she bruised the tops of his feet until they were a mess of purple and black, he never scolded her. He just silently applied ointment and asked, gentle as ever, “You worn out yet?”

Then the Hale family got hit by a vendetta. A scandal exploded. Their status crumbled overnight. The partners who once kissed up to them pulled their investments and fled like rats from a sinking ship.

Elara plummeted from the heavens and became a stray dog everyone could kick.

She scraped together every connection she had left, desperate to set up a meeting and beg for help. Instead, someone drugged her.

“Get on your knees and clean me off, Elara. Then I’ll help you out. I’ve always wondered what a fallen princess looks like up close. Come on—show me.”

Her world shattered. She stood frozen.

The door flew open with a violent crash. Silas’s voice tore through the foul air, thick with fury. “The Hale family is under my protection now. Get the hell out. All of you!”

No one could resist a moment like that. Elara heard her own heart slamming against her ribs.

Silas tore off his jacket and wrapped it around her battered body. Pain churned in his eyes. “I’m chasing you, Elara. You can use me however you want. But when things went to hell—why didn’t you come to me? Why pull something this stupid?”

“Silas, after everything I put you through…” She never imagined he’d help. She’d humiliated him a hundred times over. She’d arrogantly tried to break off the engagement.

He looked down, his cold, sharp features utterly unreadable. “So what? Just a little rough foreplay between us. You’re my fiancée. Spoiling you is my job.”

That was it. Elara fell. In the darkest moment of her life, Silas was the light cutting through. Even when her best friend warned her, a man still tangled up in his first love can never really love you, Elara didn’t listen.

She dove in headfirst.

She was wrong. She knew now how utterly she’d lost.

Her thoughts got ripped back to the present by the conversation drifting toward her.

Silas’s friend continued. “Seriously, though, Silas has got it made. But Elara with that temper? If she ever finds out, won’t she burn the whole thing down?”

“Come on. Silas and Lila got a real marriage license overseas. She’s the actual Mrs. Voss. Elara can scream all she wants. She’s got no leverage here. Lila’s the one he actually loves.”

The words shattered Elara where she stood. She realized with sickening clarity—Silas had only ever said he liked her. He’d never once mentioned love.

Silas’s voice dropped, heavy with warning. “Keep your mouths shut. Lila stays overseas, out of sight. As for Elara—she’s my wife too. I don’t wanna hear another word about this. Not one.”

Elara, standing just out of sight, let out a bitter laugh. A deafening crash split the air. She shoved the champagne tower and watched it collapse.

Her voice came cold and proud. “Well, too bad. I already heard everything.”