"You look like someone that have just seen a ghost."
Killian could barely hear Elara, as he locked gaze on the woman standing across the room. Sienna Wicker. The past he had convinced himself was buried. The ghost that never really left him.
Elara lifted her head, watching him closely. "Well?" she pressed, "Aren't you going to say something?"
He tightened his jaw. The glass in his hand felt heavier than it should. "Stay out of this, Elara."
She let out a soft, humorless laugh. "Out of what, exactly?" Her voice was smooth, but there was a sharp edge beneath it. "Your past? Your present? Your future?"Is that it?.
Before he could respond, the sharp click of heels against marble cut through the tension. A deliberate sound. A sound meant to be noticed.
"Killian."
Sienna's voice was soft, yet it carried across the room, bringing back the memory he hadn't quite forgotten .His fingers flexed around the glass before he set it down with careful precision.
She hadn't changed. No, that wasn't true—she had sharpened, refined into something even more dangerously captivating. But those eyes, the ones that had once held his entire world, remained the same.
"Still commanding every room you walk into, I see," she mused, a knowing smile curving her lips.
Killian exhaled slowly, controlling the tension he felt inside him. "Didn't expect to see you back."
"Didn't think I'd ever come back," she admitted. "But it wasn't like Paris is forever."
His lips pressed into a thin line. "It was forever when you left."
Her smile faltered—just for a second. A flicker of something behind her gaze. Regret? Or something else?
Then, as if shaking off the weight of the moment, Sienna turned to exchange pleasantries with an approaching couple. Her voice softened as she greeted them, light and warm in a way that made something tighten in Killian's chest. That voice. He had spent years trying to forget it, and yet, just hearing it again, so effortless, so familiar, pulled him under like an undertow.
The laughter, the easy charm—Sienna still moved through these spaces like she belonged. And Elara—
Killian glanced at her.
She stood stiffly beside him, her fingers pressing too tightly against the stem of her glass. The conversation around them carried on, but she was apart from it. Observing. Calculating. As if she were the only one who noticed the shift in the air, the way Killian was no longer fully beside her.
A movement beside him reminded him that Elara was still there. When he turned, he met a gaze he had never seen on her before—cold, unreadable.
"Killian," she said smoothly, though there was an unmistakable edge to her tone. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"
He pause. Then with a measured and control voice"This is Sienna Wicker. An old friend."
Sienna's eyes flickered with amusement, but she didn't correct him. Instead, she turned her attention to Elara. "And you must be the wife."
Elara met her stare, unflinching. "That's me," she said coldly. "The wife."
The words settled between them like a drawn line. A reminder. A challenge. An unspoken claim.
Sienna curled her lips. "I've heard a lot about you."
Elara arched a brow, her voice as sharp as the edge of a blade. "Funny. I haven't heard a thing about you."
Sienna's smile deepened, just slightly. "That is funny, isn't it?"
Killian felt the shift in the air, the realization settling over Elara. That he had never mentioned Sienna. That she wasn't just a forgotten piece of his past.
"Well," Sienna continued, her voice light, almost playful. "It's good to finally meet you."
Elara didn't smile. "Wish I could say the same about you."
For the first time since he had met her, Killian saw something in Elara that unsettled him. Not anger. Not jealousy. Something colder. Something calculating.
And Sienna? She just smiled.
Like she had already won.
Then, as if the night had been leading to this exact moment, she leaned in ever so slightly, her gaze never leaving Elara's. And with a whisper of a smirk, she said—
"Tell me, Killian... does she even know how it ended?"
Sienna's words hung in the air, there was a deafening silence between them as Elara's grip on her glass tightened further. Killian's heart raced, his chest tightening, but he refused to let it show.
Elara lifted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "How it ended?" she repeated, her voice dangerously calm.
Sienna's smile deepened, and she leaned in closer, her breath a soft whisper. "The truth. The reason he married you."
Elara's eyes flickered to Killian, and for the briefest moment, he saw the flicker of something in her gaze—a challenge, a warning.
"Don't," he whispered. But it was too late.
Sienna's smirk was all teeth. "Do you want to know, Elara? The story that Killian's never told you?"
Elara's eyes flashed, a cold edge creeping into her voice. "I think I'd like to hear it."
Sienna's gaze slid back to Killian, and for a heartbeat, time seemed to freeze. "Do you think he marries you just because of his business," she murmured, her tone laced with venom. "It was because of me."
Killian's blood ran cold.
Elara's face remained unreadable. "Go on."
Sienna's smile deepened, sharp as a knife. He couldn't move on. He thought marrying someone else would make him forget about me—make him forget what we had."
Elara's fingers trembled around her glass, but she didn't flinch.
"Killian married you, Elara," Sienna continued, her voice smooth, taunting. "Because he needed a way to get back at me. He thought if he tied himself to someone else, he could make me jealous or move past me. But here's the truth, sweetheart: He never stopped loving me."
A painful silence fell. Elara's eyes darkened, her gaze never leaving Killian, as though trying to decipher every word.
"Is that what you think?" she finally asked, her voice flat but piercing.
Sienna laughed softly. "Oh, I know it. He tried to bury it, but he couldn't. And now, look where we are. He's still tied to the past, no matter how much he wants to pretend. He married you to move on, but all he did was make sure he never let go."
Elara turned her head slightly to Killian, her expression unreadable. The sharp edge of something—betrayal, maybe, or understanding—flickered across her face.
Killian just stood,not knowing what to say.He hadn't expected it to feel like this. But the look in Elara's eyes now wasn't the one he knew. It was colder, sharper.
She took a breath and then, with quiet control, said, "I already knew."
Killian froze, disbelief sweeping through him. His gaze snapped to hers. "What?"
"I knew," she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. "I've known for a while now."
Killian's heart raced, his stomach twisting. He opened his mouth to speak, but Sienna cut him off with a soft chuckle.
"Isn't it funny," she said, her gaze never leaving Elara, "how hearing the truth from someone else makes it sting so much more?"
Elara's lips pressed together, her gaze softening for just a moment before hardening again. "Yes, Sienna. It does."
The silence that followed felt like an eternity.
Killian stood frozen, unable to speak, as Elara slowly turned away, her gaze slipping from him.