Paper Chains
LAURA’S POV
The silence after Ivy’s departure was deafening. It wasn’t the kind that echoed; it was the kind that pressed on your chest like a weight you couldn’t lift.
I stared at the contract on the bed—the one that shattered whatever fantasy I had built in my head. The brown envelope, sealed with cruelty and truth, sat between Elijah and me like a wall neither of us could tear down.
I didn’t move.
Neither did he.
“I forgot,” he finally said, voice low, hoarse.
“You forgot,” I echoed, my tone flat. “You forgot that I was just a name on a paper.”
He stepped closer. “It wasn’t like that.”
“No?” I stood, the sheet falling from my lap. “Then what was it like, Elijah? Enlighten me. Because from where I’m standing, it looks like I was your charity case. The woman you marr
