The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away

I'd been married to my vampire husband for three years, and he had always cherished me like a treasure.

He held me close every night before I went to sleep. He never let go of my hand when we went out. He worried, always, that I might get hurt.

A common cold was enough to make him cancel everything and stay up all night beside me.

James told me no one in the world mattered more to him than I did.

Everyone said he loved me to pieces.

I believed it too.

Until the day of the ceremony — the night he was supposed to turn me into a vampire.

A woman who should have been dead walked back into his life.

She had my face, tear-streaked, calling his name in a small voice.

That was when I understood. I'd only ever been the stand-in for the woman he couldn't let go of.

My stubbornness, my refusal to give up — all of it broke under the disappointment that kept piling up.

So I gave up on him for good. I decided to keep our child to myself, and disappear from his world without a word.

But later, he came back. Down on his knees, again and again, begging me to come home.

Elena's POV

It hit me only then, far too late.

Why James had looked at me with such heavy sorrow the very first time we met.

Out in the hall, the woman with tear-bright eyes stood in her torn dress, gazing at my husband like he was the only thing in the world to her.

And I, with the cuts on my wrist still open from the turning ritual, had to keep my head clear through the pain.

I saw it with my own eyes.

That woman had my face.

A minute ago, he had been frowning over the cuts on my wrist. Now he wasn't even looking at them.

"Vicky… is it you? It's really you. You're alive—"

James, who never lost his composure, had a catch in his voice.

I looked at her. I looked at him. Cold went through me from scalp to feet, and the pain in my wrist went numb.

"I came back… do you still want me?"

Vicky had seen my face too. She asked the question carefully, like a child afraid of the answer.

"James…"

I reached for his hand on instinct, the way I always did when I needed to feel safe.

It was happening too fast. I couldn't take it in.

Anger, fear, panic — all of it surged up at once.

I didn't know what to do. I just knew I didn't want him to leave my side.

There was a flicker of hesitation in his eyes.

Then his gaze went straight back to her.

I could see his eyes turning red. His whole body was shaking.

He let go of my hand. He took two steps forward and gripped her shoulders.

I'd only seen him this