The Wife the Vampire Chose to Lose

My father had always been against my marriage to Ryan Kane, a vampire of noble birth.

He believed that as a human, I had no place in the vampire world. He warned me that if Ryan ever changed his mind, without his protection, my half-blood child and I would be nothing more than walking blood bags in the eyes of vampires.

But I believed in Ryan—and in our love.

My husband had always been gentle and attentive. He had even defied everyone to make me, a human, his vampire bride.

That was before Ryan's human ex-fiancée had her engagement called off and returned to the country seeking his help.

I went to the hospital alone. While I was learning that my pregnancy was high-risk, Ryan was there attending her prenatal checkup, even introducing her to the doctor as his wife.

All he had for me was one cold line: "Keep pushing me and I'll file for divorce."

I pressed my hand against my stomach and dialed a number I hadn't called in years. "Dad, you were right... I want a divorce."

Two weeks. That was all it would take for me to disappear from his life completely.

But later—that same vampire who had discarded me like I was nothing showed up at my wedding to another man, trembling all over, calling my name in a broken voice.

Elena's POV

Eight months pregnant, the half-blood child inside me had put me through hell, yet there I was outside the prenatal examination room, watching my husband—the one who claimed he couldn't accompany me because of "work"—shielding his first love from the sunlight streaming through the corridor glass.

Ryan drew her close, carefully angling the umbrella to block the light, and I watched clearly as he pressed a tender kiss to the corner of her lips. "Don't worry," he murmured. "I won't let anything hurt you or the baby. I'll protect you both."

He had once said the same words to me. But compared to this—what he'd given me felt like a casual afterthought.

That was Lilian, Ryan's first love. I had heard her name even before our wedding, whispered by some of his friends.

Lilian had once wandered into the vampire world by accident. Ryan rescued her when she was injured and nursed her back to health, and the two fell for each other quickly—so quickly that they'd even talked about marriage. But at the last moment, Lilian retreated. Unable to bear the elder council's contempt toward a human bride, she refused to marry Ryan and returned to the human world.

Three months ago, Lilian—now pregnant—had been abandoned by the man she was engaged to. With nowhere left to turn, she came back to Ryan for help.

Ryan told me that seeing pregnant Lilian struggle alone reminded him of me, and that out of compassion for a human woman in her condition, he had taken her in.

"Of course I trust you, but Elena..." Lilian dropped her eyes, her face a picture