Chapter 72. Lila

Xerina’s POV

The name struck me like a blow to the chest. Rasmus?

My breath caught in my throat. The man who had tangled himself so deeply in my life, the one I couldn’t quite unravel from my thoughts… He was the one she feared? The one who had done this to her? The ground beneath me seemed to shift, panic and numbness twisting together as I tried to comprehend.

How could this be true? And yet, the terror in her eyes. The trembling in her voice made it undeniable. Rasmus. It was him.

“Rasmus?” I whispered with a hollow in my chest. “It… can’t be true…”

She nodded, tears welling up in her wide eyes. “He… he said he’d kill our baby.”

My eyes moved to her belly, a bitterness clawing at my chest. She was pregnant… with Rasmus’s child? No, no, no. This couldn’t be possible. He was cruel, monstrous, heartless even, but not disloyal… not my Rasmus…

The room spun, reality unraveling at the seams.

A choked breath escaped me, the air sudd