Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 131

Chapter 131: Chapter 131

Kaelen’s POV

Something was wrong with my wife this morning.

I’d felt it the moment she turned to face me in bed. That smile—too bright, too wide, too perfectly assembled, like porcelain painted to look like warmth. I’d asked if she was all right. She said yes. She said she slept well.

Elara was a magnificent liar when she wanted to be.

The memory of her fingers knotting my cravat kept replaying behind my eyes. The way her palms lingered on my chest. The way she kissed me—deep, desperate, like she was trying to swallow something whole before it disappeared.

I should have stayed.

"Your Majesty Nightfire."

Sylvia’s voice cut through my thoughts like a blade through silk. She stood at the edge of my desk, posture immaculate, her tailored court dress not carrying a single crease. A stack of documents rested in her arms.

"The Southern Alliance treaty requires your seal before the two o’clock deadline. And the meeting with the Southern Alliance has been rescheduled."

I stared at the papers without seeing them.

"Your Majesty?"

"Leave them."

She placed the stack on my desk with careful precision. "There’s also the quarterly revenue report from the eastern provinces. Lord Chancellor Maren requested your review before—"

"I said leave them, Sylvia."

A pause. Professional. Measured. She inclined her head. "Of course, Your Majesty."

She retreated to the side table where she organized her own correspondence, and I was left alone with the silence and the gnawing thing in my chest that wouldn’t stop biting.

I pulled the communication stone from my breast pocket. Turned it over in my fingers. The surface was smooth, cool, faintly humming with enchantment.

She’s fine. She’s home with Lyra and the nanny. She’s fine.

But that smile. That gods-damned smile.

Elara smiled when she was happy—soft, crooked, usually aimed at the children. She smiled when she was amused—a quick flash, there and gone, like sunlight between clouds. She smiled when she was being polite—measured, careful, perfectly calibrated for whoever stood before her.

This morning’s smile belonged to none of those categories. This morning’s smile was a wall. A barricade dressed in brightness, built to keep me on the other side.

I’d seen that smile once before. The night she told me about Gareth and Isolde. How they’d betrayed her. How her adoptive parents had thrown her out. She’d smiled through the entire story, and her eyes had been absolutely dead.

My fingers tightened around the stone.

It’s nearly noon. Just check.

I pressed my thumb to the stone’s center and channeled a thread of intent. It pulsed once. Twice. Three times.

Then her voice came through. Soft. Slightly breathless.

"Kaelen."

The knot in my chest loosened by a fraction. "Hey, baby. How’s your morning?"

"Good. Just feeding Lyra." A small sound in the background—a satisfied gurgle, the unmistakable noise of a baby who’d gotten exactly what she wanted. "She’s in a mood today. Pulled my hair twice already."

I leaned back in my chair. "That’s my girl."

A laugh. Light. Airy.

Wrong.

It was the laugh she used at court functions. The one designed to fill space without revealing anything underneath.

"We’re fine here," she said. "Valerius is at the academy. Everything’s perfectly normal."

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