Claimed By My Husband's Enemy novel Chapter 106

Chapter 106

(Eli)

༣ (89)

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“Congratulations. Your taste in men has improved. Drastically, if I may add,” Creed remarked, while staring at the portrait of the man who was my tormentor for years.

I couldn’t respond. Things were happening so fast. I only saw Landon a few months ago, trapped in his own world. And now, he was in there.

In that casket that would separate the two of us forever.

They said his organs ruptured. The man who was once at the top of the world was now reduced to this. For someone who used to own an empire, who had thousands of subordinates, who had friends and associates in every corner of the world, there were only very few people who attended his funeral. About ten, including his lawyer and his warden.

While the priest was offering his prayer, I stared at the sketch book in my hand. His warden handed it to me a while ago, saying that when they found Landon on his deathbed, he was holding onto the book, onto his ‘family picture’ where he drew his happy ending about me and the baby.

My uncles didn’t want me to come, although to my surprise, mom encouraged me to do this, saying that I needed to personally see one of my nightmares finally coming to an end, that I needed to see that I was now only a step away from freedom. Once the hunters were caught, mom and I would be free at last.

After my checkup, Creed brought me here, scowling the entire time.

“How do you feel?” Creed asked when it was just the two of us standing in front of my ex-husband’s grave.

“I’m not sure. All of my saddest moments are with Landon,” I said instead. “The first time I saw him in that facility, muttering to himself about how much he loved me, I thought it was silly. If he couldn’t love me the way I needed, he could have respected me the way I deserved and maybe I would have stayed. I would have lived the next years of my life surviving our marriage.”

Creed’s forehead creased. “Would you? I don’t need to be married to know that marriage is not a goddamn survival show, Elianna. You are not supposed to survive a marriage. Aren’t you supposed to live it with your spouse? To enjoy it? And you do it together,” he added with conviction. “It’s a union, a promise, that you should both fulfill. It does not make sense if only one does it. If you must endure, endure together, keep it together, go through all the fucking stages together.”

Together.

I’d only relearned that word after meeting Creed. It was funny how I’d been married for years, how I claimed to have a husband in every party we attended, how envious the women felt about it, and yet, I’d never felt so alone until I got married. I’d never cried so bad until I was living with Landon. I’d never screamed so much and yet, he couldn’t hear me until 1 stopped trying one day.

“Together’ didn’t exist in our marriage. We had never become one entity like we vowed we would be. We were always two separate beings. It was always just me and him, never an ‘us’

This was the part where Creed was supposed to say something about himself, to enumerate all the ways he was different from Landon. That was what men usually do. Their ego would never let them miss out on a chance like this to take advantage and lift themselves up, to spin the situation and make it about them. Again.

Men and their stupid ego.

Creed cleared his throat and put his arm on my shoulder. I felt him drop a kiss on my hair. “It’s okay, Eli. People are allowed to grieve. Even for assholes. Just do it once though. Twice would be giving them too much credit.”

God, what was I thinking? How could I compare Creed to the men I’d met before? It totally slipped my mind that none of

10:40 Wed, Jan 28 DR

Chapter 106

them could ever match him. He had nothing to prove anyway.

༥ གླ(89

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After living with Frederick and his son Easton and then with Landon, after meeting all his associates, I thought all men were just a mountain of pride and muscles with little brains and nonexistent hearts.

Here was Creed Black showing me I was wrong. I was still relearning that not all men sucked. My uncles were different as well. They were jerks sometimes, yes, but their hearts were still functioning properly at least.

I leaned onto Creed’s shoulder, quietly borrowing his solid strength.

“You can cry. I’m not going to tell your uncles about it,” he teased softly.

“That’s it? You’re not going to judge me for my poor choices in life?”

“Did you give your all to your marriage?”

“Yes.”

“Did you love him?”

I nodded.

His shoulders tensed for a split second but then he said, “You tried. I am never going to judge you for trying, Elianna. You did what you thought would bring you happiness. If anything, I think it was brave of you.”

“Do you think I can be brave again?”

Creed cupped my chin. His eyes had that spark that I liked the most when he rasped, “Love, you are already brave.”

I sniffed.

For the next few minutes, we were engulfed in a comfortable silence. This would be the last time I would ever step foot into this place, the last time I would think of my ex and allow myself a moment of weakness, the last time I would let memories of our marriage crush me.

After this, maybe I would think of him from time to time, and remember Landon not as anything, but as a lesson learned.

‘You brought this upon yourself, Landon. You don’t hurt your wife, sell her to your enemy, and then expect her to still love you. I’m sorry and thank you. With this, let’s properly send our goodbyes to each other.’

I took another deep breath before glancing at the alpha who quietly stood with me. He caught my eyes as he smiled. “Ready?”

One word. One question. And yet, I felt like there were several meanings behind it. I nodded. “Ready.”

We walked away together, his large hand on mine. We were close to the parking lot when the warden called us.

“There is something I think you must know, Miss Beckett,” he said, looking directly at me.

“What is it?”

“A couple of nights before Mr. Richards died, apart from your name, there is something else he kept calling. He kept apologizing to this person he called ‘master. In his addled mind, we honestly don’t think Mr. Richards fully remembered who this master is because he couldn’t give us a name, he actually looked confused when we asked, although he remembered how the person was called.

“The doctors insisted his organs ruptured and he was already a dying man, but I don’t think he’s supposed to die this soon. It’s like someone appeared in his room, you know, and did… stuff. I just can’t prove it.”

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