Sarah's POV
I woke to the sound of muffled voices, the conversation drifting through the heavy silence of the Blackwood Mansion. The clock on the nightstand read 3:14 AM, and my heart skipped a beat. Eren's side of the bed was cold, the sheets untouched and still, as though he'd gotten up hours ago. A strange unease coiled in my stomach.
A chill swept over me, creeping beneath my skin, and I shivered despite the warmth of the room. My instincts screamed at me to stay in bed, to ignore the noise, pretend I hadn't heard anything. But the voices, low and heated, persisted. I couldn't block them out, couldn't resist the pull of curiosity gnawing at me.
I slipped from the covers, my bare feet cold against the polished floor, and grabbed my robe, tying it loosely around my waist. Every step felt heavier than the last as I crossed the room and moved into the dark hallway. The mansion felt even emptier at night, every creak of the floorboards echoing in the cavernous space.
The glow from the study lit the hallway in a sickly yellow hue, casting long shadows on the walls. I hesitated for a moment before walking toward it, drawn by the voices.
Eren's voice cut through the air, sharp and laced with something I couldn't quite place. Anger? Fear? I couldn't tell. "You were supposed to handle it," he hissed, his words low and deliberate, but unmistakably urgent.
"I'm trying," came another voice—Luke's. "But Axel's onto something. If he finds out—"
"He won't," Eren snapped. "He's always been a problem, but I'll deal with him. Just keep your mouth shut and do your job."
Luke muttered something under his breath, too low for me to make out. His footsteps grew louder as he made his way toward the door, and I barely had time to slip into the shadows before he passed, his face pale, a scowl etched into his features. There was something about his expression, something unsettling, that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I waited for the sound of his retreating steps to fade before I slowly turned back toward the study. My hands trembled as I pushed the door open a crack, just wide enough to peer inside.
Eren stood by the fireplace, his back to me. The room was cast in the warm, flickering glow of the flames, but the air between us felt cold. His shoulders were tense, his hand gripping the edge of the mantel, as though he were holding himself together by sheer force of will.
"Who are you?" I whispered, the words slipping out before I could stop them.
Eren spun around, his eyes wide with shock, his expression quickly shifting to something harder, more guarded. The brief flash of guilt in his eyes made my stomach lurch.
"Sarah," he said, his voice softer, but there was something forced about it. "What are you doing up?"
I stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind me with a quiet click. The silence that followed hung thick between us. "I could ask you the same thing. What's going on, Eren? What are you hiding?"
He ran a hand through his hair, his face hardening. "It's nothing for you to worry about."
"Don't patronize me," I snapped, my voice rising, though I tried to keep it steady. "I heard you. You and Luke. You're hiding something, and it's not nothing."
His jaw tightened, the muscles in his neck visibly working. His eyes narrowed, growing colder. "Sarah, drop it."
"No," I said, taking a step closer, the words coming out in a rush. "Not this time. You've been keeping secrets from me, Eren. I can feel it. And Axel—"
"Axel," he interrupted, his tone now laced with venom. "Of course, he'd worm his way into this."
I flinched at the bitterness in his voice, but I didn't back down. "This isn't about Axel," I retorted, my breath coming faster. "This is about us. About the fact that I don't even know who you are anymore."
Eren's face contorted with something between rage and desperation. In two swift strides, he closed the distance between us, his hands grabbing my arms with such force that it left bruises where his fingers dug into my skin. "You know exactly who I am," he growled, his voice low, dangerous. "I'm the man who loves you. The man who married you. The man who would do anything to protect you."
"Protect me?" My voice trembled, a nervous laugh escaping my lips, though it was anything but funny. "From what?"
For a long moment, his grip on my arms loosened, his eyes searching mine as though he were contemplating whether to tell me something—something that could shatter the fragile veneer he'd built between us. But then, just as quickly, his expression hardened, his jaw locking with finality.
"Some truths are better left buried," he said, his tone a stone wall. "For both our sakes."
---
The next morning, everything between us felt different, though neither of us spoke of the previous night's confrontation. The tension lingered in the air like the smell of smoke after a fire—distant, but undeniable. We avoided each other, both pretending that nothing had changed, as if the unspoken words we'd left hanging between us didn't matter.
But they did. I could feel it in every glance Eren cast my way, in every subtle shift of his body. The secrets between us were thickening, becoming suffocating. I had always known there were things about him he wasn't telling me, but now I could feel the weight of those secrets pressing down on me. They were more than I'd ever imagined.
I spent the day wandering through the mansion, restless, my mind a whirlwind of questions. Eren's cryptic words had done nothing to calm my fears—in fact, they had only deepened them. What was he hiding? What had Luke been so afraid of? Why had Axel been so adamant that I needed to know the truth?
By late afternoon, I found myself in the west wing—an area of the mansion I hadn't dared explore before. The air here felt colder, the shadows thicker, as if the very walls were holding their breath. There was something about this part of the house that made me uneasy. It was as though the darkness in the hallways was a tangible thing, a presence that reached out to you with invisible hands.
At the end of the hall stood a door—heavy, wooden, with intricate carvings that seemed to twist and writhe like living things. It called to me. I approached it slowly, the creaking of the floorboards beneath my feet the only sound in the oppressive silence.
I hesitated before turning the handle, my heart racing in my chest. The door groaned as it opened, the hinges squealing in protest. A musty scent of mildew and old paper wafted from within, and I stepped into the room with caution.
The study was dimly lit, dust settled over the furniture like a shroud. Old papers were scattered across the desk, their yellowed edges curling, forgotten. The room seemed frozen in time. The air felt thick with secrets, the kind of secrets that never left the walls, but festered and grew.
My fingers hovered over the papers on the desk, the elegant script of the letters nearly impossible to decipher. But one paper caught my eye—it was addressed to Eren. My breath caught in my throat as I unfolded it. The words leapt off the page, cold and sharp.
"Eren, you cannot build a future on lies. The truth will come out eventually, and when it does, everything you've worked for will crumble. Is she worth it? Is it worth risking everything?"
The letter slipped from my fingers, the room spinning around me. My knees buckled, and I had to steady myself against the desk, my mind racing, trying to piece together what it meant.
"Sarah."
I froze. The voice was soft, almost a whisper, but it pierced through me like a knife. I turned slowly, my pulse quickening.
Axel stood in the doorway, his eyes dark, his expression unreadable.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded, my voice shaky, betraying my fear.
I took a step back, feeling cornered, exposed. My mind was a blur. "Did you know about this letter?" I asked, the words tumbling out in a rush.
Axel sighed, his face momentarily softening with something that could only be described as regret. "I've known for a long time, Sarah," he said quietly, his voice laced with sorrow. "But it's not my truth to tell."
"Then why are you here?" I shot back, my chest tight with frustration. "Why do you keep inserting yourself into this?"
"Because I care about you," he said, the raw honesty of his words striking deep. "More than you realize. And I can't stand by and watch him destroy you."
"Destroy me?" I repeated, shaking my head. "What are you talking about?"
Axel hesitated, his gaze unwavering. "Sarah, there's so much you don't know. So much he's kept from you, so much I want to say."
"Then tell me," I pleaded, my voice cracking. "If you care about me, tell me the truth."
Axel reached out, his fingers brushing gently against my cheek, a touch that was both tender and aching. His eyes searched mine, filled with a mixture of regret and something deeper, something dangerous. "I can't," he whispered, his voice almost breaking. "Not yet. But I promise you, when the time comes, I'll make sure you know everything."
Before I could respond, he leaned in, his lips brushing against my forehead in a gesture so intimate that it left me reeling. It was both comforting and devastating. But then, just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone—vanishing into the shadows of the west wing, leaving me alone with the weight of the truth that was still so far out of reach.
As I stood there, frozen in the eerie stillness of the room, my mind raced. I had thought I was prepared for whatever secrets Eren was hiding, but now, in the wake of Axel's words, I wasn't sure of anything anymore. How much of what Eren had told me was real? How much had been a lie, carefully crafted to keep me in the dark? And why was Axel so determined to protect me from the truth?
I ran my fingers over the letter on the desk once more, the words still searing into my memory. "Is she worth it? Is it worth risking everything?"
The answer, I feared, was something I would soon have to face—whether I was ready or not.