Chapter 4

Ila POV:

The tiger' s growl was a low, vibrating threat that resonated in my bones. It wasn't the sound of a trained animal about to perform. It was the sound of a predator that had scented its prey. My skin prickled with a primal fear.

Then, a memory surfaced. The cloying scent of the lilies Kamila had brought me. It wasn't just sweet; it had a strange, musky undertone. A scent I now recognized wafting from the hay at the bottom of the tiger's cage. It was a lure. A perfume designed to agitate, to provoke. This wasn' t a surprise performance; it was a premeditated attack.

"Jaxon, I want to go inside," I said, my voice tight.

He waved a dismissive hand, his eyes fixed on the magnificent beast. "Don't be difficult, Ila. Kamila went to a lot of trouble for this. Just sit and enjoy the show."

Enjoy the show. My own public execution. The bitter irony was a taste of bile in my mouth. I was so tired. Tired of the lies, tired of the pain, tired of fighting a battle I had already lost.

Kamila, meanwhile, was in her element. She moved with the dramatic flair of an actress on stage, cooing at the tiger, her voice dripping with false affection. Jaxon was captivated, his face alight with an almost boyish excitement. "Look at that, Ila! She has him eating out of the palm of her hand."

But the tiger wasn't looking at Kamila's hand. Its burning yellow eyes never left me. Every muscle in its powerful body was coiled, a spring of lethal intent. I tried to inch my chair back, to put more distance between us, but the stone terrace was slick with evening dew.

Suddenly, Kamila let out a theatrical gasp, stumbling backward with a cry of "Oh!" Her hand, which had been resting on the cage's latch, "slipped." The heavy iron bolt slid open with a sickening click.

The cage door swung wide.

The tiger didn't hesitate. With a deafening roar that ripped through the tranquil night, it launched itself forward.

Jaxon's head snapped around. "Kamila!" He screamed, his voice raw with terror. In a single, fluid motion, he lunged, not towards me, but towards her, tackling her to the ground and shielding her body with his own.

He left me completely exposed.

The world slowed to a crawl. I saw the tiger mid-air, a blur of orange and black fury. I saw its claws, extended like curved daggers. I saw its jaws, wide and cavernous, saliva dripping from its fangs.

And in the split second before impact, my eyes met Jaxon's. I saw him look at me, his face a mask of horror. He was watching me die. He had chosen her.

A scream, thin and reedy, tore from my throat as the beast slammed into me. The force was like being hit by a truck. White-hot pain exploded in my shoulder as its claws sank into my flesh. The world dissolved into a maelstrom of agony, the stench of the animal's breath, and the sound of my own dying shriek.

The last thing I saw before the darkness took me was Jaxon, holding Kamila in a protective embrace, his body a fortress built to save her, while I was left to the wolves. Or in this case, the tiger.

I woke to the sterile smell of antiseptic and the rhythmic beep of a heart monitor. Pain was a living entity, a fire that consumed my entire body. I tried to move my arm and a fresh wave of agony made me cry out.

A nurse bustled in, her face etched with professional concern. "Easy now, Miss Kline. You're very lucky. The tiger's claws missed your main artery by less than a centimeter. But the muscle and tissue damage is extensive."

"Lucky," I rasped, the word a bitter joke.

"The other patient was luckier," the nurse continued, fluffing my pillow. "Just a few scrapes and a sprained ankle. Her fiancé hasn't left her side."

Her fiancé. Jaxon. He was with Kamila. While I lay here, torn apart by a beast she had unleashed, he was tending to her sprained ankle.

The door to my room was slightly ajar. I could hear their voices, hushed and intimate.

"It's all my fault," Kamila was weeping, a delicate, hiccupping sound. "I'm so, so sorry, Jaxon. The latch... it was slippery."

"Shh, my love, it's not your fault," Jaxon's voice was a low, soothing murmur. "It was an accident. These things happen."

An accident.

The word echoed in the hollow space where my heart used to be.

"I just wanted to do something nice for her birthday," Kamila sobbed. "And now... I feel like I should do something to make it up to her. I should apologize."

"You will," Jaxon promised. "But later. Right now, you need to rest. For the baby's sake."

That was the third time she' d mentioned "making it up to me." It wasn't an apology; it was a performance. A way to cement her role as the innocent, caring victim in Jaxon's eyes.

A surge of pure, black rage propelled me upright. I grabbed the water glass from my bedside table and hurled it against the door. It shattered with a satisfyingly violent crash.

The voices outside stopped. A second later, Jaxon burst into the room, his face a mask of concern. "Ila! What's wrong? Are you in pain?"

He rushed to my side, trying to take my hand. I snatched it away.

"Why did the tiger go crazy?" I asked, my voice dangerously quiet.

He flinched. "Ila, don't upset yourself. It was an accident. The trainer said it must have been spooked by something."

He was lying. He was covering for her. He didn't even bother to investigate. The man who had once beaten a street thug to a pulp for catcalling me couldn't even be bothered to ask a few questions when I was nearly mauled to death.

Any last, lingering ember of hope I might have harbored for him, for us, was extinguished. There was no flicker of the old Jaxon left. He was gone. The man who loved me was dead. This hollow shell of a man standing before me was a stranger.

Three years ago, on a trip to New York, a group of drunk guys had cornered me outside our hotel. Jaxon had appeared out of nowhere. I had never seen such cold fury in his eyes. He didn't just fight them; he dismantled them. He broke one's nose, dislocated another's shoulder, and left them all a bloody, whimpering mess on the sidewalk. He had held me afterwards, his body trembling with residual rage, and whispered, "No one touches what is mine. No one."

Now, I had been touched. I had been torn and broken. And he called it an 'accident'. He hadn't even raised his voice.

Because I was no longer his.

"I need to check on Kamila," he said, already backing out of the room, his duty to me fulfilled with a few placating lies. "She was very shaken up."

I watched him go, my expression blank. I didn't scream, I didn't cry, I didn't rage. I just lay there, a statue carved from ice, and let the silence of the hospital room swallow me whole. He had made his choice.

And now, I would make mine.

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