Chapter 33: The Jealousy of a Fool
The night air carried the faint scent of winter jasmine as Serene floated toward the estate, her heart lighter than it had been in years.
The date with Clive had been everything she never knew she wanted. The city lights, the warm restaurant, the way he looked at her like she was precious—like she mattered. She could still feel the ghost of his kiss on her forehead, the pressure of his hand around hers, the words he'd spoken that had somehow healed wounds she thought were permanent.
You're everything.
She pressed her hand to her chest, over the sapphire necklace, and smiled—a real smile, the kind that reached her eyes and made her face feel unfamiliar.
She didn't see him.
Didn't notice the tall figure leaning against the hedge, arms crossed, green eyes tracking her movement through the darkness.
She walked right into him.
"Oh—" She stumbled, her hands flying out to catch herself, and found her palms pressed against a broad, familiar chest.
Familiar in a way that made her blood run cold.
"Careful, little moon."
Ethan's voice. Low. Rough. Edged with something she couldn't name.
Serene jerked back as if burned, her face draining of color. The warmth of the evening evaporated, replaced by the old familiar chill of his presence.
He looked at her—really looked, taking in the velvet dress, the sapphire necklace, the carefully styled hair, the flush that still lingered on her cheeks from happiness that had nothing to do with him.
"Out late," he observed. "With Marcer, I assume?"
She didn't respond. Couldn't respond. Her hands were shaking too much to sign.
Ethan stepped closer, and she stepped back instinctively, her spine meeting the cold bark of the hedge.
"You look..." He paused, his green eyes traveling over her with an intensity that made her skin crawl. "Different. Happy."
The word came out like an accusation.
Serene found her notepad, her fingers trembling as she wrote. She thrust it toward him like a shield.
Are you blind, brother-in-law?
The words hit him like a slap.
Brother-in-law.
She'd never called him that before. Never acknowledged the connection that would bind them in three days—him married to Ava, her married to Clive, forced into a familial relationship neither of them wanted.
"Don't call me that." His voice was sharp.
She wrote again, faster this time: It's what you'll be. What you chose to be. Congratulations.
She tried to step around him, but his hand shot out, catching her wrist.
Not the injured one—the other one, the one that had never known his cruelty. But still, the touch burned.
"Serene." His voice cracked on her name. "Wait."
She looked at his hand on her wrist. Looked at him. Her expression was utterly empty—the blank mask she'd perfected over years of surviving his family's cruelty.
She signed with her free hand, slow and deliberate: Let. Me. Go.
He released her instantly, as if burned.
She walked away without looking back.
Behind her, Ethan stood frozen, watching the woman he'd once loved disappear into the house that had never been her home, wearing a dress that someone else had given her, happy because of someone else's attention.
The jealousy that rose in his chest was so sharp, so unexpected, so completely irrational—given everything he'd done, everything he'd chosen—that it took his breath away.
She was happy.
Without him.
Because of someone else.
And he had absolutely no right to care.
---
Ethan's room was cold, despite the fire crackling in the hearth.
He'd poured himself a whiskey—his third of the night—and stood at the window, staring out at the dark garden where the greenhouse lurked like a ghost. His reflection stared back at him, hollow-eyed and unfamiliar.
Who was he now?
What had he become?
The door opened behind him.
David.
"Brother." David's voice was careful, neutral. "You wanted to see me?"
Ethan didn't turn. "Close the door."
David obeyed, leaning against it with crossed arms. "What's this about?"
Ethan finally turned, his green eyes sharp despite the whiskey. "The plan. The revenge. All of it."
David's eyebrows rose. "You want to discuss that now? Three days before the wedding?"
"I want to make sure everything is in place." Ethan set down his glass, moving to the desk where papers were spread—documents, contracts, the machinery of destruction he'd been building for years. "The Frosts think they're getting a partner. An alliance. A bright future."
"And they're getting you instead." David's voice was flat.
"They're getting exactly what they deserve." Ethan's jaw tightened. "Samuel stole from our father. Destroyed his health, his mind, everything he built. Amelia stood by and watched, probably helped. Ava—" He stopped, something flickering in his eyes. "Ava is the key. Marry her, control the Frost fortune through her, and then dismantle everything Samuel built, piece by piece."
David was quiet for a long moment.
"And Serene?" he asked quietly.
Ethan's hands stilled on the papers.
"What about her?"
"She's a Frost too. By blood. By name. When you destroy her family, you destroy her." David's voice was calm, but something burned beneath it. "Have you thought about that?"
"I've thought about nothing else for years." The words came out raw, unguarded—a confession Ethan hadn't meant to make.
David studied him. "Then why are you doing this? If it hurts her—"
"It has to be done." Ethan's voice hardened. "She's collateral damage. Unavoidable. Necessary."
"Is she?" David moved closer, his green eyes—so like Ethan's, yet so different—holding his brother's gaze. "Or is she an excuse? A way to justify what you're doing by telling yourself she's part of it?"
Ethan didn't answer.
"Because from where I'm standing," David continued, "she's the only innocent one in all of this. She didn't steal from us. She didn't poison anyone. She was a child when it happened—younger than Mia, younger than me. She spent years being abused by that family, and now you're going to destroy her along with them?"
"She's a Frost—"
"She's Serene." David's voice rose for the first time. "The girl who played with you in the greenhouse. The girl you loved. The girl who wrote you letters—dozens of them—that you never answered because Mother intercepted them and burned them."
Ethan went still.
"What?"
David's expression flickered—guilt, regret, something else. "I found out years ago. After we moved to the city. Mother was intercepting her letters. Serene wrote to you for months—begging you to respond, to believe her, to give her a chance to explain. Mother burned every single one."
Ethan's face went white.
"She never stopped writing to you." David's voice was quiet now, heavy with things unsaid. "Not until... not until she couldn't anymore. Not until after the fall."
The fall.
The stairs.
The silence.
Ethan's hands were shaking.
"She's innocent," David said softly. "She always was. And you—" He stopped, shaking his head. "You chose revenge over her. You believed the worst without evidence. You let your hatred consume everything good in your life."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Then, from the hallway, a sound.
A gasp.
Running footsteps.
Ethan moved before he thought, wrenching the door open.
The hallway was empty.
But on the floor, just outside his door, lay a single object—a silk glove, pale pink, embroidered with flowers.
Ava's glove.
---
David appeared at his shoulder, his face ashen. "She heard."
Ethan stared at the glove, his mind racing through implications. If Ava knew—if she understood that his proposal was revenge, not love—everything would unravel. The plan. The marriage. The destruction of the Frosts.
And Serene—
If Ava knew, she would tell Serene. Would use it against him. Would twist everything to hurt the sister she'd spent years tormenting.
"Find her," Ethan said, his voice urgent. "Before she tells anyone."
David was already moving. "Which way?"
"I don't know. Just—find her."
They split up, David taking the east corridor, Ethan the west. Their footsteps echoed through the quiet house, urgent and desperate.
But Ava was fast.
Ava was furious.
And Ava had just learned that the man she was about to marry had been planning to destroy her family all along.
The night that had begun with Serene's happiness ended in chaos.
And somewhere in the darkness, Ava Frost ran toward a future no one had predicted.
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