"It is Mr. Vasiliev."

Ruby had expected him to call eventually. She was certain of that. What she hadn’t expected was the timing. She thought it would either be immediate, right after he heard that she was hurt, or very, very late, after he had handled things.

He was, after all, still needed to do the damage control expected for a man in his position when his ex-wife suddenly became a goddess overnight.

She smiled at the nurse graciously. "Thank you. I would like to speak with him privately, please."

"Oh, sure!" Isabeau stood up eagerly. She set her mug down beside Ruby’s, her smile wide. "I have some chores to finish, so I will see you again in a minute."

"Thanks."

The nurse nodded and followed Isabeau out of the tent. The canvas flap fell shut behind them, muffling the distant sounds of the camp. Ruby waited until the footsteps faded, and then she tapped the mute button off.

"Ruby?"

She made sure the smile was audible in her voice. "Is that you, Arzhen?"

"Yes. This is me." The voice was deep and familiar. This was still the same rough-edged warmth that he reserved only for her. "Why are you so clumsy? Didn’t I tell you to be careful lest I kill everyone out there?"

Ruby chuckled. "It’s nothing serious. Actually, this is a good thing. Now I get to be certified without much field work anymore." She paused, letting her voice drop to a whisper. "Please don’t say that to them, though."

She heard his deep chuckle, felt it reverberate through the phone.

"How are you? You sound tired..."

"I just got off the plane from Asia, and then I heard you got hurt. You know that’s not very nice news to hear after a long day, right?"

"I—I’m sorry..." Ruby let her voice go soft and small. "I didn’t mean to worry you."

"I will send you actual qualified healers so as not to delay your certification. And I will be there with them."

Ruby stuttered. "Y-you don’t have to! I am really fine. And I am also a Priestess-to-be, remember? I truly heal faster!"

It was the thing she always said, the demure, selfless protest that made him insist all the more. She never meant it, of course.

"There is something I need to say in person, Ruby."

Suddenly. his voice changed. The warmth was still there, but beneath it was something solemn. Now, this made Ruby’s heart stutter in her chest and her fingers tighten around the phone until her knuckles went white.

"What... do you want to say? Just say it now. This camp is very strict. I’m sure they won’t let you in! So while we can talk now, just say i—"

"I can’t say it on the phone. This is something very important."

"Arzhen..." Ruby felt a pang of fear and annoyance, tangled together so tightly she couldn’t separate them. Fear, because she was truly afraid that Arzhen would dump her, because rationally, he should choose that bitch over her, and annoyance, because obviously. "Is it because of that bitch?"

Ruby heard silence.

Then a sigh.

"Ruby... listen to me."

"I don’t want to."

"Ruby, this is not just for me. This is for the company. And for you."

"How is it for me?!" she snapped. "You lia—"

"Don’t act like we have not been together while I was married to her." Arzhen said, voice cold.

Ruby froze.

This—man!

"Arzhen Vasiliev!"

His name tore out of her throat before she could stop it, the composure she had been clinging to finally shattering. She had given him years. Years of whispered phone calls and secret meetings. She had braved the grinding humiliation of being the other woman while that bitch wore his ring!

She had smiled and simpered and made herself small and soft and perfect for him, and now he was speaking to her like she was a business associate who needed to be managed?!

"That woman must have bonded with a dragon, Ruby." Arzhen said calmly, matter-of-fact. "She is already bonded with another man. But you and I both know she will still crawl back to me."

Ruby’s eyes widened. Her breath caught in her throat. That—

"She has loved me for years. She even refused to divorce me for a long time. Bonding with a dragon," he paused and scoffed, "she must have just wanted to make me jealous. When she is just jealous of us."

Huh?

Is this man... crazy...?

"Look." Arzhen’s voice gentled, becoming more patient. "You know how much she loves me, Ruby. You actually know best. She never even said anything about the patent for her invention, giving it all to me."

No... wait. Maybe... maybe he wasn’t crazy.

That woman had been pathetic. Desperate. Clinging to a marriage that had been dead from the start, refusing to sign the divorce papers even when Arzhen had paraded his mistress in front of her.

She had built the base of an empire with her own two hands and handed it to her husband without a fight. She loved him that much, that unconditionally.

"Then... what are you going to do?" Ruby asked. "Are you going to contest the divorce...? When she is already bonded with someone else...? A-a dragon, too?"

"Isn’t that great? It just means we have access to a dragon." Arzhen said. "I don’t know how the fuck a worthless bitch like her could convince a dragon to bond with her, but he must have been so dumb we can also use him too."

Ruby’s brain chemistry rearranged itself.

A dragon who had agreed to bond with that bitch? Right. That bitch was nothing. Cecilia couldn’t compare to Ruby, never had, never would. That bitch was a placeholder. A stand-in.

So, when that dragon laid eyes upon Ruby, the obviously better version of that fake, of course he would choose her instead. Of course he would abandon that pathetic excuse of a woman and come running to Ruby, a woman who was actually worth his time.

Suddenly, this was a brilliant idea.

"And since she has already been bonded with a dragon and carries some random baby inside her, you and I can still bond together," Arzhen said smoothly, confidently. "I just need to reverse the divorce and keep her as my wife in name. It’s nothing complicated."

Right.

How brilliant.

Ruby still had the video evidence from the club, that woman grinding against three men, being led out of the club by them, her face flushed and drunk.

What dragon would want to see his mate like that? What dragon would tolerate being cuckolded by a McKing employee and two blue-collar workers in a nightclub?

That dragon couldn’t be one of the three men. A fast-food worker and two laborers couldn’t possibly be a dragon.

Which meant the dragon was someone else, someone powerful who had bonded with Cecilia without knowing what kind of whore she truly was.

And when Ruby showed him the footage, that dragon would be furious. Easier, he would kill her himself without her dirtying her own hands to sever the bond. And then Ruby would be there, soft and sweet and worthy, to give him what he truly deserved.

She needed to play her cards right.

"You still... choose her in the end." Ruby said, voice dropped to a whisper, trembling... clearly fragile. She was in the verge of tears.

"Ruby!" Arzhen snapped.

Why bond with Arzhen when there was an obvious better candidate?

But she needed to make him understand that she was hurt. She needed to make him understand that she did it because Arzhen had betrayed her first.

"You were the one who married her instead of me. You were the one who chose her because your father forced you! You chose money over me! You chose her first!"

"Ruby—baby, that is not true! You are the one I love, always, you know th—!"

"I’m tired, Arzhen." Ruby made sure her tears were audible, just like her smile had been at the start of the phone call. She let her voice break on his name, let the silence stretch for just a heartbeat too long. "Don’t come here."

"Ru—"

She killed the phone. Her thumb pressed the red button.

She stared at the screen until it went dark, and then she sneered at it.

But then... a pang of sadness grew in her heart.

Arzhen truly treated her like she was his world. He had given her everything, money, protection, access, the Vasiliev name on her sponsorship forms.

He had given her certainty that no matter what she did, he would always come back.

He treated her better than anyone she had ever known, and she knew that no one else in the world would do what he did for her.

Arzhen Vasiliev was not a good man. He was cruel and selfish and without morals. But he loved her. Truly loved her.

And Ruby truly loved him too.

Just like she knew Arzhen truly loved her.

But to live in this unfair world, to thrive and rise above the lowlifes who would drag them down, they had to maneuver through relationships, crushing the weak, putting everyone in their proper place.

She believed Arzhen when he said he was doing it all for her sake. She believed him because it was true. He believed it himself.

But the reason Arzhen did it all for her, the reason he kept coming back, kept fighting, kept choosing her over his own wife, was because Ruby knew how to make him do it.

This was how.

To cry.

To consistently consider options other than him.

To win.

Because he did the same to her.