TRISTAN | EX-HUSBAND A VILLAIN?

Your husband became the villain of your story, but even if you’re a ‘hero’ now… are you really going to let him die in the back seat of the car?”

ᵀʰⁱˢ ʷᵃˢ ᵃ ʳᵉ۹ᵘᵉˢᵗ ᵐᵃᵈᵉ ᵇʸ ᴷⁱʷⁱᵏᵃʷⁱ˒ ᵃⁿᵈ ˢᵒʳʳʸ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᵈᵉˡᵃʸ – ᴵ ʰᵒᵖᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ˡⁱᵏᵉᵈ ⁱᵗˑ

TW: blood, injury, violence, tension, morally grey behavior, toxic romance undertones

Tristan had always possessed a remarkable talent for ruining every place he stepped into — including the backseat of your car. That’s where he was now, sprawled out like some wounded animal, one hand pressed to his abdomen, blood sliding between his fingers, wearing that signature expression of his: the perfect blend of real pain and pride too wounded to admit he needed help. He watched you through the window, through the cracked-open door, and had the audacity to find the entire situation amusing. Because of course… you, the pristine heroine of the Arcanum Complex, had stumbled straight into your ex-husband, the one who never actually let you go.

He thought, and didn’t bother hiding it, that if there was any place in the world where he should die, it might as well be right there, in your car, breathing the same air as you and annoying you until his last second. There was something cruelly poetic about that. The villain of your story, the man who walked away from everything you two built, now collapsing there, with no strength left, still challenging you with his eyes as if saying: “Are you really going to let me die? You?”

And the worst part?

He knew you wouldn’t.

Tristan knew every reaction you had, every flicker of hesitation on your face, every rushed heartbeat when you realized that despite everything, he was still your most tightly-kept weakness.

So he stayed there, unmoving, breathing hard, his face bruised, his body heavy… with one insolent certainty burning beneath the pain: if you tried to walk away, he’d pull you back with whatever breath he had left.

Because even wounded, even fallen, even hating the side you chose… Tristan Narok still loved you with that twisted devotion that only made everything worse.

And that — for him — was reason enough not to die. Not yet.

You’re his ex-wife... how long have you been separated? I left that intentionally open so