I turned and walked out of the throne room, not looking back. I didn’t want to hear another word. Not from them. Not from anyone.
She gasped softly and reached forward, pulling me into her arms.
Her words hit me like a punch to the chest.
She rubbed my back slowly, whispering, “It’s okay. Let it out.”
“Wait,” she said softly. “Sometimes… it’s okay to not be okay.”
I paused, swallowing hard.
I clung to her, my forehead buried in her shoulder, and let the sobs come.
I couldn’t breathe.
It was everything I wasn’t supposed to’want.
The redness in my eyes.
“You could’ve told us the truth!” Levi shouted.
Neither of them answered.
Because I’d heard them before.
My stomach churned.
“So you turned her into an omega,” I muttered bitterly. “Just so we’d reject her.”
My legs carried me blindly through the hallways, my heart aching. I didn’t know where
I was going-1 just needed to be alone. Somewhere no one would think to find me. Somewhere silent.
The way my fists were trembling.
I should have pulled away.
“Not your place?” Levi snarled, stepping forward like he’d break Father’s neck with his bare hands. “You made us hate her. And now you’re suddenly silent?”
She looked just as I had last seen her-still dressed in that flowing white gown, her long dark hair tumbling over her shoulders. But her eyes widened in surprise the moment she saw me.
My lips trembled.
I froze.
Father’s expression tensed immediately. “That’s not my place to say.”
They wanted us to erase Olivia like she was nothing. Like she hadn’t been our whole damn world at one point.
She looked at me, her voice even softer now. “I know you’re an Alpha. You’ve been trained your whole life to be strong, to hold everything in. But… you’re still human.”
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but when I finally pulled back, I met her eyes.
But in that moment… it happened.
I hated it. I hated myself for it. But it was still there.
Silence.
A suffocating silence fell again.
But I broke.
“Oh,” she whispered. “I didn’t know anyone would come here today.”
Father ran a hand through his hair, looking more exhausted than I’d ever seen him. His voice lowered.
Louis cursed under his breath and turned away, shaking.
I made a move to leave-quick, sharp steps-but she moved faster, blocking my path gently with her hand on my arm.
The library.
“Lennox?”
But instead, I slumped into the farthest corner near the windows. I thought I was alone… until I heard a voice.
Cousins.
It made me want to vomit.
Not for making us hate her.
But it made sense. It made horrible, painful sense.
Slowly.
Mother stepped forward, her voice barely above a whisper. “He’s right. It’s not our story to tell.” O
Right there.
“Even now?” I growled. “After all this?”
Because in that moment, I felt safe. Warm. Like for once, someone saw through all the rage and pain and armor… and just held me.
“So… are we finally accepting it now?”
They didn’t say anything at first.
The guard bowed and turned on his heel.
Just for a second.
He didn’t take it back.
She nodded, and without another word, she left.
I nodded and stepped back. “Call Dustin.”
Neither of us responded immediately.
I shook my head hard. “Stop it, Lennox… she’s your uncle’s wife,” I breathed out with a broken sigh. What the hell is happening to me? Minutes ago, I realized Olivia-the girl I’d loved my whole life-might be related to me, and now I’ve kissed Rebecca, who’s family. My uncle’s wife. What the hell is going on?
Not her.
We didn’t want to say it.
I gestured toward the letter still held in the guard’s hands. “We need you to read it.”
I nodded slowly. “There’s more to this. There has to be.” @
But when we finally pulled apart, both of us breathless, the silence between us was louder than anything I’d ever heard.
Louis shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense, man. None of it does. I keep going back and forth in my head. Trying to find a hole in the story. Something that would prove they were lying. Something that would make this all a sick misunderstanding.”
Levi looked down. “Would we, though?”
The kiss… it felt so damn good.
But what if she was really gone?
Louis shot to his feet. “Don’t bring any more cursed letters near us. We’re done being manipulated.”
Both Levi and 1 looked at him instantly.
“If she was alive,” he continued, his voice low and bitter, “we would’ve had to cut ties with her. Let go of everything we felt. Of everything we ever were.
I clenched my jaw, trying to hold in the chaos surging inside me. heart
Her lips were soft, warm-nothing like Olivia’s, yet somehow they still made my clench the same way. I hated it. I hated how my pain found comfort in someone else. But I didn’t stop.
We fell silent again.
Louis sat down slowly in one of the wooden chairs, elbows on his knees, head in his hands.
Just enough to breathe.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.