After I Amazed the World the Cold Alpha Regretted

Chapter 184

The first syllables of the piano echoed softly, pulling me back to a time long past.

As my fingers traced the familiar keys, memories washed over me, vivid and haunting.

I had been ostracized by my foster parents as a child, and my only refuge was a broken piano stowed away in the dusty attic.

It was my escape, the one thing that could alleviate my loneliness when no one else was there.

On my seventh birthday, I had crept to the top of the stairs, hoping for a surprise, hoping maybe this year they would remember.

read. I saw my foster parents, arms around Alice, leading her out the door to play, laughing as they left me behind. Forgotten. Unwanted.

I had crept back to the attic with tears in my eyes and sat at the piano.

It was then that I composed my first melody.

A simple, fragile tune that whispered the only birthday wish I'd receive that day.

Happy birthday to me. That small song became my secret, a balm for the wounds I carried from my so-called family.

Later, as the years went by, my foster parents would drag me along on visits to other packs, parading me in front of strangers to show their kindness

A cruel irony, really. They would never treat me with kindness themselves, but to outsiders, they wanted to appear generous.

to Silvermoon stayed

the group and stumbled upon a grand

to it, like a moth

down and started playing the melody I

I played it anywhere other

wind blew softly through the open window, carrying with it the

afternoon sun had bathed the room in golden light, and for a brief moment,

and lost, overlapped with the me of this moment, standing here at this

pressed the keys again, lost in the melody I had composed all those

I played the first riff that I noticed a

face went pale, and a look of disbelief

as if

the final notes faded into silence, I turned to face him, only to find him staring at me with a mix of shock

asked, his voice barely a whisper, but his tone was heavy, filled

had guessed right. He had heard

softly, "I wrote it when I was a child, on my birthday. No one else has ever heard it. I was

realization flickering in his eyes. He staggered back a step as if the weight of the truth was too

Aira... It was you.... All this

etched with regret,

egretted

Chapter 184