Bonds

Chapter 136

-Maya’s POV-

The only thought I could hold onto was their laughter. I knew I’d hear it again soon. I had it saved on my phone, a recording I played over and over again. My wolf felt him first, scrambling to her feet the moment his scent hit the air. I could never quite describe it, that scent, something vaguely like chocolate, but whatever it was, it always pulled me towards him. Still, I didn’t turn around, acknowledge his presence.

He sat down quietly, keeping a space between us. He dipped his feet in the cool water of the lake, staring out in silence. I didn’t say anything either. There wasn’t anything left to say, not right now. So we sat there, the silence thick and heavy.

Honestly, I don’t even know why I spoke first. It was like my lips moved on their own. “I didn’t know you had this place,” I said, surprised by the sound of my own voice breaking the quiet.

A sigh escaped him. “I bought it after…” His voice trailed off, the sentence left unfinished.

“After you threw me out,” I filled in the blank for him.

He took a deep breath, but didn’t answer. The silence stretched on again, broken only by the crickets chirping in the distance then he spoke again, “I wouldn’t have thrown you out. I wouldn’t have done what I did if I had known…” his voice faded again.

“If you had known I was carrying your children?” I finished for him again.

He nodded, a slow, heavy nod. “I would have…”

“Would have what?” I cut him off, my voice suddenly sharp. “Would have just let me stay? Never asked me about the pictures, never gotten angry? Pretended like everything was okay between us while the hate slowly festered? Or maybe you would have taken them away the moment they were born? Just one sentence, Alex.That’s all it would have taken. One sentence to ask me if it was true, but you didn’t.”

Another sigh. “I know, and I’m sorry.”

sound. “Sorry doesn’t change anything. Doesn’t change what you did. And what about Adrian? Nothing excuses what Ivan’s doing, it’s not your fault you have a power hungry asshole for a father, who by the way, is also responsible for my brother’s death. But Adrian? You deserve every bit of hate he

flat with resignation. “I’m not a good person. The worst, probably. Everyone should hate me.

no matter what you do, no matter how much I try,

there for a long time after that, the anger slowly draining out of me, leaving behind a hollow ache. The crickets continued their chirping, the only sound besides the occasional rustle of leaves in the cool night breeze. My reflection stared back at me from the still water of the

fix this,” He muttered, “I don’t know

with a bitter humor. “Everything we’ve done since I came back, every choice we’ve made, it’s all led us right back here. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I pushed you away, it felt inevitable, like we were always going to end up together. But then there’s Ivan, and there’s Miranda, and neither of us knew it was all part of their plan. And now, just when there’s a chance, a sliver of a possibility that things could actually work between us, I’m not even sure I want that anymore. For years, I’d raised our children alone, clinging

anger, the betrayal – it was all still so raw,

welled up in my eyes, hot and stinging. I hadn’t even realized I was crying until I felt them tracing a path down my cheeks. Wiping them away angrily, I stood

reflection in the mirror, I barely recognized the woman looking back.My copper hair, usually a source of pride, was a tangled mess. The green eyes that

looked wrong,

of rejection, the cold, suffocating hate from my father, every moment I’d allowed Ivan near me, every lie he’d spun, every stolen

stop, this constant ache that seemed to permeate every fiber of

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11:59 AM

Chapter 136

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on the counter. Without a second thought, I grabbed them, the cold metal a contrast to the

for a section of my hair at shoulder length. The act felt strangely detached, almost robotic. But the moment the blades closed around the hair, a jolt of electricity

down my face, blurring my vision. But I couldn’t stop. The scissors became an extension of my rage, a way to lash out at the world, at myself, at everything that felt so broken and beyond repair. Each snip was a defiant

let the scissors fall from my numb fingers. It clattered to the floor with a hollow thud, mirroring the emptiness echoing within me. Sinking to the ground, I wrapped my arms around