Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

148 Chapter 148

Damien’s POV 1

The drive back felt like driving through concrete.

Every mile stretched into eternity. The road blurred in front of me, headlights from oncoming cars like distant stars in a universe that

had stopped making sense.

Ophelia sat in the passenger seat, her silence heavy with all the things she wasn’t saying. I could feel her looking at me every few minutes, checking to see if I was going to fall apart.

Maybe I already had.

“Damien,” she said finally, her voice careful. “We can keep looking. This doesn’t mean–“”

“It means exactly what it fucking means.” My hands tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles went white. “She’s gone. She’s

really gone.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?” I laughed, but it came out broken. Wrong. “I was so sure, Ophelia. So goddamn sure I’d find her there. That I’d see her face and

everything would be–”

My voice cracked. I couldn’t finish.

“We’ll keep searching,” Ophelia said firmly. “We’ll check every town, every city, every–”

“No.” The word came out flat. “No more searching.”

She turned to stare at me. “What?”

“I can’t do this anymore.” The admission tasted like poison.

“So you’re just giving up?”

I’m accepting reality.” Each word felt like pulling teeth. “She doesn’t want to be found. And maybe… maybe that’s for the best.”

“You don’t mean that.”

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Because part of me did mean it, and that was the worst part.

when I pulled into the driveway. After midnight. Everyone should

I opened the

Crying.

Something worse. Something that made my heart stop

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148 Chapter 148

Adrian.

took the stairs three at a time, following the sound to his room. The door was cracked

nightlight.

curled up in his bed, face buried in his pillow, his small body shaking with sobs that seemed too

strides, sitting

his face streaked with tears, his silver–blue eyes red and swollen. My eyes. Sera’s nose. A perfect blend of

of us.

her.” His voice was so small,

My voice cracked. “I tried.

anger in his voice was new, raw. “You promised

“I know–“”

his little hands balled into fists. “You said you’d find

dagger through my chest. Because he was

but he scrambled back against

you

“Why doesn’t

words came out fierce, desperate. “Adrian, listen to me. Your mother loves you more than anything in

her

His voice broke completely. “If she loves us, why

into my arms, holding him tight against my chest while he sobbed. His small body shook

pain pouring

For three weeks, he’d been so

lies.

myself? How could I tell my son that his mother thought she

we

They’d poisoned her. Tortured

thought they’d come after

lightning.

She’d never been weak. But she was terrified. Terrified

Lily next.

she wasn’t good enough–but because she thought