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.

pulled into the driveway. After midnight. Everyone should be

the moment I opened the front door, I

Crying.

worse. Something that

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148 Chapter 148

Adrian.

following the sound to his room. The door was cracked

nightlight.

in his bed, face buried in his pillow, his small body shaking with sobs that

two strides, sitting on the edge of

streaked with tears, his silver–blue eyes red and

of us.

His voice was so

buddy.” My voice cracked.

The anger in his voice was new, raw. “You promised you’d

“I know–“”

He was screaming now, his little hands balled into fists. “You said you’d find her

Because he was right.

I reached for him, but

you

poured down his face. “Why doesn’t she want to come home? Why

to me. Your mother loves you more

her

broke completely. “If she

chest while he sobbed. His small body

pain pouring out

the first time he’d cried. For three weeks, he’d been so brave, so strong, asking

lies.

How could I tell my son that his mother

we were better off without

They’d poisoned her. Tortured her. Killed her

if she thought they’d come after our children

me like lightning. Everything suddenly clicked into

she was terrified. Terrified that the

Lily next.

why she’d left. Not because she thought she wasn’t good enough–but