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 moment I opened the front door, I

Crying.

wails. Something worse. Something that made

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148 Chapter 148

Adrian.

three at a time, following the sound to his room. The door was cracked open, soft light

nightlight.

his small body shaking with sobs that

I crossed the room in two strides, sitting on the edge

turned to look at me, his face streaked with tears, his silver–blue eyes red

of us.

her.” His voice was so small, so

voice cracked. “I tried. I

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

“I know–“”

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

was a dagger through my chest. Because he was right. I had promised.

him, but he scrambled back against the

you

down his face. “Why

loves you.” The words came out fierce, desperate. “Adrian, listen to

her

did she leave?” His voice broke completely. “If she loves us, why won’t

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

pain pouring

he’d been so brave, so

lies.

could I explain it when I didn’t understand it myself? How could I tell my son that his mother thought she wasn’t good

convinced herself we were better off

They’d poisoned her. Tortured her. Killed

thought they’d come after our

me like lightning. Everything suddenly

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

Lily next.

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