Chapter 183

[ 1,112 words ]

Sebastian’s POV

“Tanya gave birth to Emilia alone. Raised her alone. Our district had no decent work, and I begged her to go back to the club. She wouldn’t. She said she didn’t want Emilia growing up hearing people say her mother sold her body to feed her.”

“So she worked whatever jobs she could find,” Chuck continued. “Cleaning offices before sunrise, flipping burgers at a diner through the lunch rush, stocking shelves and running the register at a convenience store on the graveyard shift. Out before dawn, home after midnight, and never a word of complaint. Emilia was a good kid, even that young. She tried to carry what she could of the load.”

“She was twenty-five,” Chuck said, his voice breaking, “but within two years she looked fifty. All so Emilia could have clean clothes and a full belly.”

I closed my eyes, and the picture formed. A young woman, beautiful and worn down, working herself to death for a child no one else wanted.

“When Emilia was six,” Chuck said, “Tanya got sick. Really sick. The clinic told us it was stomach cancer. They caught it late, but the doctors said it was still operable, if we moved fast.”

“Tanya asked me to take Emilia in,” he whispered. “Begged me. But I couldn’t, Sebastian. My wife and I ran a tiny grocery store and could barely feed ourselves. I was a coward. I told her I couldn’t do it. I told her to take Emilia to Henry.”

“Henry didn’t want her,” Chuck said. “But Tanya threatened him. She said if he refused to take his own daughter, she’d go to the Alpha Council and the elders and let them all know Henry Taylor was the kind of man who abandons his own pup. That would have ruined him. So he took Emilia in. Unwillingly.”

“Bastard,” Fynn muttered.

“There was still a chance for Tanya,” Chuck said. “A doctor told us about a new treatment from overseas. Experimental, but her best shot. It cost a hundred thousand dollars.”

“Let me guess,” Fynn said darkly. “Henry refused.”

“He didn’t just refuse. He beat Emilia when she asked. Told her that if she ever came back begging, he’d break her legs.”

Ryder roared in my mind. I gripped the bed railing to keep from shifting.

“That’s when Richie Lind found her,” Chuck said. “He’d heard about Tanya. He made Emilia an offer. He’d pay the hundred thousand. In return, she had to promise to marry his son when she came of age.”

“His son,” I said slowly, “who’s disabled.”

“Yes. Emilia was only six. She didn’t understand what marriage even meant. She only understood one thing, that saying yes would save her mother. So she agreed.”

I felt sick.

“Richie paid the money, and Tanya was put on the list for the surgery,” Chuck said. “But a treatment like that isn’t something you get overnight. There was a waiting list. Months of it. Consultations, tests, waiting for a slot to open up. Tanya held on through all of it, and Emilia counted down every single day.” His face softened for a moment. “The surgery finally came through the following year. And it worked. Tanya pulled through. She was weak, still recovering, but she was alive. For the first time in years, there was hope.”

“Around that same time, when Emilia was seven, Henry finally brought her into the pack for good. Acknowledged her, in front of everyone, as Alpha Henry’s daughter.”

“That should have been the end of the hard part,” Chuck whispered. “It was only the beginning.”

“One night, a servant from the Taylor house came to the hospital,” he went on. “Said Henry wanted to see Emilia. She didn’t want to leave Tanya’s side, but the servant insisted. The moment she reached the Taylor house, they locked her in a storage room.”

“What?” Fynn straightened.

“She screamed and pounded on the door for hours. No one came. Finally an old servant heard her and let her out. She ran back to the hospital as fast as her legs could carry her. But she was too late.”

His voice broke completely.

“Henry and Dorothy had bribed a nurse,” he whispered. “Tanya was still on monitors after the surgery, still hooked up to the machines that were keeping her stable. They walked into that room and shut it all off. By the time Emilia got back, her mother was gone.”

The room went silent.

“Emilia saw them leaving as she ran in,” Chuck said. “They looked panicked. Guilty. She found Tanya’s monitor flatlined. They murdered her, Sebastian. They lured Emilia away so they could do it.”

I couldn’t breathe. All I could see was a little girl running through a hospital, finding her mother dead.

“That was the day her heart broke,” Chuck said quietly. “The day she learned to hate.”

“She wanted revenge,” I said.

“Of course she did. But she was a child. Powerless. So she waited. She endured years in that house, and every time she wanted to give up, she reminded herself what they’d done. She told herself that one day, she’d make them pay.”

“And Richie?” Fynn asked.

“He came back when she turned eighteen. Wanted her to marry his son, like she’d promised. She refused, for the time being. Told him she’d keep her word, but only after she’d had her revenge on Henry. Richie wasn’t happy, but he couldn’t force a witch’s daughter. So he agreed to wait.”

Chuck looked at me. “And then you came along, Sebastian. You married her. And for the first time in her life, she had someone with the power to help her.”

I stared down at Emilia, and everything clicked into place.

Why she’d been so cold at first. Why she’d kept her distance. Why she’d married a man with a cursed reputation.

She hadn’t been looking for love.

She’d been looking for power.

And I’d handed it to her.

“Leave,” I said quietly.

Chuck blinked. “What?”

“Leave. All of you. Now.”

Fynn hesitated, then nodded and led Chuck out.

The door clicked shut, and I was alone with Emilia.

I leaned over her, and that’s when I saw it.

Tears. Sliding down her bruised cheeks, even though her eyes were still closed.

She’d heard everything.

I reached out and gently wiped them away, then leaned down and pressed my lips to the corner of her eye.

“From now on,” I whispered against her skin, “my home is your home. My family is your family. Your problems are my problems.”

I pulled back just enough to look at her face.

“And your revenge,” I said quietly, “is mine too.”

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