Chapter 235
[ 1,098 words ]
Tiffany’s POV
Out of the apartment, down the stairs, not even bothering with the elevator. My vision blurred with tears. Everyone in the Silver Moon Pack knew I had a thing for Fynn. I’d always thought that maybe, someday, he’d see me as more than Sebastian’s little sister. That maybe we could build something.
But I was wrong. So, so wrong.
“Tiffany, stop. Stop right there!”
Fynn caught up and grabbed my arm, breathing hard. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. But you’re still young. You don’t really understand love yet. Wait until you’re…”
“I already told you I’m not a kid!” I whirled on him, tears streaming down my face. “Don’t you know I’ve liked you for so long?”
“I know.”
“Then if you knew, why did you date someone else without telling me? Have you never liked me at all?”
Fynn was quiet a moment, and I could see him choosing his words. Finally he spoke.
“Tiffany, I do like you, but not that way. What’s between us is the kind of affection between a brother and sister. You’re like a little sister to me. The same way Sebastian looks after you. That’s how I see you.”
Brothers and sisters.
Little sister.
The words were like a bomb going off in my chest, blowing apart every daydream, every hope I’d ever had about us.
“Fynn, you’re lying to me, right?” My voice broke. “It shouldn’t be like this. We get along so well. How can you only see me as a sister?”
“I know you must be lying. You’re just worried about the difference in our positions in the pack. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t mind, I’ve never minded. I don’t care that you’re not from an Alpha bloodline. I don’t care about any of it. Fynn, don’t push me away like this. Please don’t be so cruel to me. Okay?”
I’d never felt so desperate in my life. Fynn looked distressed, but he didn’t take it back. He didn’t pull me into his arms and tell me he was wrong.
“Tiffany, calm down and listen to me. It’s not about our positions. I don’t accept you because I love Willow. I really do.”
“Enough!” I clapped my hands over my ears like a child. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t!”
But I’d already heard it. And there was no unhearing it.
Fynn loved someone else. He loved Willow York.
And I was just his best friend’s annoying little sister.
Fynn’s POV
Tiffany covered her ears and bolted into the night.
I stood there watching her silhouette shrink until the darkness swallowed her, and something twisted painfully in my chest. How could I not have known? Of course I’d known. For years I’d felt the weight of her feelings, seen the way her eyes lit up whenever I walked into a room.
I dragged myself back upstairs. When I pushed the door open, Willow was perched on the edge of the sofa, her expression darker than I’d ever seen it.
“What’s the matter with that girl?” Her tone was sharp.
I let out a slow breath. “She’s Alpha Sebastian’s sister. She’s had it in her head for years that I liked her back.”
Willow’s eyes narrowed. “Did you lead her on?”
“No. I just… I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth.”
“Why not?”
I looked at this woman I’d been with for two years, who deserved honesty and could never have the full story. “There are some things you don’t need to know.”
It wasn’t fair to her. But how could I explain that Sebastian had made me swear an oath, that I’d promised not to reveal our relationship or even think about marriage until Tiffany turned twenty-five?
Willow crossed to me, her arms sliding around my neck. “Fynn, the Simons family is unbelievably rich. Would you throw me away over this? Because she’s an Alpha’s sister and I’m just…”
“Stop.” I gripped her shoulders. “Don’t even finish that sentence. I’m not that kind of man.”
I kissed her forehead. “Head home for now. I need some time alone to think.”
She studied my face a long moment. She was smart, my Willow. Without a word, she grabbed her bag and left.
The second the door clicked shut, I reached for my phone.
Sebastian answered on the second ring. “This better be important, Fynn. I’m in the middle of…”
“Tiffany found out about Willow,” I said flatly.
Silence. Then the explosion.
“What? What the hell is wrong with you? How did you let that happen?”
“She showed up out of nowhere,” I shot back. “I was in the shower. Willow answered the door. What was I supposed to do, magically sense your sister was about to drop by with a head full of romantic delusions?”
“You were supposed to be careful! That was the whole point of keeping it quiet. To protect her from exactly this.”
“I know.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “But it’s done now. She knows.”
A beat of silence, then his voice came back, colder. “How bad was it?”
“Bad.” I sank onto the sofa, her tear-streaked face burned into my mind. “She was devastated.”
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth. That I love Willow.” I hesitated. “She didn’t take it well.”
Sebastian swore under his breath. “I’m coming back tomorrow. Don’t say anything else to her until I get there.”
The line went quiet, leaving me with the echo of Tiffany’s broken voice.
“Don’t you know I’ve liked you for so long?”
Yeah. I’d known.
That knowledge had been a burden for years, ever since the day I became Sebastian’s Beta. I’d worked myself to the bone to earn that position, not because I craved power, but to prove I was worthy of standing beside an Alpha like him.
But the position came with sacrifices. Tiffany Simons was off-limits, from the moment Sebastian pulled me aside after my promotion.
“My sister has a crush on you,” he’d said, his green eyes hard as stone. “But she’s young, Fynn. She shouldn’t get tangled up in feelings for someone who can’t give her what she needs. So you keep your distance. And if you fall in love, you keep it quiet until she’s old enough to move on. Do we understand each other?”
I’d agreed without hesitation. Because Sebastian wasn’t just my Alpha. He was my best friend. And he was right.
Tiffany deserved better than an orphan with no name, no family, no bloodline to speak of, someone who could never return her feelings.
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