Chapter 231
Chapter 231:
I hung up and stared at the ancient manuscript before me. Dallas had called me a trap this morning. But as I grabbed my coat and headed for the door, I knew I was walking straight into a different kind of snare—one made of guilt and ghosts, and far more dangerous than any black lace.
The iron gates of the Hyde estate groaned as they swung shut behind my taxi, a sound like a prison cell locking. The long gravel driveway was exactly as I remembered it—lined with ancient oaks that swallowed the sunlight and cast long, skeletal shadows across the path. But where I had once felt fear approaching this place, I now felt only a cold, hollow detachment.
The manor loomed ahead, a monstrosity of grey stone and ivy that looked more like a mausoleum than a home.
I didn’t knock. I pushed open the heavy oak doors and stepped into the foyer. The air inside was stale, carrying the scent of lemon polish and old secrets.
“In here, Adella p>
Victoria’s voice drifted from the drawing room. I followed the sound, my heels clicking sharply against the marble floor—a sound of defiance I never would have dared to make a year ago.
Victoria Hyde sat on a velvet settee, clutching a handkerchief. She looked older than I remembered, the lines around her mouth etched deep with stress. On the low table before her sat a small, blue wooden box.
My mother’s music box.
“You came,” she breathed, rising as though to embrace me.
I took a step back, my expression icy. “I’m here for the box, Victoria. Not for a reunion p>
She flinched, her hand dropping to her side. “Adella, please. You have to understand. We were desperate. The Pack, the Elders, they were pressuring us. Braydon’s engagement to Katherine… it was a mistake. He knows that now. He loves you p>
S𝖺ve у𝗈𝘂𝗋 𝗳𝖺𝘷𝗈𝘳i𝘁е 𝗻𝗈𝘃e𝘭𝗌 oո
I looked at the woman who had made my life a living hell, who had treated me like a servant in my own home simply because I was wolfless.
“That wasn’t a mistake, Victoria,” I said, my voice cutting through the room like a blade. “It was a transaction. You sold your son for a political alliance and a pure bloodline. Don’t pretend it was anything else p>
Victoria’s face crumbled, the mask of the benevolent Luna slipping away. “He is destroying himself! He won’t eat. He won’t lead. He just wants you p>
“Then he is weak,” I said flatly. “And I am not a rehabilitation center for your broken Alpha p>
Before she could respond, the double doors to the drawing room banged open.
Katherine Parrish stormed in, a whirlwind of expensive silk and fury. Her blonde hair was perfectly coiffed, but her eyes were manic. The scent of her perfume—something floral and suffocating—instantly choked the room.
“I knew it!” she shrieked, her gaze snapping to me. “I could smell your stench the moment you walked in. What is she doing here, Victoria p>
“Katherine, calm down,” Victoria pleaded, stepping between us.
“Calm down?” Katherine laughed, a brittle, hysterical sound. She marched toward me, one finger aimed at my chest. “You think you can just waltz back in here and take him? You wolfless little parasite. You ruin everything you touch p>