Chapter 199
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My phone buzzed on the nightstand. I grabbed it, hoping irrationally it might somehow be her, but it was just Darios checking o
Is she at the coffee shop now? I asked without preamble, my voice rough from lack of sleep.
Yes, Alpha, Darius replied, his tone carefully neutral. As per your orders, we’ve been monitoring her. She just started her shift at Hosting Beans Coffee.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed, already teaching for clothes. Good. Tell the driver to take me there immediately I couldn’t keep the urgency from my voice, the desperate need to see her, to explain…though what the hell could I possibly say to make this right?
“Already arranged, Alpha
I ended the call and stared at the blank screen for a moment. I need to talk to her, need to explain… But the words sounded hollow even in my own mind. What explanation could possibly justify what I’d done to her?
Ten minutes later, I was sliding into the backseat of the black SUV, nodding curtly to the driver who pulled away from the curb without a word. As buildings flashed by outside the window, I pulled out my phone again and checked the credit card account I’d set up for Lysandra through Delta Gaelen.
The balance remained untouched–exactly as it had been since the day I’d established it. I’d known this fact before, but now it hit me differently. I scrolled through the transaction history: not a single purchase, not one withdrawal. Nothing.
She never used a penny of my money.
I remembered Gaelen’s report when he’d first delivered the card to her: “She refused it, Alpha, but I insisted she keep it anyway, in case of emergency.” At the time, I’d interpreted her refusal as either false pride or part of her supposed act.
God, I’d been such a fool.
I leaned back against the leather seat, closing my eyes as the landscape rushed by. The guilt was overwhelming, crushing me from the inside.
I remembered her sobbing when I threatened the rejection ceremony, begging me not to leave her.
“I have nobody else in my life but you, Tristan. Please don’t abandon me.” Her voice had been raw with pain, her eyes swollen from crying.
I’d thought it was manipulation then. I’d convinced myself she was desperate to maintain her position as Luna, not to keep me. But now I recognized the genuine heartbreak in her voice, the real fear of losing the man she loved.
I opened my eyes, clenching my jaw against the memory. The car swerved slightly as we rounded a corner, and I gripped the door handle, feeling physically ill.
I remembered our wedding day–how radiant she’d looked, how her smile had seemed to light up the entire room. I’d told myself she was smiling because she’d successfully trapped me, because her scheme had worked. Now I understood it had been genuine joy, the happiness of a woman marrying the man she believed loved her.
And what about all those times she’d looked at me with those soft green eyes and whispered, “Tristan, I love you, even as I was telling her how much I despised her? How many times had she tried to reach me through my wall of contempt?
She never fought back, never raised her yoice. She’d been the perfect, obedient wife–which had only infuriated me more because I’d been convinced it was all an act. I’d been so determined to see deceit in her every action that I’d missed the truth staring me in the face: she had loved me, genuinely and completely.
Chapter $199
The car towed at we approached the coffee, hor, pulling in a stop at 1
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We’ve arrived, Alpha, the driver announced unnecessarily.
I watched as she laughed at something a customer said, her entire face lighting up. It struck me that I’d never soon may fough the our marriage–I never given her reason to.
“Lysandra, I whispered.
My phone rang, startling me from my thoughts. Varian’s name flashed on the screen.
“What is it?” I answered, unable to keep the edge from my voice.
“Just checking in, my Beta replied. “You disappeared after that meeting with Maelor, and frankly, you sounded like shit when we spoke last night. Are you okay?”
I stared out the window at Lysandra, who was now wiping down the counter, completely unaware of my presence. “I’m outside Howling Beans. was going to talk to her, but…”
There was a long pause before Varian spoke again, his voice softer than I’d ever heard it.
I closed my eyes, shame washing over me. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Varian’s sigh was audible through the phone. “Tristan, I need to be honest with you as your friend, not just your Beta. You hurt her deeply- repeatedly and deliberately. You took away her dignity, her security, her place in the pack. You separated her from her support system and then abandoned her when she was at her most vulnerable.”
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