Seraphina’s POV
The air in the office turned toxic, pressing against my lungs like poison gas. Every breath felt labored, and the walls seed to close in around . My head pounded with a rhythm that matched my racing heartbeat.
"Say that again," I commanded, my voice cutting through the silence like a blade. The words ca out sharper than I intended, but I needed to hear it once more to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood.
Quincy’s shoulders sagged, and he avoided my gaze completely. "Maxwell isn’t your biological father."
The statent hit like a physical blow. Everyone else in the room suddenly found the floor fascinating, their eyes darting everywhere except toward . The silence that followed was deafening.
My world tilted sideways. The oxygen seed to drain from the room, leaving gasping. This had to be wrong. There had to be so mistake, so terrible misunderstanding. My mind scrambled desperately, searching for any explanation that would make this nightmare disappear.
Waves of emotion crashed over in rapid succession. Disbelief. Fury. Complete and utter bewildernt. But underneath it all was shock so profound it threatened to pull under completely.
I studied the faces of the people I’d called my parents, searching desperately for any sign this was an elaborate joke. So twisted prank that would end with laughter and apologies. But the gravity in their expressions told a different story. The truth was written across their features in lines of guilt and sorrow.
"Why?" The word scraped its way out of my throat, tasting bitter on my tongue. At eighteen, I’d learned that my adoptive parents weren’t my biological ones. That revelation had been devastating enough. Then ca the knowledge that my real parents had abandoned , discarding like unwanted baggage. That pain had cut deep.
But this? This was beyond anything I could have imagined. The man I’d called father wasn’t even biologically connected to .
I was drowning in secrets, suffocating under their weight. Each day brought fresh revelations, fresh wounds. I couldn’t take much more of this constant barrage of lies and half-truths. Who was I anymore? What was real?
"Mom," I turned to her, my voice shaking like a leaf in a storm. "Please explain this to ."
Instead, Maxwell spoke up, his voice thick with emotion he rarely showed. "Seraphina, you’ll always be my daughter."
The consolation prize in his words sparked sothing dark inside . A laugh bubbled up from sowhere deep and bitter, a sound so hollow it barely seed human. "Your daughter?" I spat the words back at him. "You never treated like your daughter."
The truth of that statent hit like a sledgehamr. His coldness, his distance, his complete lack of affection suddenly made perfect sense. I’d never ant anything to him because I wasn’t truly his. The realization was both devastating and oddly liberating.
But then Quincy’s earlier words crashed back into my consciousness. He’d claid responsibility for killing my biological father.
"I wasn’t alone in that," Maxwell said defensively, reading the question in my eyes before I could voice it. "You were involved too."
My entire body convulsed with shock. My legs turned to liquid, refusing to support my weight any longer. I would have collapsed completely if not for Julian’s arms catching , pulling against his solid chest. For a mont, I let myself lean into his strength, desperate for sothing stable in this chaos.
Then reality crashed back in. I looked up at him, tears threatening to spill over. "Did you know about this?"
Please say no, I begged silently. Please let there be one person in my life who hasn’t betrayed with lies.
He t my gaze directly and nodded once.
The world spun violently around . My vision blurred, and I felt myself swaying like a tree in a hurricane. But sohow, I found the strength to pull away from him, to stand on my own unsteady legs.
This had to be the worst day of my existence. Nothing could possibly be worse than this mont.
"Who was my real father?" I demanded, my voice cracking under the weight of the question.
Silence stretched between us like a taut wire. They exchanged glances, having so wordless conversation that excluded entirely. The tension was suffocating.
"Who was my father?" I scread, the words tearing from my throat raw and desperate.
Finally, Julian’s quiet voice cut through the silence. "Alpha Victor of the fallen pack."
The na dropped into the room like a bomb. For several heartbeats, I couldn’t process it, couldn’t make sense of the syllables. Then a strangled "No" escaped my lips. "That’s impossible."
I whirled toward my mother, tears finally breaking free and streaming down my face in hot rivers. "Mom, tell they’re lying. Please tell this isn’t true."
But her silence spoke louder than any words could have. The look in her eyes confird my worst fears. Alpha Victor. My biological father. The man who’d been murdered. The man whose blood ran through my veins.
The realization hit like ice water. Dorian. I was related to Dorian, the man who’d made it his mission to destroy everything I cared about.
"How?" The word ca out strangled. I didn’t want explanations from these chronic liars, but I needed to understand.
"I’m from the fallen pack too, Seraphina. Your father and I were together before I found my mate," my mother explained, but I couldn’t trust a word from her mouth anymore.
"Why didn’t you tell ? How could you keep this from ?" The betrayal was overwhelming.
"We were trying to protect you," she said, as if that justified everything.
"Protect ? By killing my father?" The hypocrisy was staggering.
The man I’d loved as a father had murdered my real one. My father-in-law had destroyed my family.
I jerked away from Julian’s reaching hands. "Don’t touch !" The words exploded from my chest.
He was just as guilty as the rest of them. Not only was he the son of my father’s killer, but he’d known the truth and chosen to hide it from . That ant he agreed with their decision, approved of their lies.
I couldn’t bear to look at any of them another second.
I ran. Out of the room, out of the house, away from the familiar world that had just imploded around . My legs carried forward while my heart shattered into a million pieces. Tears blurred my vision, but I didn’t slow down. I didn’t know my destination, only that I had to escape the lies, the pain, the devastating truth that had just obliterated everything I thought I knew.
I kept running until soone pressed sothing over my mouth and nose.
Then darkness swallowed whole.
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