Evelyn’s POV
"Did you think I’d be grateful? Did you assu that just because I’m their mother, I’d instantly forgive everything and help her too?"
My eyes, still wet with tears, t his.
"Calvin, we were married for five years, not five days, and you still don’t understand at all."
I stood up, ready to leave. "I’m a mother, not a saint!"
He caught my wrist before I could go. His touch was gentle but firm, stopping without hurting .
His gaze never left mine as he bowed his head slightly, hiding the darkness in his eyes.
He’d finally realized that his idea of protection wasn’t what I wanted at all. But was it too late to make ands?
"I’m sorry for the pain I caused you during those five years," he said, his voice low.
The mories of lonely nights crying myself to sleep made fresh tears threaten to fall.
"Clara saved Rhys, and regardless of her motives, I’m grateful for that," I admitted. "I could have given her money, resources, anything within reason. But I wouldn’t have crossed lines with a married man, knowing full well what I was doing."
Calvin was still kneeling on one knee, his fist clenched at his side. "Is Clara the reason you rejected ?"
I t his gaze coldly. In our five years together, this was the first ti I’d ever looked down at him from above.
"She was just the final straw. The real problem was always you."
Calvin opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again.
Since we were finally being honest, I decided to lay everything out.
"Calvin, you’ve been at the top of the food chain since birth. You’ve had the best of everything your whole life. Your family obeys you, your pack mbers follow your orders. Has anyone ever dared to contradict you?"
Calvin remained silent. We both knew it was true.
Even his friends always deferred to him. His life had been too smooth, too easy.
"You were my mate," I whispered. "But even that wasn’t enough for you to stand up to your mother when she called ’unworthy’ because I couldn’t shift. Not enough for you to correct your Beta when he dismissed our marriage as just a political tool."
I pulled my hand away from his face. "And certainly not enough for you to refuse when Diana brought the ’pure-blooded, capable’ Clara to you and suggested she could better represent the pack as Luna than your Oga wife who couldn’t even shift."
"So even after marriage, you still made decisions on your own," I continued. "You’re so brilliant that you believe every choice you make is the right one. You think you can optimize everything."
My apparent complints seed to make him more anxious, as if he sensed the trap closing around him.
"Calvin, emotions don’t work that way. Getting the right outco doesn’t erase the hurt caused along the way," I said quietly. "If you had told about Clara saving Rhys when it happened, if you’d consulted , maybe things would have turned out differently."
His grip on my hand tightened as he spoke hoarsely, "Evelyn, Clara ans nothing to . The help I gave her was just repaying a debt."
Those resources had been nothing to Calvin, not even worth a second thought.
I shook my head, moving the conversation away from Clara. I leaned down slightly to look into his dark eyes and smiled sadly.
"When I first t you, I knew you were cold at your core, but I thought it didn’t matter." A bitter laugh escaped . "After all, you didn’t love , and I didn’t love you. Just a political marriage between packs."
Pain flickered across his face. He wanted to speak but seed unable to find the words.
"When we first married, I was willing to make it work," I admitted. "You were cold, so I tried to be warm enough for both of us. But now? I don’t think I can do that anymore."
At my words, hope flashed in Calvin’s eyes. He hadn’t expected to hear that I had once cared for him.
I found myself caught in mories of the past. My fingers reached out to trace his handso face, from the corner of his deep-set eyes to his straight nose, and finally brushing across his cool, thin lips.
I sighed deeply, my voice barely audible. "Calvin, how much better it would have been if I had never fallen for you after our marriage."
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe steadily as mories flooded back. Just as I was about to pull my hand away, Calvin captured it in his much larger one, pressing my palm firmly against his cheek.
"Tell everything," he whispered, turning his face slightly to speak against my hand. "Please."
His voice sounded like he wanted to hurt himself, like he needed to hear every painful detail about how he had failed.
I looked at his face. Those deep eyes that could pull anyone in. He was like God’s perfect creation, and it was almost impossible not to fall for him.
"My feelings for you were never that deep," I lied, watching his reaction carefully.
Calvin’s heartbeat jumped erratically under my touch, a nervousness I’d never felt from the mighty Alpha before.
My hand trembled in his grasp as I looked away, continuing, "The best our relationship ever was? Probably the year I got pregnant with Rowan and Rhys."
I paused, my lips curving into a genuine smile at the mory. That brief window of ti when he’d shown real tenderness, when I’d foolishly believed things could change.
A chronically cold man suddenly showing warmth can be dangerously misleading. I had lost myself in those small, deceptive monts for five long years.
"During that ti," I admitted with a small, sad smile, "I actually thought your cold nature was charming in its own way."
Looking at him objectively, Calvin was physically flawless. In terms of capability, he’d reached heights most n could only dream of. Yet this extraordinary man had crushed every ounce of enthusiasm I’d ever had for our marriage, leaving nothing but a still, dead pool in my heart.
A tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it, landing on the back of his other hand. It seed to burn him; I saw him flinch slightly.
I pulled my hand from his grip and straightened my posture, my voice turning cold again. "If you had never given any response at all, I wouldn’t have resented you so much later."
"Calvin, you sent signals, made believe there was sothing real between us. Then the mont I fell for you, you pulled away completely. You made all my careful attempts to get close to you look like a pathetic joke."
He rose suddenly, gripping my shoulders with an urgency I’d never seen in him before. "That’s not how it was!" he insisted.
"I liked you," he blurted out, the confession stunning us both into silence.
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