Faking Amnesia to Replace Me? Keep Her, I’m Gone. Chapter 03

Faking Amnesia to Replace Me? Keep Her, I’m Gone. Chapter 03

Only after closing the ticket did I notice the long string of messages from Mother.

Her tone was as harsh as ever.

It seemed as though all her patience had always belonged to Nessa.

[Calm down and think carefully about what I said today.]

[Nessa may not be my biological daughter, but her mother died saving me during a rogue attack. The Veyne family owes her a life.]

[What’s wrong with loving her a little more? Seren, you’ve been an adult for years. Why can’t you understand?]

The wolf in my torso paced in two restless circles, as if arguing back:

We understood.

When I was little, I wanted more than anything for Nessa to truly become my sister.

When she first came to Veyne Lodge, she was thin and timid.

At night, the howls from the forest made her hide under the blankets.

I saved my allowance for three months and bought her a limited-edition wolf plush she’d wanted for ages, just to make her happy.

But the next morning, she came running downstairs in tears.

There was a small slice on her index finger, and someone had hidden a pin inside the doll’s belly.

“Seren, if you don’t like me, I can leave…”

Father locked me outside and left me in the rain all night.

I explained until my throat went hoarse, but no one believed me.

Later, I gave Nessa the dried fruit I’d been saving because I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.

She had only taken a few bites when hives broke out across her skin and she started struggling to breathe normally.

She was rushed to the Healer Lodge.

“Seren, I told you I’m allergic to mango… You tricked me into eating dried mango…”

That was the first time Mother had ever lashed out at me.

Father smashed a vase nearby and said I didn’t act like an older sister at all.

At first, I couldn’t understand why she did those things.

Not until years later, when I watched Nessa deliberately send the cat I’d raised for years tumbling from the balcony, did I understand why.

I ran outside and cried until my torso hurt.

She came downstairs and gave a low, cold laugh beside my ear.

“Seren, everything you have should be mine.”

“If I can’t have it, neither should you.”

I never forgot her smile.

She wasn’t some helpless Omega at all.

She had simply learned how to hide cruelty behind tears.

The ringtone pulled me out of the memory.

Kieran.

The moment I answered, his hurried voice came through.

“Seren, I love you!”

Before I could process it, the call ended.

Then a sharp pain tore through my torso.

My wolf sprang to her feet and growled low, pacing restlessly inside me.

The mate bond delivered one message:

betrayal.

I pressed a hand to my torso and waited for the pain to fade.

Strangely, it didn’t hurt as much as I’d imagined it would.

Maybe my core had already gone completely cold.

Either way, in seven days, I’d sever the mate bond and leave for good.

Before then, there were still a few things I had to retrieve.

Late that night, I returned to the house.

The instant I opened the door, my wolf lifted her head.

Nessa’s scent was everywhere, mixed with spirits and something unmistakably intimate.

Beside the sofa lay Kieran’s black shirt, the one I’d folded and put away countless times.

One of Nessa’s things lay beside it.

That was enough.

There was no room left for doubt.

The pain that had just pulsed through the mate bond suddenly made sense.

My hands grew colder and colder.

Nessa’s laughter drifted from the bedroom.

“I was only joking when I told you to call Seren. I didn’t think you’d really do it.”

“Weren’t you afraid Seren would notice something was wrong and start a fight?”

Kieran gave a low laugh.

“I didn’t have time to worry about that. I just wanted to make you happy.”

Nessa’s voice turned teasing.

“Between Seren and me, who would you rather have beside you?”

“You, obviously.”

There was barely a pause.

“Seren is always so distant. Being with her feels like a duty.”

My wolf surged forward, furious, fighting for control.

I forced her down.

Before they realized I was there, I swallowed my nausea and quietly went back to the study to gather the documents I needed.

I closed the study door, turned around, and saw Kieran carrying Nessa out.