Once My Only, Now Just a Memory Chapter 12

Once My Only, Now Just a Memory Chapter 12

Gillian’s POV

I drove back to the Wrenford Estate in a daze.

Five years ago, when I believed Lumi was not my daughter, rage had blinded me.

But I had held that sweet girl in my arms. Thad raised her for four years.

Flora’s desperate begging on the stone steps had torn my heart to pieces.

I had hated Flora for her betrayal, but I had hated myself even more for my own weakness.

Ultimately, I had used my resources to find an anonymous bone marrow donor.

Over the past five years, I had forced myself to stay away from them.

But I had instructed my Beta and Gamma to keep an eye on them from a distance. The reports they brought back always said the same thing: the child was doing well.

So Flora had to be lying to me now.

I dialed my Beta, Jace.

“Find Lumi. Bring her to me immediately. Use whatever means necessary.”

The moment I hung up, Brielle slammed my office door open.

“Cillian! Why are you looking for that bastard?”

“You went to see Flora today, didn’t you? You still want her!”

“She is a cheating Omega! Why are you still obsessed with her? You actually want to raise another man’s child?”

Her voice was high and grating.

I pulled at my tie, irritation flaring. When had she become so loud and obnoxious?

“Enough! Lumi is not a bastard. She is my daughter!”

Brielle froze, the color draining from her face. “How do you know that?”

My fingers stilled on my desk. I looked up at her. “What do you mean by that?”

Brielle took a step back, her hands trembling.

“I… nothing.”

“The bloodline assay. It wasn’t just my grandfather. You were involved too, wasn’t you?”

Brielle stumbled back, shaking her head. “No, of course not…”

But her pale face and trembling hands told me everything.

I had spent five years ignoring the red flags, but I couldn’t ignore this.

“It was you?” My voice was barely a whisper.

When I first learned the truth about Lumi’s parentage, I had suspected Brielle might have known something. But she had always seemed so sweet and innocent. I had assumed my grandfather had simply used her.

My grandfather was dead now, and because I could not hate the dead, I had directed all my rage at Flora.

I had hated her for not fighting harder to explain, for disappearing for five years, for her silence.

I had said such cruel things to her in the bakery.

But now, Brielle stood before me, her guilt laid bare.

I stood up, walking around my desk to tower over her. “And the photos? Did you forge those too?”

The shadow of my Alpha aura fell over her.

Brielle’s mind went blank. She could only shake her head in terror. “I… I didn’t…”

I understood everything now.

A wave of intense panic washed over me.

I had faced down rival packs and corporate takeovers without flinching, but now, I had to grip the edge of my desk to keep from falling.

If Flora had been innocent all along… what had I done to her?

What had I done to our daughter?

The hatred I had nurtured for five years crumbled into dust, leaving only a hollow, terrifying void.