69 Chapter 69 Astors Hidden Heir
I stared into her eyes, seeing years of accumulated worry, pain, and condemnation reflected back at me. The weight of finally speaking this truth aloud felt crushing.
“Hello, Mom. Dad,” I replied, attempting to inject warmth into the frigid atmosphere between us. “How wonderful to see you both. Six years really is quite a long time, don’t you think?”
“Not here,” I stated firmly, keeping my voice level. “We need privacy. Follow me.”
I guided them through the maze of hallways to a small guest room I had been occupying. The moment we crossed the threshold, I shut the door and turned the lock with deliberate precision.
I smiled, but the expression held no warmth – only cold determination. I had traveled too far down this path to retreat now. My running days were finished.
My mother wasted no time on pleasantries. Her features had hardened into granite, unyielding and cold.
My mother appeared to wilt slightly under my intensity, but her primary objective remained unchanged.
There was no point in pretending they hadn’t overheard my earlier words or attempting to fabricate some elaborate lie. I wasn’t naive enough to believe the truth wouldn’t surface eventually. But there was a certain satisfaction in watching them grapple with the secret I had guarded so fiercely, knowing their protective instincts would keep them silent to preserve their daughter’s interests.
“Just go, Seraphina. Please, just leave,” she begged, abandoning her harsh tone for desperate pleading. “Leave Julian and Roxanne to their life. Leave their happiness
intact.”
“Say whatever you wish about me,” I warned her, my tone deadly serious. “Label me a disappointment, call me a disgrace. But you will never speak about my son with such disrespect. You will never treat him the way you always treated me. Not now, not ever.”
I moved even closer, my protective fury blazing hotter than any emotion I had ever experienced. My voice emerged controlled but unyielding.
My eyes darted around the bustling corridor. The last thing I needed was for this
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69 Chapter 69 Astors Hidden Heir
conversation to become public entertainment. This secret belonged in the shadows, not under the bright lights of pack gossip.
I had foolishly hoped she might let the matter drop, but that hope crumbled instantly.
“Yes,” I admitted with a slow nod. “I do.”
The stunned quiet didn’t endure long. My mother rallied quickly, her face contorting with disbelief and renewed anger.
My mother didn’t wait for the click of the lock to fade. She closed the distance between us, completely dismissing our surroundings.
My carefully constructed composure cracked like thin ice. Before I could formulate a response, my mother interrupted, her stare boring into me with laser-like intensity.
“You’re lying!” she accused, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper. “You couldn’t bear watching Roxanne find happiness, could you? So you returned to destroy everything, and now you’re spinning lies about Julian being the father just to create more chaos.”
There they were – my mother and father. Six years had vanished into nothing, yet they appeared frozen in time, wearing the same expressions of exhaustion and perpetual disappointment that had haunted my childhood.
Seraphina’s POV
“The truth, Seraphina. This instant,” she commanded, her words sharp as broken glass. “Do you have a son?”
My father moved closer, his jaw clenched tight with barely contained anger. His eyes held no trace of paternal warmth or joy at our reunion.
I forced my expression to remain neutral, stretching my lips into what I hoped resembled a smile, though it felt wooden and fake. I needed to maintain some semblance of civility, to take the moral high ground.
Her words struck me like physical blows. The fact that she immediately concluded I had failed spectacularly, that I had abandoned my responsibilities to disgrace myself with some random stranger, made rage burn through my veins. She hadn’t even entertained any alternative explanation.
My breath caught as I slowly turned around. The familiar presence behind me sent a chill down my spine, though I already knew exactly who stood there. Even without
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Perhaps recognizing the gravity of the situation, my mother didn’t protest. She fell into step behind me without her usual arguments.
“How presumptuous of you, Mother,” I snarled, advancing toward her with trembling hands. “To assume you understand everything, just as you always have. You want to know the identity of his father? Because I’m about to tell you.”
Complete silence engulfed the room for several heartbeats. My mother stood frozen, her mouth agape in shock, while my father had gone ashen, gripping the door frame to steady himself.
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