.Chapter 34-1
Kane
Dinner with my son was awkward as hell, but I tried to fake politeness through the whole ordeal.
The dining room felt too formal and cold, with its massive table and elaborate place settings, not
like it used to be when I was around. We sat at opposite ends, the distance between us feeling
symbolic of the eighteen-year gap in our relationship.
“So tell me about your life, Kellan,” I said, cutting my meat with precision. “What’s it been like, ruling
in my absence?”
“Challenging,” he replied, his tone perfectly neutral. “But I’ve managed well enough. The council has
been helpful, of course.”
Everything he said felt rehearsed, fabricated. The responses were polished, too diplomatic. But I couldn’t help the nostalgia and guilt that washed over me as I looked at him. He had my eyes, my jaw, but there was a hardness to his features that I didn’t remember from the two-year-old I’d left
behind.
I really had been a shit father.
“What about your personal interests? Hobbies? Any… romantic attachments?”
“I keep myself busy with kingdom affairs,” he said, taking a sip of wine. “There’s always work to be done. Vaerys Kingdom keeps giving us trouble.”
We were just uncorking a second bottle of wine when alarms started blaring through the room. The sound was deafening, echoing off the stone walls and making my ears ring. I tensed, my lycan
immediately on high alert. The signal. Kellan barely looked fazed, though.
“Deal with it,” he commanded to the side, apparently speaking to guards I couldn’t see.
He turned back to me with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “So inconvenient, isn’t it?”
I needed to get out of here, needed to find Simone and make sure she was safe, as we agreed. “I’m
sorry. I should probably go check on-”
“Oh, please stay,” Kellan interrupted smoothly. “I have a gift for you.”
“Really?” I lifted an eyebrow, trying to keep my voice casual despite the alarm bells going off in my head. “You shouldn’t have bothered, son.”
“Oh, it was a bother, believe me,” he shook his head, his smile turning predatory. “But you did tell
me to treat it nicely, so I’m trying my best. I don’t want to disappoint my father dearest.”
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Chapter 34-1
My entire soul crashed to the ground. My body went numb at the implications of his words. The
way he said ‘it’ instead of ‘her.’ The mocking tone when he said father.
“What?” I snarled, standing up so fast my chair fell backward. “What the hell did you do, Kellan?”
“Oh, don’t look at me with that expression!” Kellan shook his head, his facade finally dropping. ” didn’t do anything wrong. I just protected my kingdom, the way you should’ve done.”
“I couldn’t do it, that’s why I left!”
“It was easy for you, wasn’t it? To abandon everything and everyone to go live in the woods
caveman?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I snarled.
“I’m talking about how shitty of a father you’ve been!” The words exploded out of him, eighteen years of resentment finally finding their voice.
“You think I don’t know that, kid?” I grunted, running my hands through my hair. “Ever since your mother brought you here, I wished I could hug you. I could be there for you. It killed me to go away. but I would’ve killed everyone if I stayed.”
“So you decided to abandon me, to be raised by maids and councilmen,” his voice was bitter, hurt. ” Do you know how many nights I cried for you? How many nights I stayed awake, hoping you’d
come back?”
The words hit me harder than any physical blow. I could picture it, a small boy calling for his father, wondering why he’d been left behind. My chest felt crushed under the weight of my failures.
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