Chapter 6

River sobbed as he explained, "We just wanted to find a necklace for Aunt Sage... Mom wouldn't let us, and she tried to grab it... I accidentally..."

Kael crouched down to help me up. "Where are you hurt? I'll take you to the hospital."

The two children also scrambled to help.

Just then—

"Ahhhh!"

A scream came from the dining room, and a maid ran over in panic. "Alpha! Miss Sage got burned by the candles!"

Kael froze mid-motion.

"How bad is it?" he asked urgently.

"A huge burn..."

Before the maid could finish, Kael was already standing up. "Aria, call an ambulance yourself. We need to get Sage to the hospital first."

The two children immediately let go of my hands too. "Mom, you go to the hospital by yourself!"

"Kael... River... Stone..."

I weakly reached out, but all three of them rushed toward the dining room without looking back, carefully helping Sage leave.

Blood blurred my vision as I tremblingly pulled out my phone and used my last bit of strength to dial 911.

"Help... me..."

The moment the call connected, I fell into complete darkness.

When I woke up again, the hospital room was still empty.

A nurse came in to change my bandages. Seeing I was awake, she sighed. "Your mate and children are in the VIP room next door taking care of Miss Sage."

She paused, her tone carrying some indignation. "Miss Sage only has a small red mark on the back of her hand, but they're making such a fuss. Alpha Kael is personally applying medicine for her, the older boy is blowing on her wound, and the younger one even went to buy ice cream to cheer her up. You're hurt so badly, but..."

I listened quietly, my heart already numb from the pain.

My phone buzzed, and the screen lit up.

It was a reminder text from the Alpha Council: 【The mate bond severance has been approved. You may receive your mate bond severance certificate in three days.】

I stared at that message for a long time, then suddenly smiled.

Finally, it would be over.

After being discharged, I began preparing to leave.

On the first day, I went to the cemetery.

Next to my parents' headstones, a small new marker had been erected—Finn's.

I knelt before the grave, gently wiping the young, smiling face in the photo.

"Mom, Dad, Finn..." My voice was soft. "I loved the wrong person."

"I shouldn't have fallen for Kael, shouldn't have had those two children..."

I smiled, tears silently falling. "I'm leaving... This time, I really don't want them anymore. I'll live well for the rest of my days. You take care down there too, don't worry about me. Years from now, we'll meet again underground."

The mountain wind lifted my long hair, and the white chrysanthemums in front of the headstone trembled slightly, as if responding to me.

On the second day, I went to Lovers' Bridge.

Years ago, Kael and I had hung a love lock there, engraved with both our names.

I found that lock and viciously cut it with pliers, throwing it into the river.

The moment the metal hit the water, I seemed to hear the laughter of my younger self.

How ridiculous—vows of "eternal love" apparently only had a five-year shelf life.

After that, I visited every place where Kael and I had shared memories—

Our usual restaurant, the park where we had our first date, the church where we got married...

Bit by bit, I erased all traces of our love.

Back home, I packed up all the gifts Kael had given me over the years and threw them in the trash.

Finally, I packed my luggage, just waiting to get the Alpha Council's approval to sever our mate bond tomorrow before leaving for good.