The Photographer That Should Not Exist

Sable's POV

I couldn't take my eyes off the photograph. It was an old picture, slightly faded around the edges, but the faces were clear enough to recognise. My father stood in the middle, wearing a dark suit with one arm resting comfortably against the shoulder of the man beside him.

 He looked younger than I remembered him, with a smile I had almost forgotten. On his right stood Richard, looking equally comfortable, while the third man was someone I recognised immediately from the portraits that decorated Crestwood Palace.The former Alpha King.

I stared at the photograph again, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. All my life, Richard had described my father as a nobody, a useless human who had nothing to offer my mother. He had told me that my father died like a dog, leaving my mother to struggle with a child nobody wanted. Yet there he was, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with two of the most powerful men in Crestwood.

Why was he standing next to a King? "When was this taken?" I finally asked. Eleanor watched me carefully before answering. "A month before your father died."

My fingers tightened around the photograph. "You knew Richard?"

"Unfortunately, yes. He was around your father quite often back then. They were involved in certain business arrangements, although I never understood the full details. Your father rarely discussed his dealings with us."

I turned towards Kael, hoping his expression would offer some explanation, but he was unusually quiet. His hand remained firmly positioned on my waist, although I noticed the tension in his fingers. He wasn't looking at my father. His attention was fixed on the former Alpha King.

Something about the photograph had unsettled him. "Let's go inside," Eleanor said gently. "There are things you deserve to know."

She led us through the entrance of her mansion, holding my hand as though she feared I might disappear if she let go. The house was beautiful, with expensive furniture, enormous windows and paintings decorating the walls. Yet I barely noticed any of it. My mind was still trapped in that photograph.

We settled in a spacious sitting room, and Eleanor instructed the servants to bring refreshments. She sat opposite me, but her eyes never left my face.

"Your mother was Clara Whitmore," she began. "She was my only daughter, and she was supposed to inherit everything our family owned. She had a comfortable life, a promising future and every opportunity a young woman could desire. Then she met your father." I lowered my eyes.

"Your grandfather and I didn't approve of their relationship initially. Your father was human, and we were a prominent family with connections to people who would never have accepted such a marriage. However, Clara loved him, and eventually, we accepted that she had made her choice."

Eleanor paused, swallowing painfully.

"But your mother didn't leave because she wanted to marry a poor man. She left because she discovered something she was never supposed to hear." I looked up immediately.

"What did she discover?" Eleanor glanced briefly at Kael before returning her attention to me.

"She overheard a conversation involving the former Alpha King and several men from Crestwood. They were discussing an arrangement that involved sacrificing innocent lives to protect the interests of powerful families. Your father had discovered something about it, and he was determined to expose them."

My stomach tightened. "Was my father involved in their business?"

"He was helping them with financial records and negotiations. At some point, he discovered that the arrangement was far more sinister than he had initially believed. Your mother realised that both of them were in danger, especially after discovering she was pregnant with you." I struggled to breathe normally.

"She knew they wanted to hurt her?"

"She believed they would eventually come after your father. She begged him to leave with her, but he insisted that he needed time to secure evidence. Clara left first because she feared that staying would put her unborn child in danger." I looked down at my hands.

All my life, I had believed my mother abandoned her family for a man. I had grown up thinking she had chosen a difficult life over the comfort she had been offered. But she had left because she was trying to protect me.

She had carried me away from people who wanted her silenced, and I had spent years believing I was the reason her life became miserable.

A painful lump formed in my throat, and I blinked several times to stop the tears gathering in my eyes. I had stood before the Council and defended my worth without allowing anyone to see how much their rejection had hurt me. I couldn't understand why hearing about my mother's sacrifice was breaking me more than Richard's insults ever had.

"Did you try to find her?" I asked quietly.

"Every single day." Eleanor's voice cracked. "We hired investigators, contacted people who knew your father and followed every lead we could find. More than twenty years, Sable. More than twenty years of searching, and every time we got close, something happened. Investigators suddenly resigned, witnesses disappeared, and important documents went missing. Someone was making certain we never found you." My heart sank.

Someone had deliberately kept my mother's family away from me. "Then how did Richard find you?" Eleanor's expression changed.

"He came here two days ago." I immediately looked at her.

"Richard?"

She nodded. "He appeared quite distressed. He claimed he had been trying to protect you and that your life was in danger. He told us that your father had been murdered and that he was the only person who could provide evidence of what happened."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. Richard had spent years making my life miserable, and now he wanted to present himself as my father's protector?

I could already imagine his expression when he watched me walk out of the Council hall with Kael. He had lost the opportunity to control my future, and he was desperate to find another way to destroy what I had just achieved.