18. At my home.

"Unbelievable," I could hear Linda scoff underneath her breath, her wariness laced with a hint of disdain, as if something profound was amiss in the very fabricated story of Alpha Dominic's words.

"What does my mother dying have to do with me?" I folded my hands.

"I know you still have a heart," Alpha Dominic uttered, his words carrying a plea beneath the weight of the revelation, as if he was unraveling a long-buried secret. "Your mother's wish is to see you before she breathes her last."

The air seemed to hold its breath as the profoundness of the moment sank in. The mention of a mother's dying wish, a flicker of humanity amidst the turmoil, tugged at something deep within me. Was I as terrible as my mother? Was her last wish to apologize to me for every horrible thing she did to me?

"After all my mother has done to me, I'm supposed to go and see the woman who caused me pain?" I retorted, the bitterness of the past echoing in my words. The idea of facing the source of my wounds, eve