Chapter 86

Hello 👋, lovelies.

I'm so sorry 💔 for the lack of updates.

I recently came home due to something personal. And writing with the family around wasn't easy.

Let's say in our neighborhood, they call us the loud house because there are a lot of us, and of course we're loud…😅

So returning to the team and writing is hard, and the festive season here made things louder! 🤣🤣

Merry Christmas to you all!

For the support, comments, and reviews, and also for choosing my book! It means the world to me, so this chapter is free to show my appreciation for you all!

🥳🎅🎁🎄

❤️Love, Fireworks 🎆

~~~

Five years later…

…~...

Zenith Corp

…~...

“Sir, your wife is on the line,” Jessica, my assistant, says as she lingers by the door. I pause, frowning.

“I’m sorry, Miss Melinda.” She corrects herself quickly.

I lift my gaze from the screen, irritation flickering through me as I twist my stiff neck.

“What does she want this time?”

“Lucien got into a fight at school. The other child’s parents are making a scene.”

A scene.

I nearly laughed, but the sound would be too hollow. Most fathers would be halfway to the car by now, ready to defend their son.

But I just feel tired.

One thing I hold myself accountable for is not giving Lucien the guidance he needed; if I'd just done a better job raising him, he wouldn’t have gone astray.

As for Melinda, she's probably blowing this way out of proportion just to get under my skin. She always knew how to use my name to intimidate others.

What changed this time?

“I’m busy,” I say flatly, already turning back to my work.

This has been my life for the past five years. Endless work. Endless silence. I work until my eyes burn, until my brain is numb.

I left the pack months after she disappeared. I search every territory. I follow every trail. But found nothing.

Even our parents accepted the inevitable.

They chose to believe she was dead.

But I refused; I just couldn't accept it.

It is my fault. I pushed her. I broke her to the point of no return.

Dad was the first to track me months later.

Then Mom and Melinda arrived days later with baby Lucien.

They insisted the boy needed a father, insisting I raise him with Melinda.

It turns out Melinda shared my original plan to raise our child with Angel.

I left the mansion to Melinda and retreated to my penthouse. I didn't argue. I didn't have the strength left for it. Not after everything that happened with Angel.

I have been living in my penthouse ever since, never abandoning my duty to Lucien. I provide. I show up.

But at a point he changed.

He became too loud, aggressive, reckless, and troublesome.

He is nothing like me. If it weren't for the scent of my blood in his veins, I would question if he were even mine.

However, he chose today of all days to cause trouble.

Each year, I try to outrun the grief. To not think about the pain that comes with her memory.

But I never survived it, so much so that I'm pushed to inflict physical pain on myself just to drown out the memory of that day. to feel something other than grief.

But the memories come anyway like a flood that I have no control of, and I find myself once again reliving that fateful day.

Flashback five years ago…

“No, Dad. She is here. She has to be.” I shout, my voice cracking as I storm up the stairs. “Where is Mom? She is hiding her, isn't she?”

I burst into Angel’s room, but it's empty. Her scent is faint, an indication she hasn't been here in a while.

“Cassian… where is my baby?” I hear Mom’s voice as she runs up the stairs. She finds me, her eyes wide and wet.

I open my mouth to answer, but a sudden, violent agony rips through my chest.

It feels like my heart is being torn from my ribs as I drop to my knees, coughing up a spray of blood that stains the floorboards.

“My mate…” I gasp as our bond vibrates, then a final crack. “No. Angel…”

I whisper, tears falling freely down my face as I writhe from the endless pain.

“Angel…”

I repeat her name like it will miraculously bring her back to me.

Selene… please.

“No! No.” Mom cries as Dad holds her tightly. “I said it, Kyle. My baby. He killed her…! He killed our little girl! What did you do!”

Mom wails uncontrollably, her grief filling the room.

And the pain doesn't stop; I don't know when I lose consciousness.

…~...

I wake up to Mom, Dad, and Jackson standing above me as I lie on the sofa. I jolt upright at the emptiness and burning ache in my chest.

Kai isn't responding either.

“Angel…” I ran back home. “No, she's alive; she has to be.”

…~…

I run to my study to check when she left her room, my mind racing with possibility.

Maybe she's hiding.

Maybe she went to stroll the woods and got hurt. I sit at my desk, my hands shaking as I pull up the footage on my laptop.

I watched the screen with bated breath, fast-forwarding to today. I see her walk in holding money, which she stacks together with a few clothes in a bag.

She left me. She didn't just disappear; she chose to let go.

I rewind further, watching the footage of the omegas helping her to her room earlier.

I break.

I fucking cry, seeing how she took her medicine, her hand resting on the dresser as her other hand rubbed her stomach as she spoke to our pup inside her, how she couldn't stop crying, and how her tears fell the more she wiped them.

I did this. I broke my Angel until she had no choice but to run.

Now… I don't even know if… I don't dare say it.

I got up to leave; that's when I remembered she was holding a few bills.

Then, my eyes drift to the corner of the room. The door to my safe is wide open.

A cold dread washes over me as I walk over to it, my legs weak.

I changed all my passwords, but I don't remember changing this…

I had used the date of my anniversary with Melinda for everything in the past, but I changed everything because of Angel; I didn't want her to misunderstand.

I check, and it's the same.

She had found it. She had figured it out.

I lock it and turn to leave; that's when I see the crumpled piece of paper. I pick it up, my vision blurring as I read the words written in her elegant, sharp handwriting.

“I have taken 50,000 from your safe. Consider it payment for my virginity and all the time I wasted after.”

I can feel the coldness, the bitterness, even in the written words.

The paper falls out from my lifeless fingers.

The room seemed to tilt.

I had lost her. I hadn't just made a mistake; I had dismantled the trust of the only woman I had ever truly loved.

I had ignored her calls. I had ignored her needs. I had treated her like an inconvenience while I played hero to a woman who did need it.

And the baby... the child I thought I was saving for her... it didn't matter now.

Nothing mattered because the heart of my pack was gone.

All I need is my mate. My fallen angel, our child.

“No,” I croak, the sound breaking into a sob. "No, no, no."

I bolt from the room like a man possessed. “I need to find her!”

“Alpha…” Jackson, who’s standing in the living room, stops me. I look at his face, and there is guilt.

He knows something.

“What is it?”

“I'm sorry, but when I came to fetch Luna Melinda's food, Princess asked me to tell you something, but when I arrived, you were busy…”

“What did she say?”

“She said... she said it was fun while it lasted.”

I grab his collar, fury and despair colliding inside me. If I had known, I would have come to her. She was saying goodbye.

However, it wasn't his fucking fault! I let her down; I broke her to the point of no return.

She's alive; I need to find her.

I let him go, running out. I keep running as pack members stare.

“Angel!” I roar, shifting, forcing Kai out.

He runs.

He runs until his paws bleed, until his lungs feel like they are on fire.

I shift back, falling to my knees in the dirt. I gripped the earth, my fingers digging into the soil.

The silence of the forest was a mocking reminder of the void she had left behind.

“ANGEL!” I scream into the darkness, the sound tearing from the very bottom of my soul.

“ANGEL, PLEASE! Please come back…” I whisper into the wind, but the wind didn't carry my voice to her.

She was gone, and I was the monster who had opened the door for her to leave.

…~End of flashback~...