CHAPTER 4

IVY POV

I sat on my bed and stared at my shaking hands with my heart thundering in my chest.

Tara’s words kept repeating in my head.

“They are coming, Ivy. They are coming to get you.”

I did not know how long I sat there. Minutes. Hours.

Then I heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.” I said.

The door opened. It was Nina. One of the maids, with a nervous look in her eyes.

“Luna Ivy.” She bowed her head. “There are two men downstairs. They are asking for you.

I froze.

“Two men?”

“Yes, Luna.” Nina nodded. “They said they are family. They said they need to see you.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“Where are they?”

“In the sitting room. I told them to wait there.”

I stood up and held the wooden chair close to me for support. “Thank you Nina. You can go.”

She bowed and left.

I walked out of the room slowly and went down the hallway, down the stairs.

My hands were shaking.

When I reached the sitting room, I stopped at the door and stared at the two men inside.

I knew their faces. Even after all these years.

Pedro, my elder brother was tall, broad shoulders, dark hair and his gray eyes, same as mine were wet.

Liam, my second elder brother has softer features with warm brown eyes. His face crumbled into tears when he saw me.

“Ivy,” Liam’s voice broke. “Ivy, we have found you.”

But I did not move. I did not run to them.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked coldly.

Liam stepped forward with tears streaming down his face. “We are so sorry. We never stopped looking for you.”

“Looking for me?” I laughed bitterly. “You left me. You went on a vacation and never came back. I waited for months. I thought you were dead.”

Pedro stepped closer and said in a calm, but shaky voice. “There was an attack. A rival pack. Mom and Dad….they did not make it.”

They words hit me heavily on my chest.

“Liam and I survived.” Pedro continued shakily and swallowed hard. “But we were young. We could not find our way back. And later….we were told you were dead. That the illness killed you.”

“We did not know, Ivy.” Liam was crying openly. “We thought you were gone. We thought we lost everyone.”

Pedro took another step closer. His eyes were teary now. “I got a message, Ivy. A message that you were alive. I was so surprised. I could not believe it. I have been searching for you for years. Years.”

Liam nodded. “When we heard about all this….what he did to you….we did not even pack our bags properly. We just knew we needed to get you out of here.”

“We need to be with you.” Pedro’s voice cracked. “We need to see you, sister. We have lost so many years already.”

I wanted to stay angry. I wanted to scream at them.

But instead the tears replaced every word I wanted to say.

“You left me.” I said brokenly. “I was all alone for years. I had no one.”

“We are here now.” Liam said soothingly and stepped closer. “And we are never leaving you again.”

“You can not promise that.”

“I can.” Pedro replied firmly. “And I will. We will not leave you again.”

I looked at them. At their faces. At their tears.

I could not forgive them. Not yet.

But something inside me began to melt.

Before I could speak, we heard footsteps coming down the hall.

Damon appeared at the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest and looked at us coldly.

“What is this?” He looked at Pedro and Liam. “Who are these men?”

He turned to me and asked sharply, “so now you are bringing strange men into my house, Ivy?”

“They are not strange men.” I replied weakly. Getting tired of his attitude. “They are my brothers.”

Damon laughed in a cruel, cold manner. Then he looked at Pedro and Liam, and snarled, “Brothers? You never mentioned any brothers.”

“Because I lost them.” I said quietly. “We were separated when I was young. I thought I would find peace with you. I thought I would finally have a family again.”

Damon looked at me without any trace of guilt in his eyes. No regret. “You were never my wife, Ivy. You were just a placeholder. Until Serena came back.”

Pedro stepped forward with his fist clenched and snarled, “Why don’t you say that again, you bastard.”

“Stop.” I cried out and held up my hand. “Please. Just stop.”

I looked at Damon and asked in a broken voice. “Why do you hate me this much?”

Damon looked at me and replied flatly, “I do not hate you, Ivy. I just never loved you. Serena has always been the one in my heart. I thought I could love you. I tried. But it just never happened. So now that she is back, I want her to take her place beside me. That place that was always hers.”

The words sliced me up like a knife.

Then Pedro stepped closer to me and said softly, “come with us, Ivy. I am taking you out of this place. Let us go.”

I looked up at him. At the brother who left me. Who came back too late.

I did not forgive him.

But I had no one else.

I looked at Damon one more time. At the man who never loved me. Who just told me I was never enough.

“Okay.” I whispered. “I will go.”

I did not say it because I forgave my brothers.

I said it because I had nothing left.

I walked out of the sitting room in a daze. Climbed up the stairs and entered the bedroom I used to share with Damon.

Which was now Serena’s.

I pulled out a small bag and packed a few clothes from the wardrobe and my mother’s necklace. That was all.

Liam followed me silently and tried to help, but I pulled my hand away.

“Do not touch me.” I said sharply. “I am not doing this for you. I am doing this because I need to survive.”

Liam stepped back and nodded.

Pedro stood at the door smiled sadly. “Okay. We understand.”

Then I walked out of the room. Down the stairs. Out of the pack house.

Pedro and Liam walked closely behind me.

I did not look back.

I could not.

Because if I looked back, I would see everything I lost.

And I did not think I could survive that.

So I kept walking.

Away from Damon. Away from Serena. Away from my boy.

Away from the life that broke me.

I did not know where I was going.

But I knew I could stay no longer.