All Chapters of Crush on My Alpha Adoptive Uncle: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Kieran felt like someone had just punched him in the chest.His heart skipped several beats, then started racing wildly. The blood drained from his face as the butler's words sank in.But his first instinct was complete denial."That's impossible," he said sharply, his voice cutting through the harbor noise. "You're mistaken."He gestured toward the guard, who was standing nearby trying to look invisible."My security team saw Aria board a rescue boat. Scarlett saw it too. How could she not have made it to shore by now?"The butler's face crumpled with desperation, but Kieran wasn't finished."Butler, you need to calm down," he continued, his tone growing more authoritative. His brow furrowed with irritation rather than concern."When that ship started sinking, I personally arranged for someone to find her and keep her safe. You know exactly what Aria's like when she's having one of her moods."His voice took on that familiar edge of frustration that always appeared when discussing my

Kieran's first instinct was complete and utter denial.The words coming out of Scarlett's mouth felt like some kind of sick joke. They couldn't be real."That's impossible," he said flatly, his voice hard as stone. "You're lying."I loved him. He knew I loved him.I had loved him desperately, obsessively, for years. I had clung to him through every rejection, every cold shoulder, every cruel word he'd thrown at me.I was the girl who had followed him around like a lost puppy since childhood. The one who cried whenever he so much as frowned in my direction.How could someone like me - someone who had been willing to throw away my dignity, my pride, everything - suddenly agree to marry a complete stranger?It didn't make sense. It couldn't be true.But then Scarlett held up her phone, and Kieran's world tilted sideways.The photo on the screen showed me leaning intimately against a tall, dark-haired man. My head was resting on his shoulder, and I was smiling. Actually smiling, with genui

After hanging up the phone, Kieran sat in the darkness of his car for several more minutes, trying to gather the strength to face what came next.He couldn't go back to his empty apartment. The silence there would drive him insane, leaving him alone with thoughts that were already threatening to tear him apart.There was only one place left to go.Kieran turned the car around and drove slowly back toward the family estate, his hands still trembling slightly on the steering wheel.The familiar gates came into view, and for a moment he hesitated. Walking through those doors meant confronting everything he'd been running from. It meant facing the life he'd built on lies and pretending everything was normal.But he had nowhere else to turn.As soon as he stepped into the grand entrance hall, the old butler appeared as if he'd been waiting."Alpha Kieran," the elderly man said, his voice carrying that mixture of respect and concern that had been present for as long as Kieran could remember.

I had honestly never expected to be here again.After everything that had happened between Kieran and me, I was certain he would want me to vanish from his world completely. I thought he would avoid me like I carried some deadly disease.But here I was, holding an elegant invitation with my name written in gold lettering.The invitation had arrived three days ago, hand-delivered by a formal messenger who had insisted on placing it directly into my hands."Miss Aria," the man had said with a respectful bow. "Alpha Kieran has specifically requested your presence at his birthday celebration."Looking at the familiar grounds now, I couldn't help but be flooded with memories from my childhood. I had run across these same lawns as a little girl. I had climbed those same oak trees when I was trying to hide from my tutors.A bitter ache settled in my chest as I remembered all the birthday parties I had attended here over the years. How excited I used to get, spending weeks planning the perfect

I stared up at Kieran in complete shock, my mouth falling open slightly.The last traces of nostalgia and sadness that had been lingering in my heart vanished instantly. They were replaced by pure confusion and a growing spark of anger.What was he trying to do?I couldn't make sense of his behavior at all.When I had been desperately clinging to him, begging for his attention, throwing myself at him despite his rejections, he had treated me like I carried some deadly disease.He had used the cruelest possible methods to push me away. He had said things that cut me to the bone, all designed to make me give up and leave him alone.And it had worked.I had finally done exactly what he wanted. I had given up on him completely. I had stopped chasing after impossible dreams and started building a real future with someone who actually wanted to be with me.Wasn't this exactly the outcome he had been working toward for years?So why was he standing here now, trying to interfere with my choice