I returned to a land I had once called home and now felt only strange. The Blackwood manor walls still loomed. Servants moved through the corridors. Time here looked frozen.Quick footsteps drummed—Leo and Finn flew down the stairs toward me, the pups I had once loved more than life.“Mom!”“Mom! Now that you’re back… are you staying? Before… it was our fault. Mother, I love you…”Finn. His voice was shredded and hoarse, a dull knife sawing at my chest. I saw the scars on their small bodies, not yet healed.Pain? Perhaps. But I had already chosen to leave—not just their father, but the two pups who had once scooped out my heart with their own hands.At their cries, I only dipped my chin. No extra words. In a few syllables and a look, they read the truth; their eyes went red.“Mom… are you really… not going to want us anymore?” Leo’s voice held the whimper of an abandoned cub.I looked at them and felt nothing but stillness. I was about to speak when Jonathan cut in, too quickly.“Don’t
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