Semua Bab My Half-Vampire Son Painted Another Woman as Mom: Bab 1 - Bab 10

Iris's POVI walked toward the gallery entrance, looking at Luke's paintings one by one.I'd set this space up myself, staying up through the night. Even though the frames had been empty when I hung them, I'd poured my heart into imagining how Luke would portray me, his mother. That hope had kept me going.The first painting was a meadow scene.A woman shielded the sunlight with a parasol, sitting on a picnic blanket, peeling an orange for a child. The boy was laughing, practically tumbling into her arms.I stopped.The woman's face wasn't mine.Instinctively, I reached up and pressed the surgical mask higher against my face. I blinked hard, holding back the tears.The second painting was a nighttime beach.Wind swept through the woman's long hair as she held Luke's hand at the water's edge.Luke gazed up at her with bright, adoring eyes, hugging her leg.I stared at the ocean in the painting, and alarm shot through me.Luke could't go to the beach.Half-blood children born of vampires

Iris's POVBy the time I got home, it was evening. The house was empty and eerily silent.I walked in slowly, scanning the living room, seeing this place I'd lived in for ten years through an outsider's eyes for the first time. I laughed bitterly at myself---ten years as a nanny and I'd never even realized it.Lucien didn't like having strangers around and refused to hire help, so I'd always been the one keeping everything spotless.But today, the woman beside him had been wearing a flashy red dress dripping with jewelry, her hands smooth and delicate---hands that had clearly never touched a mop.I'd maintained this home like a model showroom, day after day, year after year. Now I realized I'd been the only fool investing in it.I looked up at the second floor. At the end of the hallway, the study door stood closed.That was where Lucien handled his work---a room I'd barely entered in ten years. He always said it contained confidential company documents I shouldn't touch. I'd respected

Iris's POVLuke froze, his eyes slowly lighting up. Then he bolted toward the refrigerator like a gust of wind.I didn't stop him. Didn't remind him to take it easy. I just stood there and watched the panic spreading across Lucien's face.Luke was still young. He didn't understand what was truly good for him---he could be easily won over and controlled by any adult willing to indulge him.Seeing that I had no intention of stepping in, Lucien visibly stiffened."Luke, wait." He finally spoke up.Luke had already yanked open the refrigerator door. Cold air and the metallic scent of blood spilled out. He reached for a bottle of animal blood.Lucien crossed the room in quick strides and caught his wrist."Not tonight," he said.Luke froze, his expression shifting instantly---the look of him about to throw a tantrum."Why?"But Lucien immediately glanced my way, eyes flickering with urgency and expectation. Still waiting for me to play the villain.I stayed where I was, offering Luke nothin

Iris's POVLucien went to his study to work. I lay alone on our bed, wide awake and restless.The letter hidden beneath the jewelry box reminded me of how things had been when we were still dating.Back then, Lucien had fallen for me at first sight. He'd pursued me with passion, dreaming up one way after another to make me smile.He said I was his one and only. That I was the one who made him want a home.He wrote me a love letter every single day---until Luke was born. Then the letters stopped.He became impossibly busy. As Luke grew, the boy was suddenly enrolled in one extracurricular after another. Most of the time I was home alone, managing the house, while Luke---emotionally volatile, as hybrids often were---came home only to take his frustrations out on me.I blamed myself. I must not have taken good enough care of him. I must have failed as a wife and mother.No matter how meticulously I cleaned the house or managed his diet, Luke kept getting fevers, his moods swinging wildly.

Lucien's POVSomething had been off with Iris since last night.When I woke up this morning and saw her texts, I knew---she was throwing a tantrum.She'd sulk for a while, then come running back. Where else could she go? I'd supported her for years. After being a housewife for this long, she had no way of getting back into the workforce."Daddy..."Luke appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes, still clutching his pillow.He looked around the room out of habit, then frowned."Where's Mom? She didn't lay out my clothes."I leaned back against the headboard. "She left for a work trip. She won't be home for two weeks."Luke stood frozen. His expression locked up---unable to process it, unwilling to accept it.Then his voice shot up an octave."Two weeks?!"I frowned and got out of bed to get dressed, enduring the noise.Before, whenever I took Luke off Iris's hands, the boy had already burned through his tantrum. He was never this agitated---at most he'd wheedle for snacks. Far easier to