All Chapters of Divorcing the Blind Alpha: Chapter 201 - Chapter 210

Penelope's POV"Forty-one names," Axton said, sliding the final page across the table. "Forty-one families the storage unit records trace back to over the last decade. Twelve are confirmed Ashcombe descendants. The rest are scattered across smaller bloodlines nobody thought to track at all."I stared at the list until the names blurred together. Forty-one. I had walked into that quarry two nights ago thinking I was saving one girl."How many are still missing," I asked."Nineteen," Axton said. "The rest were released over the years once whatever use Marguerite's buyers had for them ran out. Some are dead. Most simply vanished into new lives under new names, too afraid to ever come home.""Nineteen," I repeated quietly."It is a starting point," Zaria said from the doorway. "Two days ago we did not even know this list existed."I pressed my palms flat against the desk, grounding myself against the weight of it. "I want a team assigned to each name. Quiet, careful, no press involvement

Penelope's POV"The council session starts in ten minutes," Zaria said, hovering by my office door. "Your father is already seated. So is the Frost Pack Alpha.""Together?""In the same room, at least. Nobody has thrown anything yet."I smoothed the front of my jacket, steadying myself. Today the treaty gap closed, formally, publicly, on both sides, twenty years of quiet failure finally being written into record and corrected in front of every pack council along the border.Kael was waiting outside the council chamber when I arrived, straightening his own collar with hands that were not quite steady."You look terrified," I said."I am about to stand in a room and publicly admit my family profited from something monstrous for longer than either of us has been alive," he said. "Terrified feels appropriate.""You are not the one who did it.""No," he said. "But I am the one who gets to finally say so out loud, in front of everyone who has spent twenty years pretending not to notice. Tha

Penelope's POV"You wanted to see me," I said, stepping into the small meeting room Julian had requested, half expecting another negotiation, another angle, another version of the man who used to corner me with careful words and careless hands.Instead he stood by the window, hands in his pockets, looking somehow smaller than I had ever seen him."I wanted to say something properly," he said. "Not over the phone. Not through Khalani or Axton or anyone standing between us.""I am listening.""I am stepping back from the shipping routes," he said. "All three. I am handing full control to an independent oversight board, made up of representatives from every pack whose people were affected by what moved through them without my knowledge. I will not be involved in the decisions any more."I stared at him. "That is a significant amount of power to give up voluntarily.""It is the least significant thing I could do, actually," Julian said. "Given what it cost other people while I held onto i

Penelope's POV"You burned the rice," I said, standing in Kael's kitchen doorway, trying and failing to keep a straight face."I did not burn it," Kael said, staring into the smoking pan with the grim determination of a man refusing to admit defeat. "It is simply very well done.""It is black, Kael.""Charred," he corrected. "There is a difference."I crossed the kitchen and gently pried the pan from his hands, setting it in the sink to soak. "Sit down. Let me help.""This was supposed to be me taking care of you for once," he said, sinking onto a stool with the defeated posture of a man whose grand romantic gesture had gone spectacularly sideways."You can take care of me by keeping me company while I fix the rice," I said, already pulling a fresh pot from the cupboard. "That counts."He watched me work for a while, quiet, something soft in his expression that made my chest tighten in the best way."I went to see your father yesterday," he said eventually. "Alone. Without you knowing

Penelope's POV"You wanted to see me," Julian said, standing awkwardly in the doorway of the small office I had borrowed for the afternoon. "Your message sounded serious.""Sit down," I said. "It is not bad news. I promise."He sat, cautious, the old wariness still lingering between us even now, weeks into whatever quieter thing we had become."Thomas's sister," I said. "Adaline Marsh. She disappeared thirty years ago, the same year the earliest smuggling routes in Marguerite's records show activity."Julian's expression sharpened with focus. "You want me to check the old shipping logs. From before I even took over the pack.""Your family controlled those routes for two generations before you," I said. "If there are archives, if there is anything from that era still on record, you would know where to look faster than anyone else.""I will start tonight," Julian said, already standing. "Penelope. Thank you for trusting me with this.""I am not doing it for you," I said, though there wa