Carrying His Secret Baby; My Stepbrother's Forbidden Claim のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

Wren's POVWhat if he'd opened it.The thought looped through my head on an endless cycle as I sat beside Nora's hospital bed, my knee bouncing, my eyes fixed on the door like staring hard enough could summon answers out of thin air.Five years of careful walls, of scrubbed records and a new face and a new name, and it could all come apart because of one dropped wallet and one photograph I'd been too sentimental to leave at home.Every footstep in the hallway made my heart lurch. A nurse passed. A gurney rattled by. Someone laughed two rooms down, and I nearly jumped out of my skin over nothing at all.I pressed my palms flat against my knees to keep them from shaking, running through every version of this moment I could imagine, the wallet in his hands, the photograph exposed, five years unraveling in the space of a single glance.I told myself I was catastrophizing. I told myself there was no reason he would even bother chasing down a stranger's lost wallet in person.Then the foots

Dante's POV"No." The word came out faster than I intended. "I am not still concerned about Wren. Or her child. That chapter of my life is closed."My father studied me for a long moment, clearly unconvinced, but he let it go in favor of the argument he actually wanted to have."Even if she is alive," he said, "her status as an Omega means she could never become Luna. You understand that, don't you? Whatever sentiment you're still carrying, it changes nothing about what's possible."Something in my chest twisted at the flat certainty in his voice."That is not true."Marielle's voice cut through the room, quiet but unshakable. She had been silent through most of the conversation, and every head turned toward her now."Even as an Omega," she continued, "my daughter has more character in her smallest finger than Seraphina has shown in five years. She was kind to every servant in that house. She never once looked down on anyone beneath her station."If this pack cannot see the difference

Wren's POV"She's not in her bed."The nurse's words hit me like a physical blow, and every ounce of composure I'd built over the last hour shattered instantly.I had only stepped out for fifteen minutes, maybe twenty, to sit down with Dr. Marsh and go over the surgical plan in detail, risks, recovery time, the things a mother needs to hear clearly and not through a haze of panic.I'd asked the nurse on duty to keep an eye on Nora while I stepped away, certain she'd be sound asleep before I even reached the consultation room.Fifteen minutes. That was all it had taken for my entire world to tilt sideways again."What do you mean she's not in her bed?" My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I couldn't soften it, not with my heart already slamming against my ribs. "She has an IV line. She can't have gone far.""We're looking, Ms. Sinclair. I promise you, we're looking."I did not wait for reassurances. I tore down that hallway myself, checking every open door, every supply close

Wren's POVSeraphina's expression shifted the instant my assistant's words landed, confusion curdling fast into something sharper."Where," she demanded, spinning toward my assistant, "is the CEO?"I shot my assistant a look sharp enough to cut glass, and thankfully she caught it, her mouth snapping shut before another word could slip free.I did not have the patience left to untangle this mess with careful diplomacy."Security." My voice carried clean across the lobby, cold and final. "Please escort these two guests from the building. Effective immediately, no one from Blackthorn Pack is permitted back on these premises.""Excuse me?" Seraphina's voice climbed dangerously high, drawing more attention from the lobby's remaining staff. "Who do you think you are, to treat us this way? Do you have any idea who we are?"Dante's expression had gone dark, unreadable, his eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle. "Why," he asked simply, ignoring Seraphina entirely."Becau

Dante's POVTonight was supposed to be ordinary. A business gala, routine trade discussions, the same tedious small talk I'd endured a hundred times before at a dozen identical events.Instead my entire world had tilted sideways, and I couldn't stop turning it over in my mind on the drive home, the city lights blurring past the window while my thoughts circled the same impossible loop.The woman who dropped her plate at the restaurant, her face going pale the instant Marcus mentioned a child.The woman who clutched her daughter close in that hospital room, watching me with eyes too guarded for a stranger who'd supposedly never met me.The woman who'd thrown Seraphina and me out of her building without a flicker of hesitation, cold and commanding in a way that should have felt foreign and somehow didn't.The woman who'd gone white as bone at a phone call about her daughter and fled the gala without a single backward glance, leaving me standing alone on the dance floor with a question s