Home / I Could See How Much My Alpha Family Loved Her, so I Left / Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

All Chapters of I Could See How Much My Alpha Family Loved Her, so I Left: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Everyone I've ever loved ends up loving Vanessa Hale more.I know because I can watch it happen.There's a number over their heads. It tells me exactly how much they like her.At the orphanage, Ms. Porter was my favorite teacher. She used to save me the strawberry candies from the bottom of the jar.When her number hit 80, the candies stopped.During games, I'd work up the nerve to reach for her hand. She'd look right past it and take Vanessa's.Years later, the day before my mating ceremony, I watched Ryan's number climb to 100.He couldn't look at me. He said maybe we should think things over a little longer.There was a hickey on his neck. His collar reeked of Vanessa's perfume.I said okay.Then I packed a bag and left town.In the next city, my real family found me.Graham Sterling, Alpha of the Silver Ridge pack. His Luna, Catherine. And my big brother Kieran, who spoiled me like he was trying to make up for a whole lifetime in one summer.I tested them anyway. Old habits.I brou

Chapter 2

Can't you be more like her.Every single person Vanessa ever won over said it to me eventually.When I was nine, I fell off the orphanage's back steps and broke my leg.Ms. Porter stood over me while I lay on the concrete, white with pain.Her voice was flat."I give Vanessa a little extra attention, and suddenly you hurt yourself on purpose.""Where did a child learn to be so manipulative? Why can't you be more like Vanessa?"Ryan was the same.After he met Vanessa, he started looking at me like a dress he regretted buying."You two grew up in the same orphanage," he'd say, and sigh. "How are you not even half as sharp as she is?"Standing in that parking lot, watching my family's car pull away with Vanessa in the back seat, I was nine years old on those steps again.Whatever warmth I'd let myself feel that night drained out through my feet.The make-up gift came three days later.An exhibition. Mine.Mom held both my hands and looked at me like I was made of glass."We know how hard

Chapter 3

By the time the show was over, all three of them were sitting at 40.But that night, Dad and Kieran grabbed a toolbox and disappeared into the biggest bedroom in the house.Mom had told me once that room was mine.The only reason I hadn't moved in yet, she said, was that they wanted to fix it up first. Make it exactly the way I liked it.My phone buzzed with a reminder. Boarding in fourteen hours.I turned it face down on the table and sat there anyway, listening to them hammer.Then the front door opened, and Vanessa Hale walked in rolling a suitcase.Mom hurried to meet her.On her way past me, she gave me a warning look."I asked Vanessa to stay with us for a while. It isn't safe for a girl living on her own.""Don't you dare make a scene about it."Kieran came out of the bedroom, sweaty and pleased with himself.He went straight to Vanessa like a kid showing off a drawing."Heard you were coming. Dad and I already redid the room for you."I followed their eyes down the hall.Everyt

Chapter 4

The crack echoed down the stairwell.I pressed my palm to my cheek and stood there, frozen.Mom looked at me like I'd broken her heart."We looked into all of that already. We called your orphanage. Ms. Porter told us you had sticky fingers from the time you were little.""She said you were always jealous of Vanessa. That you'd trash her to anyone who would listen.""It's bad enough you're not half the girl Vanessa is. Do you have to be this low, too?"Each word went in slow, like a dull knife.My hands and feet went cold. I looked above their heads.50.It was climbing so fast it felt like it was laughing at me.Anything I said now would only sound pathetic.Dad's voice was ice."Everyone who meets Vanessa likes her better.""Is everyone else the problem?"I had nothing to say to that.The sting in my cheek was gone in a minute. Wolves heal fast.I stood there long after it faded.I swallowed the tears and found a small, pale smile somewhere."No. It's me."My fault, for coming up sho

Chapter 5

The front door closed so softly that nobody heard it.By the time anyone thought to look for Ivy, her chair was empty.Catherine only frowned a little."All we asked for was an apology. Why is that so hard?""And now she's hiding in her room."Graham patted her hand."She's our daughter. She's going to be with us from now on.""We'll teach her. She'll come around."Then, out of nowhere, Catherine's eyes went red."It's our fault too, you know.""We lost her. We let her be gone for so long.""She had a hard life out there. Maybe we shouldn't hold her to such a high standard."Vanessa heard every word.Her eyes narrowed for half a second. Then she jumped in."You're right. Nobody has it easy at the orphanage.""I remember once, a teacher gave me some candy as a reward.""Ivy saw it and said I'd stolen hers. She threw it on the floor and stomped it to dust.""We only got candy once a month."Her eyes were wet by the end. She put on a brave little smile."But it's fine. It was a long time

Chapter 6

Graham looked up at Vanessa.This time there was nothing warm in it. Only questions.He got to his feet and opened the mind-link to his family.The island's off. We promised that trip to Ivy.She's our daughter. If she ever found out, it would break her heart.Catherine answered right away.I don't know what I was thinking. It didn't even cross my mind.Kieran was a beat behind her.You're right. I'm her big brother. I shouldn't be keeping score with her.If she won't apologize to Vanessa, fine. We're not going to freeze her out forever.Vanessa had no idea any of this had happened.All she knew was that when she walked out of the conference room, the numbers over all three of them had dropped to 50.Every alarm in her head went off at once.She chased Graham down the hall."Dad," she said, before she could stop herself. "Is it Ivy? Did she make a fuss about me going to the island?""Did I do something wrong? Did I upset her?"Graham looked at her pitiful little face.He still softened

Chapter 7

What Vanessa didn't know was that Ivy was long gone.So Vanessa cried until she could barely breathe, and still the door didn't move.For one second, she wondered.Only one.Then she caught the Sterlings' scent on the stairs and cried harder.It worked.The sight of Vanessa crumpled on the floor lit all three of them up.Catherine pounded on the door."Ivy! Even if you won't give her your kidney, you can't be this heartless!""Open this door right now!"Kieran shouted right along with her."If you don't come out of there right now, I swear, from today on I don't have a sister."They banged for a long time. Nobody answered.Graham's eyes flashed gold."Let's see how long she thinks she can hide in there."He took hold of the knob and snapped the lock with one twist of his hand.The door swung open.The three of them stormed in.Then they stopped dead.Vanessa, still crying, hurried in after them to keep the show going.She looked up and found all three of them staring at the room with t

Chapter 8

There was only one number left.A huge, round zero.Vanessa nearly came apart.Of everyone she'd ever worked on, this family had been the hardest.She'd found the Sterlings before Ivy ever did. Three years she'd spent on the Silver Ridge payroll, smiling at them, and gotten nowhere.She'd finally dragged them up into the sixties and seventies.And the moment they heard Ivy was gone, it vanished. All of it. Like it had never been there.Vanessa was frantic.But from then on, the Sterlings poured everything they had into finding Ivy.Vanessa tried every trick she knew.The numbers didn't go up. They kept going down.Weeks went by.At last the Sterlings got a lead on where Ivy was.The second they had an address, they were ready to drop everything at home and go.When Vanessa found out, she insisted on coming.She could feel it. This was her last chance.At the gate, right before boarding, Graham and Catherine gave her a puzzled look."Aren't you in kidney failure?""Are you sure you're u

Chapter 9

Vanessa realized they'd heard every word.She froze.The color drained out of her face.Vanessa Hale, the golden girl everyone admired, looked rattled for the first time in her life."No, no, that's not what..."She tried to laugh it off."I was just joking."I raised my voice and talked right over her."Ever since I was a kid, I've been able to see a number over everybody's head.""It tells me how much they like Vanessa.""My teacher at the orphanage. Once Vanessa had her, she helped Vanessa freeze me out. She let the other kids treat me like dirt.""My fiancé. Once Vanessa had him, he walked out on me the day before our mating ceremony."I closed my eyes. My voice shook, and I let it."And there were so many more."Vanessa Hale's name had been my nightmare my whole life.I'd run from her. Slunk out of one city after another.And every time, she followed.When I finally found my family, I thought I'd found somewhere safe.It turned out to be the start of another nightmare.Mom was cry

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