Chapter 0346
Ella POV
“We could ask Sabrina.”
“I can’t,” Alexander said, his voice barely audible.
“Okay,” I replied easily.
He was silent for a long moment before loosening his grip just enough to look at my face. “Okay?”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m not going to pressure you to do something that’s painful for you. We’ll find another way.”
Alexander stared at me like I’d grown a second head. The heavy bags under his eyes somehow made him look younger. Or maybe it was the lost expression on his face.
I turned in his arms and kissed him lightly. “We’re both tired,” I murmured. “We can talk after we’ve gotten some sleep. Nothing good will come of trying to solve things when we aren’t in our right minds.”
“I don’t deserve you,” Alexander said breathlessly. For a second, I thought I saw his eyes grow watery. Then he pulled me into a firm embrace, easing us both down onto the mattress.
The light was still on, my laptop sat abandoned at the foot of the enormous bed, but sleep was already tugging at me as I settled comfortably against him.
Alexander held me close, his heartbeat steady beneath my ear. The weight of our problems, as dire as they were,
felt distant.
We fell asleep tangled together, safe in the warmth of our shared bed.
Third Person POV
“I don’t want to do this,” Sabrina said with a weary sigh.
“I wish it wasn’t necessary,” Diana replied, her voice tinged with regret. “But what choice do you have in the situation you’re in? You want what’s best for your daughter, don’t you?”
“You know that I do,” Sabrina murmured. Her gaze flickered to the closed bedroom door, where her five–year–old daughter lay fast asleep.
Morning was approaching, and soon, she would wake. Sabrina needed to finish this conversation before then. The little girl had already endured too much in the past month.
“Sabrina,” Diana said gently, reaching across the table to take her niece’s hand. “I know this feels terrible, but I’m only trying to help you.”
Sabrina pulled her hand away, slow and deliberate. If this was Diana’s idea of help, she wanted nothing to do with
- it.
Had her aunt not interfered six years ago, she wouldn’t be in this position at all.
Back then, Sabrina had been happy with Alexander. They were young, reckless, in love. When she discovered she was pregnant, turning to Diana for guidance had seemed natural. She had expected support–help in breaking the news to Alexander.
Instead, Diana had been furious. She called Sabrina stupid for not taking precautions, told her she had ruined her
life.
Alexander is reckless, she had said. He’s selfish. He’ll never have time for you or a child. He’ll be furious when he
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Chapter 0346
finds out—and now that you’re pregnant, no other man will want you.
Diana had convinced her there was only one way forward: marriage. A swift arrangement with a man who would believe the child was his.
Sabrina had resisted, but at nineteen, orphaned and alone, what choice did she have? Diana was her only family.
So she agreed. She married an older alpha from the North, a stranger she had never met in person.
And, miraculously, it had worked out. Her husband was kind, generous–a man she had slowly come to love.
Until he found out the truth.
Sabrina still didn’t know how he had discovered her secret. One night, after their daughter had gone to bed, he had called her into his office. Waiting for her was a crisp sheet of paper: a paternity test. Negative.
His voice had been cold, void of the warmth she had come to rely on. Take your bastard child and get out.
Since then, she and her daughter had been living in hotels, drifting from place to place, trying to make sense of the wreckage. She hadn’t even had time to grieve the life she had lost–her only focus had been on keeping her little girl happy, safe, and cared for.
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Cha
