Ellen's POV
The hospital was a blur of white lights and hushed urgency, but all I could focus on was the girl lying unconscious behind the glass. Terry. My daughter—my everything. Or so I thought.
I had clutched the latest test results so tightly that the paper crumpled in my trembling hands. No. This can’t be. My chest tightened as the pack doctor’s voice replayed in my head like a cruel echo: “Luna, we’ve run the test twice. The results are conclusive. Terry isn’t biologically yours.”
I could barely breathe. I had carried her, raised her. How could science tell me otherwise? I turned to the doctor, my tone sharper than intended. “Run it again.”
He hesitated. “We already—”
“Again,” I said, nearly snarling. My wolf stirred beneath the surface, restless and furious.
Minutes dragged into an eternity. When he returned, I didn’t need him to speak. His face said everything. I snatched the paper and tore it in half, my fury exploding. “This is a lie!”
Unable to sit still, I rushed from the hospital, every instinct screaming for answers. Only one person could be behind this madness—Jaime. My mate. The man I once trusted.
By the time I reached the pack house, the moon was high. I was halfway up the staircase when I heard voices drifting from the library. One was Jaime’s. The other—Velma.
Curiosity gripped me like a vice, and I crept closer. The door was cracked open just enough.
Velma was coiled around Jaime like a viper, her voice syrupy with malice. “You made sure she won’t discover the truth, right? That brat’s in the hospital... Tell me the poison’s working.”
Poison?
“She’s fading fast,” Jaime replied, his fingers brushing Velma’s cheek. “Ellen will never know Terry isn’t hers. By morning, she’ll be gone. And so will the secret.”
I barely held back a gasp, slapping a hand over my mouth. My legs trembled. My wolf howled inside me—furious, betrayed, mourning. They had poisoned my child. My sweet, innocent Terry.
And worse... there was someone else. My real daughter?
I didn’t confront them. Not yet. I needed proof, a plan. But my heart was splintering by the second.
Back in my room, I tried to piece things together. My head swam with fragments of memories—the milk Jaime insisted I drink earlier, his eyes unreadable as I sipped it. Moments later, I collapsed onto the bed, the world fading to black.
I awoke to the smell of smoke.
Jaime sat beside me, his face grave. “The hospital... it caught fire. Terry didn’t survive.”
His words sliced into me, deeper than any blade.
“You’re lying,” I whispered, but my voice cracked. “No—she was getting better—”
“She was trapped, Ellen. It spread too fast. No one could save her.”
I shoved him away, staggering to my feet. “I need to see her!”
Ignoring his protests, I ran. Smoke billowed into the sky as I reached the burning ruins. Firefighters yelled behind caution tape, but I dropped to my knees at the edge of the wreckage.
“Terry...” I sobbed, every breath a dagger. “No... please, no...”
Jaime appeared beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. His comfort felt cold. Controlling. Fake.
“If only you’d kept her at home,” he murmured.
I turned, glaring through the tears. “Don’t you dare blame me!”
He recoiled, masking his face in grief. “I only wanted to protect you both.”
Liar.
The test results. The poison. The milk. The fire. It was all calculated.
But they made one mistake.
They didn’t finish me.
I would rise. I would uncover the truth—about Terry, about my stolen child, about every deception. And when I did, I would burn their lies to ash.
They tried to destroy me.
They will regret leaving me alive.
