Chapter 123: Chapter 123 Blood and Lies
Seraphina’s POV
The air in the office turned toxic, pressing against my lungs like poison gas. Every breath felt labored, and the walls seemed to close in around me. My head pounded with a rhythm that matched my racing heartbeat.
"Say that again," I commanded, my voice cutting through the silence like a blade. The words came out sharper than I intended, but I needed to hear it once more to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood.
Quincy’s shoulders sagged, and he avoided my gaze completely. "Maxwell isn’t your biological father."
The statement hit me like a physical blow. Everyone else in the room suddenly found the floor fascinating, their eyes darting everywhere except toward me. The silence that followed was deafening.
My world tilted sideways. The oxygen seemed to drain from the room, leaving me gasping. This had to be wrong. There had to be some mistake, some terrible misunderstanding. My mind scrambled desperately, searching for any explanation that would make this nightmare disappear.
Waves of emotion crashed over me in rapid succession. Disbelief. Fury. Complete and utter bewilderment. But underneath it all was shock so profound it threatened to pull me under completely.
I studied the faces of the people I’d called my parents, searching desperately for any sign this was an elaborate joke. Some twisted prank that would end with laughter and apologies. But the gravity in their expressions told a different story. The truth was written across their features in lines of guilt and sorrow.
"Why?" The word scraped its way out of my throat, tasting bitter on my tongue. At eighteen, I’d learned that my adoptive parents weren’t my biological ones. That revelation had been devastating enough. Then came the knowledge that my real parents had abandoned me, discarding me like unwanted baggage. That pain had cut deep.
But this? This was beyond anything I could have imagined. The man I’d called father wasn’t even biologically connected to me.
I was drowning in secrets, suffocating under their weight. Each day brought fresh revelations, fresh wounds. I couldn’t take much more of this constant barrage of lies and half-truths. Who was I anymore? What was real?
"Mom," I turned to her, my voice shaking like a leaf in a storm. "Please explain this to me."
Instead, Maxwell spoke up, his voice thick with emotion he rarely showed. "Seraphina, you’ll always be my daughter."
The consolation prize in his words sparked something dark inside me. A laugh bubbled up from somewhere deep and bitter, a sound so hollow it barely seemed human. "Your daughter?" I spat the words back at him. "You never treated me like your daughter."
The truth of that statement hit me like a sledgehammer. His coldness, his distance, his complete lack of affection suddenly made perfect sense. I’d never meant anything to him because I wasn’t truly his. The realization was both devastating and oddly liberating.
But then Quincy’s earlier words crashed back into my consciousness. He’d claimed responsibility for killing my biological father.
"I wasn’t alone in that," Maxwell said defensively, reading the question in my eyes before I could voice it. "You were involved too."
My entire body convulsed with shock. My legs turned to liquid, refusing to support my weight any longer. I would have collapsed completely if not for Julian’s arms catching me, pulling me against his solid chest. For a moment, I let myself lean into his strength, desperate for something stable in this chaos.
Then reality crashed back in. I looked up at him, tears threatening to spill over. "Did you know about this?"
Please say no, I begged silently. Please let there be one person in my life who hasn’t betrayed me with lies.
He met my gaze directly and nodded once.
The world spun violently around me. My vision blurred, and I felt myself swaying like a tree in a hurricane. But somehow, I found the strength to pull away from him, to stand on my own unsteady legs.
This had to be the worst day of my existence. Nothing could possibly be worse than this moment.
"Who was my real father?" I demanded, my voice cracking under the weight of the question.
Silence stretched between us like a taut wire. They exchanged glances, having some wordless conversation that excluded me entirely. The tension was suffocating.
"Who was my father?" I screamed, the words tearing from my throat raw and desperate.
Finally, Julian’s quiet voice cut through the silence. "Alpha Victor of the fallen pack."
The name dropped into the room like a bomb. For several heartbeats, I couldn’t process it, couldn’t make sense of the syllables. Then a strangled "No" escaped my lips. "That’s impossible."
I whirled toward my mother, tears finally breaking free and streaming down my face in hot rivers. "Mom, tell me they’re lying. Please tell me this isn’t true."
But her silence spoke louder than any words could have. The look in her eyes confirmed my worst fears. Alpha Victor. My biological father. The man who’d been murdered. The man whose blood ran through my veins.
The realization hit me like ice water. Dorian. I was related to Dorian, the man who’d made it his mission to destroy everything I cared about.
"How?" The word came out strangled. I didn’t want explanations from these chronic liars, but I needed to understand.
"I’m from the fallen pack too, Seraphina. Your father and I were together before I found my mate," my mother explained, but I couldn’t trust a word from her mouth anymore.
"Why didn’t you tell me? How could you keep this from me?" The betrayal was overwhelming.
"We were trying to protect you," she said, as if that justified everything.
"Protect me? By killing my father?" The hypocrisy was staggering.
The man I’d loved as a father had murdered my real one. My father-in-law had destroyed my family.
I jerked away from Julian’s reaching hands. "Don’t touch me!" The words exploded from my chest.
He was just as guilty as the rest of them. Not only was he the son of my father’s killer, but he’d known the truth and chosen to hide it from me. That meant he agreed with their decision, approved of their lies.
I couldn’t bear to look at any of them another second.
I ran. Out of the room, out of the house, away from the familiar world that had just imploded around me. My legs carried me forward while my heart shattered into a million pieces. Tears blurred my vision, but I didn’t slow down. I didn’t know my destination, only that I had to escape the lies, the pain, the devastating truth that had just obliterated everything I thought I knew.
I kept running until someone pressed something over my mouth and nose.
Then darkness swallowed me whole.
