Chapter 177

[Amelia's POV]

The coffee shop door chimed as Sarah left, taking the oppressive tension with her. But instead of relief, a wave of shock and panic crashed over me like a cold tsunami. I sat frozen in the booth, my hands trembling as I tried to process what had just happened.

My hands felt weak and cold, almost numb. The room seemed to tilt slightly, and I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. I could feel the blood draining from my face, and for a terrifying moment, I thought I might actually faint right here in this busy coffee shop.

"Millie." Alex's voice seemed to come from far away, though he was sitting right across from me. "Hey, look at me."

I forced myself to meet his amber eyes, which were studying me with a mixture of concern and something else – regret, maybe?

"I guess you didn't sleep well last night," he said quietly, his voice carrying that familiar tone of gentle observation mixed with Alpha authority.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it. "That obvious, huh?" I touched my face self-consciously, knowing my puffy eyes and the dark circles beneath them told the whole story. "Yeah, well, black eyes and swollen lids tend to give away a sleepless night."

The truth was, I'd spent most of the night crying. Hours of it. Lying in my childhood bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying that scene on the film set over and over again. The anger in that woman's voice, the way Alex hadn't denied her accusations, the crushing weight of believing I'd been living a lie.

"Millie, listen to me," Alex said, leaning forward slightly. His voice was calm, measured – the voice he used when he needed to be completely clear about something important. "Sarah is family. She's a distant relative of the Pike bloodline, but family nonetheless. That's all."

I stared at him, my brain struggling to catch up. "Family," I repeated slowly, as if testing the word.

"Yes. She's my cousin's daughter, actually. Third generation removed, but still part of the extended Pike clan." He ran a hand through his hair, looking tired himself. "That's why she felt comfortable challenging me yesterday."

I still felt like I was drowning, trying to surface from the emotional chaos of the past day. "I... I still find it hard to believe," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. "This is all so much to process."

"When I saw her yesterday, pregnant and furious, yelling at you..." I trailed off, pressing my palm to my forehead. "I didn't know how to react."

I let out a shaky breath, feeling some of the tension leave my shoulders.

Alex reached across the table, his fingers brushing mine. "I'm sorry about this whole mess," he said, and the sincerity in his voice made my chest ache. "I should have contacted you immediately after she showed up, but..."

"But?" I prompted.

"I was afraid you wouldn't believe any explanation I gave you," he admitted. "I thought if I just told you it wasn't what it looked like, you'd think I was making excuses. The only way to really convince you was to get Sarah to tell you the truth herself."

"And that was difficult?" I asked, remembering the heated conversation I'd witnessed.

Alex's mouth twisted wryly. "Sarah doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do. Getting her to agree to this meeting, to clear things up properly... it took some negotiating."

The guilt hit me then like a physical blow. While I'd been wallowing in self-pity and betrayal, Alex had been working to fix things. He'd been trying to make it right, and I'd been too caught up in my own emotional spiral to even consider that possibility.

"God, Alex," I breathed, covering my face with my hands. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't," he said firmly.

"No, I am sorry." I looked up at him, feeling tears prick at my eyes again. "I should have trusted you more. If I had just... if I had given you a chance to explain, none of this would have happened."

I bit down hard on my lower lip, trying to keep from crying again. I'd done enough of that last night. But the shame was overwhelming. My mom had been right – I should have talked to Alex, should have communicated instead of just running away.

"Hey," Alex said softly. "Look at me."

When I met his eyes, I saw understanding there, not judgment.

"Your reaction was completely natural," he said. "If I'd walked in on you with some guy making accusations about taking responsibility for something, I probably would have reacted much worse."

"But you trusted me enough to—"

"Millie, stop." Alex's voice carried just enough Alpha command to cut through my spiral of self-recrimination. "What happened yesterday was a perfect storm of misunderstanding. If I had been more open about my family situation from the beginning, maybe it wouldn't have been such a shock."

I nodded slowly, wiping at my eyes with the back of my hand. "I keep apologizing, don't I?"

"You do," Alex said with a small smile. "And you need to stop."

"Sorry for apologizing so much," I said automatically, then caught myself. "Shit."

Alex actually laughed at that, a real laugh that transformed his tired features. "It's okay. Sarah can be... a lot to handle. She's not a bad person, just desperate. And when Pack members get desperate, they sometimes do things that hurt innocent people."

"Like making your girlfriend think you got someone else pregnant," I said dryly.

"Exactly like that." Alex's expression grew more serious. "She was using the situation to put pressure on me to help her with Owen. She knew how it would look, knew what you'd think."

The weight of the past twenty-four hours was finally starting to lift from my shoulders. I could breathe again, think clearly again. The crushing fear that I'd been just another conquest, another disposable Omega, was fading.

Alex reached across the table and took my hand properly this time, his thumb stroking across my knuckles. When he smiled at me – really smiled, with that warmth that made his amber eyes crinkle at the corners – I felt something inside me settle back into place.