Chapter 169: Did You Just Say Mate?

Ivy's POV

Olivia nodded seriously, like she wasn’t just casually detonating a bomb in my brain. “You know. The other evil twin who replaced you and almost had me sacked?”

I stared at her, utterly lost. “Olivia, what the hell are you talking about?”

She frowned. “Wait… you don’t remember?”

My heart thudded. And here’s the thing…nobody at work knows I lost my memory. Not a soul. Daniel gave me a file before I returned, pages and pages about how I treated my staff, who I was close to, what kind of person I’d been in the office. I studied it like scripture. That file had become my mask.

And Olivia? She was on the list. My right-hand woman. Trusted. Safe.

But hearing her talk about a twin? My stomach twisted. Because I’d seen her before. Weeks ago. In a dream. A woman who looked like me. Staring at me with hatred, with pure venom in her eyes.

I’d asked my father once. Told him about it. He brushed it off, saying it was just a dream, a fragment of my trauma. That I should let it go.

But now…

I forced a light laugh, pretending like I wasn’t spiraling. “Of course, I remember. But… remind me again what you thought happened. Just so I can hear your version.”

Olivia exhaled, visibly relieved. “Okay. So… there was this imposter. Someone who was posing as you. But she wasn’t like you at all. She walked differently. She tried to act like you, but I caught on. And she fired me.”

I raised my brows. “Fired you?”

“Yes! For calling her Ivy. But you…” she gestured at me, eyes wide. “You told me to call you Ivy. Not Miss Blackwood, not Madam, not boss, just Ivy. That’s how I knew for sure that she wasn’t you.”

I nodded slowly, absently, my mind spinning.

A twin. An imposter. Someone who wore my face, took my place, and nearly destroyed the life I had here while I was missing. Interesting.

My throat tightened.

A sharp knock at the door broke the moment.

Daniel’s head appeared, silver eyes scanning the room like he expected assassins behind every potted plant. “Time’s up.”

Olivia jumped a little. “Oh, um…I’ll leave you two to it.” She gathered her folders and practically bolted out, tossing me one last encouraging smile before she disappeared.

The door shut, and Daniel stepped inside fully, shutting it with that ominous click he always seemed to perfect.

I didn’t even wait. “A twin? Really? And no one told me?!”

His whole body stilled. Just for a second. But I saw it. The flicker in his eyes. The curse under his breath.

“Shit.”

I folded my arms, pinning him with a glare. “How can you guys keep something like that from me? Start talking, Danny-boy. Right now.”

Daniel didn’t sugarcoat it. He didn’t hedge. He just… laid it all out, piece by piece, in that calm, steady voice of his.

And with every word, my stomach knotted tighter.

By the time he finished, my pulse was pounding in my ears.

So here’s the conclusion, the ugly little package I was left holding:

My twin sister looks exactly like me. But she’s not like me…she’s cruel, twisted, and she wants me dead. Years ago, she killed our little brother and made everyone believe it was my fault.

My father, Uncle Marcus, and Daniel eventually uncovered the truth…that she had been pretending to be me, even orchestrating my disappearance. The Alpha of her pack locked her away to punish her for all her crimes.

However, according to Daniel, the news that reached them a while ago? She escaped…after killing our mother. And now she’s hiding. Waiting.

My throat was raw, and my chest felt hollow.

I already knew how I’d ended up with Father…how he found me. He told me once, on one of those rare, unguarded nights. He told me the crying man and woman from that day, so many weeks back, had been my real parents. Told me of the circumstances that led him to pick me up and raise me as his own.

But still.

Somehow, I’d forced myself not to care. Not to ask. Not to seek them out. They threw me away. That was the story I clung to. I told myself that was enough.

But now… hearing that my biological mother was dead? Murdered by my supposed twin?

It was like being hit by a blow I didn’t expect to hurt.

A single hot tear slipped down my cheek before I even realized it.

“Ivy… you’re crying,” Daniel said softly.

I swiped at it quickly, almost angrily. “I don’t even remember things about myself, Daniel, not to talk about someone else. So why would I cry for her?”

My voice cracked at the end, betraying me.

Daniel didn’t argue. He just sighed, long and weary, like he’d been holding the weight of the world and didn’t know how to set it down. “Maybe your heart still knows. Maybe it remembers what your mind doesn’t. But trust me…no one will blame you, even if you don’t cry for her.”

I nodded stiffly, swallowing down the lump in my throat.

“So right now,” I said, forcing a bitter laugh, “I’ve got two people out to get me. One is that ugly guy you all keep calling Dante, and the other… is anyone walking around with my face?”

He nodded gravely. “Yes. Her name is Lila and she has one arm now.”

“Lila,” I whispered, tasting the word like poison, rolling it on my tongue, trying to see if it would spark anything. A memory. A face. A voice. Something.

But nothing came.

Nothing except the same suffocating darkness that always rose up whenever I tried to push too far. It wasn’t just emptiness…it pressed down on me, heavy and merciless, until every breath felt stolen. The fear that followed was just as familiar, curling cold fingers around my chest, tightening, choking.

And then it hit…sharp, merciless, a vicious throb tearing through my neck like a reminder I couldn’t escape. It was like someone biting into my neck again and again, each time tearing deeper into my skin.”

I clutched my neck, wincing.

Daniel was at my side instantly. “Easy, princess. Don’t force it.”

“I’m fine,” I snapped through clenched teeth. But I wasn’t fine. My vision swam.

“You know,” Daniel pressed gently, “you could get your memories back. If only you’d agree to meet…”

He didn’t even finish. Because the moment his mouth began to form that name, I snapped.

“Don’t you dare say it,” I snarled, cutting him off, Nyxara’s eyes flashing molten gold through mine. My voice dropped, guttural, dangerous. “Don’t you dare say his name to me.”

Daniel didn’t back down. Not this time. His jaw tightened, and I saw something flicker in his eyes…anger, yes, but also frustration, desperation.

“You need to hear me out,” he said, voice low but firm. “I’ve had enough of this, Ivy. Enough of you shutting everyone out whenever his name is mentioned. You need to know the truth about him. About what really happened. About who he is to you!”

My hands shook. My heart raced. My wolf paced.

“No,” I whispered, backing away, grabbing my phone off the desk with trembling fingers. “I’m not doing this. Not with you. Not today.”

I started toward the door, every step fueled by the storm churning in my chest.

But Daniel’s next words froze me where I stood, the breath leaving my lungs in a sharp gasp.

Words that made the phon

e slip from my hand and clatter to the floor.

“Did you just say, mate?” Nyxara growled, the sound rumbling from my chest.