Chapter 82 Visiting the memory lane
“Woah,” Serena muttered, looking up at the treehouse. The area around the base of the tree was more overgrown than it had been the night they spent there. “You remember now?” Logan asked sharply. Serena sighed, nodding. “Of course, I remember,” she said gently. Logan glared at her, crossing his arms over his hips. “So, go ahead and explain yourself,” he snarled. “You seem to think that your reasons are somehow acceptable. I think I will be the judge of that.”
“I don’t think you will find anything I have to say justifiable,” Serena admitted. “You don’t know what it was like for me or why I made the decisions I did.” “Which is why I am asking you to explain,” Logan hissed. “This is your one chance.” Serena shook her head. “Logan, I could explain over and over my reasons for everything. I doubt you’ll agree with them regardless,” she said. “You have hindsight. I had to make those decisions in the moment.”
“And when exactly did you decide to lie to me?” he asked. He sounded so betrayed. Serena felt guilty for that. She’d never wanted to hurt or betray him. If she’d gotten the DNA test results back sooner, she could have said something. By the time she had confirmation he was Olivia and Oliver’s father, things with Holly and her pregnancy accelerated, then Logan confessed not being ready to be a father, and he had accused her of falsifying lab results.
She could make all the excuses she wanted, but the truth was, she had betrayed him. She wasn’t going to admit that to him, though! He was going to be irrationally angry, and she was going to stand by her decisions. “I stand by my decisions,” she said. “The way events unfolded, maybe it was just meant to be that way,” she said. Logan growled. “You still haven’t told me anything I want to hear or answered any of my questions,” he pointed out. Serena gave him a humorless smile.
“Alright, you want to go down memory lane, lets go all the way back,” she said. Before Logan could stop her, Serena went around the tree and found the boards nailed to the trunk.
Swiftly, she climbed up into the treehouse. When she looked down, Logan was still on the ground.
“Memory lane starts up here,” she shouted down to him. Logan growled loud enough for her to hear, but then he started to climb up into the treehouse. It was a small space, and when Logan arrived, Serena found herself much closer to him than she wanted to be. She pressed her back against the furthest wall.
For a moment, her memory blossomed with reminders of that night! She wasn’t drunk now, and Logan was so close, she could smell him much better in the enclosed space. Closing her eyes, she remembered how he’d removed her dress, his fingers tracing her heated skin, his teeth nibbling on her skin. For a moment, Serena lost herself to that memory. It was a good one, regardless of what had come after. “So, this is where it happened,” Logan said, seeking confirmation. “Yes,” Serena admitted. She opened her eyes. For the time being, Logan also seemed subdued with the memories of the night they’d spent there. “One night,” he muttered, shaking his head. “That’s all it takes,” Serena said teasingly. Logan glared at her. He wasn’t ready to accept her teasing. “It was a good night.” Logan scoffed. “I dimly recall,” he admitted. “I was in the middle of a med school class when I got my pregnancy test results,” she told him. “It was a life-changing moment. There were a lot of considerations I had to think about.”
“And it never once crossed your mind to reach out to me?” he asked. “Well, no, it didn’t,” she admitted. Logan snorted and shook his head. “You really are selfish, aren’t you?” he asked. Serena creased her brow. “Maybe,” she said. “But honestly, it wasn’t about me, it was about the kids. I mean, I didn’t know I was having twins at that point. I didn’t reach out to anyone. Not that that will make you feel better, but I didn’t tell my parents or my brother, no one.” “Why?” Logan asked, tilting his head at her. Serena sighed. She had to give him that answer, but she wasn’t sure he’d receive it well. “The truth?” she asked. Logan nodded. “I didn’t know who the father was,” she said bluntly. Logan scoffed, crossing his arms. “That’s…wow…” he said. For a moment, it seemed like his anger was gone, replaced by shock. “I mean, it wasn’t like we exchanged names or anything,” she reminded him. “I didn’t even see your
face that night.” “I know, I know,” Logan said waving her off. “But even after you found out you were pregnant, you didn’t know that it was from the night we spent here?” Serena shook her head.
“I know, that doesn’t sound very good,” she said. “But I was in the human world, going to medical school. I had a good time when I wanted to.” Logan shook his head. “I don’t want to know,” he hissed. Serena nodded. Visiting Memory Lane gotten to where I wanted to be, finally gotten into medical school and was making a name for myself.”
“At some point, you must have realized that it was me you were with that night,” Logan said. “Otherwise, why all the secrets and lies?”
Serena let out a long, slow breath. She closed her eyes, thinking again about the night they had spent there. Even through the alcohol haze, it had been one of the most amazing nights she’d had with anyone. It was no wonder the result was conception of twins! “The first time we met when you helped us move into the house,” Serena admitted. Logan’s eyes flared with rage.
“That’s how long you’ve known!?” he asked. “All that time you hid this from me!?”
“No,” Serena said, shaking her head and holding up her hands in surrender. “That was when I knew you were the one from the masquerade. It was subtle. I guess I got enough of your scent on me that night…” she trailed off, blushing slightly. Logan’s eyes had lit up with interest. The mood shifting to a different kind of tension for a moment.
“I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. You were with another woman, I had no idea if you even remembered me. At that point, it was a guessing game,” she said. “I had to be careful not to do anything that could damage your reputation or hurt my kids.”
Logan sighed heavily and nodded. He relaxed ever so slightly. “Alright, I guess I can understand that,” he said begrudgingly. “I was so mad when I found out,” Serena said with a mirthless chuckle. “I wasn’t ready to face that truth.” Logan snarled, the anger returning to his eyes. “You were mad?” he asked.
“And how long did you seethe while keeping the truth from me?” Serena shook her head. “Things weren’t that simple, Logan!” she snapped. “You want to come down hard on me for keeping this a secret, but you don’t even know what I went through! You have no idea how confusing it was to watch you with another woman, planning to have a baby with another woman while finding out that you were the father of my kids!” Logan took a half step back as Serena yelled at him. He growled a warning at her, be she waved it off.
“You seriously think I enjoyed keeping my mouth shut!?” she asked. “Holly made it clear from the start that she was threatened by me! What would it have done to your relationship with her, to the pack, if I had told you the truth? By the time I knew…” she trailed off shaking her head again. Serena wrapped her arms around herself, bowing her head so she wouldn’t have to look at Logan. “Serena, I need you to tell me everything,” Logan said. “All the way back to the
beginning. I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t have mentioned any of this. You never even told your family!”
Sighing, Serena kept her eyes on the floor of the tree house. Every time she moved it rocked a little, clearly unstable after so many years of being left unattended.
“The night after we spent together, I got my acceptance papers to medical school,” Serena said, going back. “I left and never looked back.”
“That’s it?” Logan asked when she didn’t continue.
“No, that’s not it!” she snapped, glaring at him. “How could you possibly understand? You were born to an Alpha and Luna, but you were an only child and the successor, you could never understand!”
“For once, Serena, stop hiding behind your secrets and just explain this to me!” Logan growled. His anger was ebbing back, she could see it in how he tensed his whole body. If she didn’t give him
answers, she worried what he might do in that small space!