Chapter 60 Sixty

Chapter 60 Sixty
‎Isolde
‎
‎The apartment was too quiet again.
‎I sat on the edge of the bed, one hand resting lightly over my still-flat stomach, staring at nothing. Weeks had passed since Zander stormed out of my room, leaving me with nothing but silence and the ghost of his touch. I hadn’t heard from him. Not a single word not a message not even a shadow at my door.
‎And now there was this.
‎A baby.
‎Zander’s baby.
‎My fingers traced slow circles over the skin where our child was growing. The pregnancy test was hidden deep in the back of a drawer, but the two pink lines were burned into my memory. Every morning I woke up with a rush of fear and a strange, fierce warmth. Fear of what Maren would do if she found out. Fear of what Aldric would do. Fear of what Zander would say if he ever learned the truth.
‎But the warmth… that was new. Protective and almost hopeful. A tiny life inside me that belonged to both of us. A child who might have his grey eyes or my amber ones. A child who could be the one good thing to come out of all this pain and lies.
‎I whispered softly to the quiet room, “What am I going to do with you?”
‎The silence answered back.
‎Maren had warned me again yesterday sharp, disappointed, watching me like a hawk. “Stay away from him. Don’t reach out. The plan is cracking because of you. If you go running after him now, you’ll ruin everything.”
‎So I hadn’t.
‎But the loneliness was eating me alive.
‎I picked up my phone, scrolling mindlessly through the news feeds to distract myself. Anything to stop thinking about the way Zander had looked at me when he left angry, hurt, lost. Anything to stop remembering how perfectly he had felt inside me that last morning.
‎Then I saw it.
‎The headline hit me like a punch to the chest.
‎“Ashveil-Vorne Alliance Sealed: Alpha Zander Ashveil and Celeste Vorne Set to Wed in Grand Ceremony”
‎Photos flooded the screen. Zander in a tailored suit, looking cold and distant. Celeste beside him in a stunning white gown, smiling that perfect, polished smile. Hashtags were already trending: #AshveilVorneWedding #FutureAlphaPair #PowerCoupleUnited
‎The article gushed about the “long-awaited union” that would strengthen two powerful packs, repair recent “minor tensions,” and usher in a new era of stability. There were quotes from both families praising the match. Speculation about the wedding date. Hints that the ceremony would be extravagant, public, and final.
‎My hand trembled as I scrolled.
‎A week.
‎Just one week since he had stormed out of my hotel room, eyes full of pain and doubt, asking me if any of it had been real.
‎And now this, he was marrying her.
‎The woman I had fought in his living room. The woman whose blood I had tasted on my tongue. The woman I had whispered those cutting words to while she lay defeated on the floor.
‎“The omega beats the princess every single time.”
‎Apparently not.
‎My throat tightened. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
‎He’s doing it.
‎He’s choosing duty. He’s choosing the alliance. He’s choosing the life his father planned for him.
‎He’s choosing her.
‎I pressed my hand harder against my stomach, feeling the tiny spark of life inside me, our child and a fresh wave of fear crashed over me.
‎What would happen if Zander found out I was carrying his baby while he was preparing to marry Celeste?
‎What would Aldric do if he learned there was an Ashveil heir growing inside the omega he had once ordered destroyed?
‎What would Maren do if she discovered I was pregnant with the child of the man I was supposed to be destroying?
‎I couldn’t tell anyone.
‎Not yet.
‎Not until I figured out what this meant.
‎Not until I decided whether I was still fighting for revenge…
‎…or fighting for something far more fragile and terrifying.
‎I set the phone down slowly, the glowing screen still showing the smiling faces of Zander and Celeste, the hashtags mocking me from every corner of the internet.
‎#PowerCoupleUnited
‎#FutureAlphaPair
‎The title stared back at me, and in the heavy silence of my apartment, with my hand still protectively over our unborn child, one chilling thought refused to leave me.
‎Zander was moving forward with his life.
‎But I was carrying a piece of him that could change everything.
‎And I had no idea how long I could keep this secret before it destroyed us all.
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