Chapter 54

Chapter 54
CALEB

The front door clicks shut.

Theo doesn't say a word.

One look at his face is enough to make my stomach tighten.

He's pale. Drained. Like he left something behind in those woods.

Finn looks up from the couch.

"How did it go?"

Theo reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone.

"I recorded everything."

The room falls silent.

He presses play.

Eric's weak voice fills the living room.

"It was never supposed to happen like that..."

I freeze.

"James... Finn's father... they stood in my way."

Every muscle in my body locks.

No.

Dad told me James attacked first.

He told me he defended himself.

He told me—

"Maybe I am broken. Maybe they were right."

Theo stops the recording.

Silence settles over the room.

No one breathes.

Finn is the first to speak.

"So... he admitted it."

Theo nods.

"He admitted killing James."

James.

Not "Elena's father."

James.

For the first time in years, I force myself to think of him as a man instead of a story.

A husband.

A father.

Someone whose daughter spent years paying for a crime she never committed.

My throat tightens.

"So..." I whisper. "My dad lied."

Theo doesn't answer. He doesn't have to.

The truth is sitting between us like a fourth person.

Heavy.

Impossible to ignore.

I leave before either of them can stop me.



The evening air bites at my skin.

I keep walking until I reach the old training grounds.

The place where Dad taught me everything.

"An Alpha protects his own."

"Never question your family."

"Weakness gets people killed."

I spent my whole life trying to become the son he wanted.

Strong.

Loyal.

Obedient.

Godess...

Was that all I ever was?

I stare across the empty field.

This is where Elena fell during training when we were sixteen.

She got back up before anyone could help her.

I laughed.

I still remember the look in her eyes.

Not anger.

Disappointment.

Even then...

She expected better from me.

I was too blind to see it.

I sink onto the fence.

My wolf is restless.

Not angry.

Sad.

He's been trying to tell me the truth since Elena came back.

Every time she walked into a room, he wanted to go to her.

Protect her.

Stand beside her.

I kept shoving him down.

Because believing him meant questioning everything I'd been taught.

A cold breeze moves through the trees.

For a moment...

I think about my mother.

I haven't done that in years.

Not really.

People stopped talking about her after she left.

Dad acted like she'd never existed.

Whenever I asked where she'd gone...

The answer was always the same.

"She made her choice."

That's it. No explanation. No goodbye. No letters. Nothing. Just... Gone.

Something twists in my chest.

I frown.

It's strange.

If Dad lied about James... What else did he lie about?

The thought hits me so suddenly that I almost laugh.

No.

I'm just looking for ghosts now.

Mom left because she didn't love us anymore.

That's what everyone said.

That's what I believed.

Wasn't it?

I close my eyes.

For the first time in my life...

I'm not sure.



When I return home, Theo and Finn are exactly where I left them.

Neither asks where I've been.

Theo pours me a glass of water.

I don't drink it.

"I keep thinking..." I say.

Theo waits.

"Eric confessed."

"Yes."

"But..."

The word hangs in the air.

Finn tilts his head.

"But what?"

I rub my jaw.

"I don't know."

Theo studies me.

"Say it."

I hesitate.

"It feels..."

Wrong.

Both of them look at me.

"James is dead."

Theo nods.

"Eric admitted it."

I nod slowly.

"But Moira died too."

Silence.

"I keep thinking..."

I look from Theo to Finn.

"If Eric wanted Moira..."

My voice trails off.

Theo's brow furrows.

"What are you saying?"

"I don't know."

And that's the truth.

"I just..."

I shake my head.

"If she was everything to him..."

"Why kill her?"

Neither Theo nor Finn answers.

Because neither of them has one.

The question lingers in the room.

Small.

Simple.

Terrifying.

Why kill the woman you spent your whole life obsessing over?

Unless...

No.

I push the thought away before it can take shape.

Maybe Eric was lying.

Maybe there are details he left out.

Maybe it doesn't matter.

Except...

It does.

Because somewhere deep inside me...

Something whispers that the story isn't finished yet.

That one confession doesn't erase twenty years of unanswered questions.

Theo finally speaks.

"The Council will question him again."

I nod absentmindedly.

Maybe they'll get more.

Maybe they won't.

But for the first time...

I'm beginning to understand that the truth isn't a straight line.

It's a maze.

And we've only just found the entrance.