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CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR.

ROSALIE'S POV.

"They are your children too!" I blurted, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. "They're not just mine. They're yours, and that's why their father is a bastard! A bastard who wants to make his children look like him, too!"

I watched as the colour drained from his face. He went pale, and he was not hiding his shock. It was evident in his eyes.

For a moment, the hallway was silent, the weight of my revelation hanging heavily between us and if some maids and guards heard me, I couldn't tell. My main goal was Jacqueline and he was the one I focused on.

I watched as he struggled to process what I'd just said. His usually composed demeanour was slipping away, it was crumbling right there in my presence, and he became very uncomfortable right there on his spot.

"What did you just say?" He asked finally, his voice barely above a whisper. I could tell that he focused those words out of his lungs.

I swallowed hard, the vulnerability in his tone cutting through my anger. "They're yours, Jacqueline. Our children." I spoke calmly, still keeping my eyes on him.

He stared at me, his expression unreadable, and for the first time, I saw something in his eyes that I couldn't place. Regret? Pain? It was hard to tell. But whatever it was, it softened his posture, and when he finally spoke, his voice was quieter.

"When? How? Why didn't you tell me?"

I looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "It was you, you didn't look like one who wants a child now, and even if you did, you never made it obvious that it had to be from me. You hated me...."

He cut me off, "I never hated you, Rosalie, not even for once in my life..."

I cut into his words back, "Then, why did you punish me blindly when I was accused of killing your father? I know you knew I didn't kill him, but because of your hatred for me, you punished me."

"No, you're wrong, that was not the reason." He sighed, "I was jealous, okay? You left for the human world angrily like you could fend for yourself. You just went there to suffer, I saw everything! Then I couldn't watch you suffer more. I got a human guy to help you, and you fell in love with him to the extent that you took Wolfsbane to turn yourself human. For him!"

"Hey, hey. You're wrong. I was not in love with him." I corrected him.

"Tell that to my eyes which saw everything!"

I frowned and crossed my arms, "What was your deal with me? What if I fell for him? How is that your business? You had yourself wrapped with your mate."

He laughed out pain, "Of course, and I missed on both sides anyways. My mate betrayed me, and my best friend found a human better than me, she was even with kids with him. How am I supposed to know that the kids were not his?!"

"You could have watched longer."

"Oh yeah, and see everything because you were going special hatred for me every day even when you know nothing."

"I..."

He cut me off, "Do you know why I focused you back home?" I shook my head, "That's to punish you for leaving me in the first place when I needed you most. You promised you would always be by my side, and you broke that promise."

"That was because you found someone else, someone better than me. I couldn't stay and watch your lovey-dovey with her. I loved you then."

"How was I supposed to know that you loved me? You never mentioned it to me!"

I kept quiet after that. I had nothing else to say, and he seemed to have a lot to say. So I just listened to him.

"If only you'd told me that night after our intimacy that you loved me more than just friends, I swear on my father's grave, I would have chosen you over Ophelia. You knew me more than anyone else, and I had thought of you to be the best choice to be my Luna, but I couldn't be with you knowing that you wanted to be somewhere else.

"I was happy to be with Ophelia because she was my mate, but aside from that, it was all because she wouldn't stop telling me the words I wanted to hear. The 'I love you' words, even though they were all lies, but I did enjoy it when it last.

"But you,

"You were there, trying to forget about me while I put it upon myself to take care of you even if you never knew everything was from me.

"You birth my pups. The first year, second year, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and you never planned to tell me about them. Thinking about it now even hurt more because I couldn't shake it off that they must have been calling another person 'Daddy'. They must have been thinking that they were mere humans.

"Do you even know that they might even be getting bullied in school when they have a whole alpha like me as their father? Do you know how painful that is? Do you?"

When he stopped talking, my eyes were blurred with new tears, and my cheeks were heavily wet. I blinked the tears out to meet his red eyes. He was not crying it out, but I was sure he had a basin filled with salty water in him.

I felt sorry, and I didn't even know what to say to him to tell of how sorry I was. I pulled myself closer to him and hugged him.

"I'm sorry." I muttered to him, "I'm sorry. So sorry." I repeatedly apologised til I felt his arms wrapping around me, and I felt the liquid dropping on my scalp since he was resting his chin on my head.

Tears pulled out of my eyes when I felt his tears on me and I cried. "I'm sorry."

He said nothing, and somehow, I was feeling the heaviness in his heart.

I disengaged from the hug and kissed him. Standing on my tiptoe, I bit into his lower lip and kissed deeply into his mouth to take his pain as mine.