Chapter 141 Chapter 141

Chapter 141 Chapter 141


Hayley’s POV

Damon's words hung in the room.

“Celine.”

Ariel's fingers tightened around the parchment.

“Are you certain?”

Damon nodded. “One of the guards found the parchment hidden inside a false compartment in Wales' room. He also found several letters.”

“Letters from Celine?”

“Yes.”

I looked at my mother.

She seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.

“Let me see them.”

Damon handed the papers to her.

Ariel read the first one.

Then the second.

Her eyes moved faster as she went through them.

“What does it say?” I asked.

She didn't answer immediately.

Zyran entered behind Damon.

“We've checked the dates.”

He placed another document on the table.

“They were communicating long before the attack on Ariel.”

I looked between them.

“Celine and Wales?”

“Yes,” Zyran said.

Ariel slowly lowered the letter.

“They planned it.”

My stomach tightened.

“Planned what?”

She looked at me.

“My death.”

The words were strangely calm.

I didn't know what to say.

I had always known Celine tried to kill my mother. I'd grown up with that fact. But hearing that there had been conversations, arrangements and plans behind it made everything feel different.

Damon pulled out a chair.

“According to the letters, Celine wanted Ariel gone because of what happened with Stanley and the Seal.”

Ariel nodded faintly.

“She blamed me for losing it.”

“She also blamed Stanley,” Zyran added.

“And Wales?” I asked.

Ariel stared at the papers.

“Wales wanted something else.”

Damon's expression hardened.

“Power.”

Ariel looked at him.

“Yes.”

She picked up another letter.

“He wasn't interested in helping Celine because he cared about her reasons. He had his own plans.”

I sat down.

“What did he want?”

Ariel gave a bitter smile.

“Everything.”

Zyran pulled out a chair beside me.

“Keep going.”

She looked at the letter again.

“Celine was supposed to deal with me.”

“Deal with you?”

“She intended to kill me.”

Ariel paused.

“She believed that once I was gone, the knowledge I carried about the Seal would disappear with me.”

“And Wales agreed?”

“He did.”

Zyran leaned forward on his seat.

“Then what happened?”

Ariel's gaze dropped.

“Celine failed as you all know.”

Nobody spoke.

I knew the rest of that part.

Celine thought she'd killed Ariel.

But she hadn't.

Wales found her.

Ariel folded the letter carefully.

“According to this, Wales discovered that I was still alive.”

Damon frowned.

“So instead of taking you back to Celine…”

“He hid me.”

I stared at her.

“Why?”

Ariel looked at me.

“Not because he wanted to save me.”

That answer was immediate.

“He realised Celine believed I was dead. Keeping me hidden gave him an advantage.”

“What advantage?”

Ariel looked away.

“He could use me without her knowing.”

The room became quiet.

I felt something twist inside me.

“So he saved you just to use you?”

“He wasn't saving me, Hayley.”

Her voice was soft.

“He was preserving something he believed belonged to him.”

Damon clenched his jaw.

“What did he do?”

Ariel hesitated.

Then she answered.

“He suppressed my memories.”

My eyes widened.

“The medicine.”

She nodded.

“The same kind of medicine Eva told you about.”

I remembered Eva's confession.

Alpha Wales had ordered her to give Ariel and me something that affected our memories.

But hearing that it had been deliberate from the beginning was different.

“How long?”

“Years.”

Ariel rubbed her forehead.

“He kept me hidden and repeatedly gave me the medicine. Whenever I began remembering too much, he'd make sure I forgot again.”

Damon's hands curled into fists.

“Why didn't you fight him?”

“I did.”

She looked at him.

“More than once.”

A small laugh escaped her.

“I wasn't helpless. I just didn't always understand what I was fighting for.”

Zyran's expression softened.

“That must have been confusing.”

“It was.”

Ariel looked down at her hands.

“Imagine waking up every morning knowing something important is missing from your life, but not knowing what that thing is.”

Nobody interrupted her.

“I remembered fragments. Names. Places. Faces. Sometimes I remembered Hayley.”

She looked at me.

“Then the memory would disappear again.”

I swallowed.

“Did Wales know who I was?”

“Yes, of course he did.”

The answer came without hesitation.

“He knew you were my daughter.”

“Then why did he let me live with Dad?”

Ariel's eyes filled with something I couldn't quite name.

“Because Stanley had already taken you away from this world.”

I frowned.

“Wales didn't want me?”

“He wanted control of the circumstances around you.”

She paused.

“Your father was human. You were half-werewolf. Wales believed that if you grew up away from the packs, you would have no understanding of your place among them.”

Damon shook his head.

“He wanted you disconnected.”

“Yes.”

“And Celine?”

“Celine thought you were lost with me, not until she found out and married Stanley.” 

Ariel's voice dropped.

“She didn't know Wales had found me.”

I stared at the letters.

“So they worked together, but Wales hid you from her.”

“Exactly.”

Zyran looked at the documents.

“Why continue using Celine?”

Ariel gave him a tired look.

“Because she was useful.”

“For what?”

“Information. Influence. Access to the packs.”

Damon looked disgusted.

“He manipulated both of you.”

Ariel shook her head.

“Celine wasn't innocent. She knew exactly what she wanted.”

She placed the letters together.

“And Wales knew how to give her just enough to keep her working for him.”

I looked at my mother.

“And you?”

“What about me?”

“You were trapped between them.”

Ariel smiled sadly.

“I was trapped inside my own head.”

That silenced me.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then Zyran noticed something on the final page.

“There.”

He pointed to a line at the bottom.

Damon picked it up.

“What is it?”

Zyran read aloud.

“Once the girl is removed, Ariel will no longer be useful to Celine.”

My heart sank.

“The girl.”

Ariel's face changed.

“They were talking about me.”

Damon looked at her.

“Yes.”

He turned the page over.

There was another line written beneath it.

Stanley's daughter.

Ariel stared at it.

“I thought they were planning to kill me.”

Damon looked at the date.

“Maybe they weren't only planning your death.”

Zyran took the letter from him.

“There's something else.”

He pointed to a final sentence.

If Celine succeeds, the child disappears. If she fails, Wales takes Ariel.

Nobody spoke.

I looked at my mother.

“You were never supposed to survive.”

Ariel nodded slowly.

“No.”

Her eyes moved to the map.

“And if Wales kept me alive…”

She stopped.

Damon finished the thought.

“Then he needed you alive for a reason.”

Ariel's face went pale.

Before anyone could respond, someone knocked hard on the door.

Once.

Twice.

Then a voice came from outside.

“Alpha Damon. Alpha Zyran.”

Damon stood.

“What?”

“We found another letter.”

A pause.

“This one has today's date.”

Ariel immediately looked at me.

Damon opened the door and the warlock handed him a sealed envelope.

Damon broke it open.

His eyes moved across the page.

Then he looked at Ariel.

“There's a message here.”

“What does it say?”

Damon slowly turned the letter around.

Ariel read it.

Her face drained of colour.

You were never the only one Wales kept hidden.