Chapter 18

Odette

My heart completely stopped in my chest.

I gripped the armrests of my chair in the dark balcony, my knuckles turning blindingly white. The older woman on the stage was smiling gracefully, bowing to the cheering crowd. It was her. The face from the faded and hidden photographs. My mother.

"Mom?" I whispered out loud.

The paralysis broke.

"Excuse me! Move! Please!" I shouted, shoving blindly past the wealthy socialites in the aisle.

"Hey! Watch it, you dirty little Omega!" a man snapped, grabbing my arm as I stepped on his polished shoes with my bare, wet feet.

"Let me go!" I screamed, ripping my arm away from his grip. "I need to get down there! Let me through!"

"Security, grab her! She is ruining the applause!" an older woman shrieked, clutching her pearl necklace.

I didn't care. I pushed through the doors and sprinted out into the grand lobby. My wet, bare feet slapped loudly against the freezing marble floors. I ran wildly toward the side exit, bursting through the glass doors and out into the cold and drizzling night.

A sleek black luxury car was idling near the stage door. A security guard was holding the back door open for the woman from the stage.

"Mom!" I screamed, my voice tearing through the rainy street.

The security guard stepped in front of me, putting a hand on my chest to stop me. "Step back, miss. You cannot approach Madam Elena."

"Get out of my way! That is my mother!" I sobbed, hitting the guard's thick arm. "Mom! Look at me! It's me, Odette!"

Through the dark rain-streaked open door, the woman turned her head. Our eyes met. I waited for her to gasp. I waited for her to run to me.

"Mom, please!" I cried, tears mixing with the rain on my face. "They told me you were dead! Why did you leave me with him?"

Her beautiful face remained blank. She looked at my soaked hair and dirty feet with disgust. She leaned forward, speaking to the driver in a cold and sharp voice.

"Arthur, tell the guard to get rid of this crazy fan. I am tired. Do not stop the car."

"No!" I shrieked. "Mom, it's Odette! Your daughter!"

"Roll the window up," she commanded flatly.

The car door slammed shut. The tinted window rolled up, severing our connection completely. The engine roared to life.

"Mom! Wait!" I screamed, slipping on the wet concrete. I fell hard onto the asphalt, scraping my knees, but I scrambled forward and slammed my hands flat against the back window as the car began to pull away. "Don't leave me again! Mom!"

The car accelerated, splashing dirty rainwater all over my thin cotton dress.

"Stop!" I choked out, collapsing into the freezing puddle on the street. "Mom..."

I sat in the alleyway and sobbed. I was twenty-two, but I felt exactly like I was five years old again. She wasn't dead. She had faked her death to escape my father, abandoned me to his obsession, and started a glamorous new life here. And just now, looking right into my eyes, she had chosen to throw me away all over again.

I dragged myself up from the wet street and wandered through the city until I reached a dark, quiet lake in the center of a park. I sank onto the wet grass beneath a large willow tree.

"It wasn't her," I whispered aloud to the empty park, my teeth chattering violently. "It couldn't be. My mom is dead."

Suddenly, the phone in my pocket began to ring loudly.

I pulled it out with shaking, freezing fingers. The caller ID flashed a name that made my blood boil. Serena.

I stared at the screen. Why was my sister calling me? To make sure I was dead?

I swiped the green button and pressed the phone to my ear. "What do you want, Serena?" I rasped, my voice raw from screaming.

"Oh, Odette! You're actually alive!" Serena's high-pitched and sickly-sweet voice filled my ear. "We were all so worried! How is life with the big and scary rogue?"

"Cut the act," I spat, a dark fire igniting in my chest. "There's no audience here. I know you and Martha set me up. I know you told Josh to reject me."

Serena let out a vicious, unbothered laugh. "Well, aren't you smart? Took you long enough to figure it out, little bastard."

"How could you do this to me?" I cried, my voice shaking with rage and heartbreak. "I loved you! You were my sister!"

"You were a parasite," Serena snapped back, her tone turning venomous. "You danced around, playing the tragic, beautiful Omega, soaking up Papa's weird obsession. I was the heir. I deserved the Beta Hero, not you. I deserved to stay in Mist Rain. You really thought I would let Papa hand me over to some scarred, ugly monster?"

"So you fed me to him instead!"

"You fit the dress, didn't you?" Serena mocked. "Anyway, I didn't call to chat about the past. I called to make sure you check your social media tonight."

"Why?" I demanded, gripping the phone tight.

"Because Josh and I just got officially engaged," she gloated. "The whole pack is celebrating. Papa gave us his blessing. Josh bought me the biggest diamond you've ever seen. We are going to rule Mist Rain, Odette. And you? You're stuck in a foreign city with a freak who probably uses you as a punching bag."

"I am going to destroy you, Serena," I swore, my chest heaving. "I will tell everyone the truth. I will tell Alpha Kael—"

"Tell him what?" Serena laughed cruelly. "That his new bride is a liar? He already knows you're a schemer, Odette. You literally confessed to attacking me on the altar! No one is ever going to believe you. You have no money, no power, and no friends. You are completely helpless."

"Put Josh on the phone," I demanded.

"Josh is busy popping champagne with his true Luna," Serena sneered. "Enjoy your miserable life, Odette. Don't ever call us again."

The line went dead.