Chapter 5

He'd never thought he'd actually lose me.

And now, everything had gone off the rails.

Even so, Damien wasn't truly panicking yet. He still believed if he went and lowered his head to me, I'd come home.

He was just thinking of going to the Hart estate personally to apologize when his office door slammed open.

Fiona stumbled in, hair loose, face frantic, like a cornered animal.

"Big brother!"

Her eyes were red. Her voice trembled, small and helpless. She rushed over and grabbed his arm. "That bitch Selene has really lost it. She's filed against me."

Damien froze. "What?"

Fiona pulled a Council summons from her bag and slammed it down on the coffee table.

"She opened a case at the Council. She's accused me of deliberately trying to kill her daughter. Look at what she wrote. Big brother, she's insane. That thing with Evie was just an accident."

Her voice broke. Tears pooled in her eyes. "I didn't do anything that day. I just disciplined her a little. She was too arrogant. How was I supposed to know she'd drown?"

"Big brother, believe me. I didn't want her to die. I just couldn't stand the way she clung to you, crying and fussing, and you always protected her, and I just—"

Fiona sobbed. Her voice was wounded and soft. "I'm hurting too, you know? She called me aunt, after all. But Selene's pinning everything on me. Now she's pinning a death on me. How can she be this cruel?"

Damien's face darkened.

He'd been defending Fiona this whole time. But to be honest, he didn't really know what had happened that day. He'd never watched the video on my phone.

He'd always believed me when I said Fiona had pushed Evie's head under the water, once, twice, three times, was an exaggeration. He'd thought, at most, Fiona had made Evie get in the water to scare her, and then an accident had happened.

His fingers trembled. His voice was hoarse. "You. You're telling me you actually did something?"

Fiona flinched silent. Her face went white. Her lips shook. "I, I didn't want her dead. I just, I just had someone—"

"Do you know Evie couldn't swim?" Each word was cut clean, cold.

Her body jerked. She bit her lip and wouldn't answer.

"Do you know?"

Damien roared. He swept the cup off the table. Tea splashed. Glass scattered.

Before any of this, he wouldn't have gotten this angry. But for some reason, the fact that I'd left him over this made the fury rise in him all at once.

If it hadn't been for Fiona, if she hadn't done this, why would I ever have left him?

Fiona cried out and stumbled backwards, almost sobbing. "I, I thought she'd be fine if I teased her a little. I never thought it would actually happen."

"You never thought?" His eyes were red. He stared at her like a wild animal. "That was a life. How old was she? She couldn't even fight back. You know Selene was on her knees in front of the healer, crying until she fainted?"

Fiona's lashes trembled. She kept backing away. "I was scared too, big brother. You can't blame me like this. I'm hurting too."

"Hurting?" He clenched his jaw. His voice dropped, like he was fighting something down.

Crack.

He slapped her.

"Big brother!" Fiona stared, her face turned sideways. Her cheek swelled red where he'd hit her. Her eyes went wide with shock, like she'd been struck by lightning.

She pressed her hand to her cheek. "You. You hit me?"

He gritted his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot. "I should have hit you years ago."

"For her? You hit me for her?" Tears spilled down her face. Her voice was shrill. "What do you see in her? She's trying to put me in a cell and you're still protecting her?"

He roared back, "You killed her pup. Fiona, do you think you can wash your hands of this?"

"I didn't kill her. She stopped breathing on her own." Fiona was out of control now. "I just couldn't stand her using a child to tie you to her. You hated pups before. How did you suddenly become so devoted? She was using that pup to chain you down. She doesn't love you."

Damien stopped. His eyes went flat on her. "So you pulled Evie's oxygen line?"

Fiona screamed, past caring. "Yes! I didn't want Selene holding you through that pup. You only Marked her for the Pack. I'm the one who got you through those years. I'm the one who stayed. What is she? What makes her deserve you?"

His face went fully cold.

He said, one word at a time, "You think because you've stayed by me all these years, I'm supposed to belong to you?"

"Am I wrong?" Her face contorted. She was gone. "I protected you since we were pups. I thought of everything for you. The first person you thought of when you rose was her? Just because she gave birth once, you went soft? You said you never wanted pups. You said pups were a burden."

"But she was my daughter." His voice was ice.

Actually, even now, Evie's death hadn't moved him much at all.

He was only this furious because her death had driven me away.