Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 34

POV: Seraphina

Returning to the manor was like willingly walking back into my own tomb. I slipped back in the same way I had left, a ghost in a grey dress, the scent of antiseptic herbs clinging to my clothes. The relief I felt at being safely back was immediately eclipsed by a frantic, heart-pounding urgency. I had to find Nico. I had to try.

I found him in the gardens, in the shadow of a large oak tree. Sylvie was with him, of course. They were building a small fortress out of twigs and moss. Sylvie was laughing, her head thrown back, the picture of maternal bliss, while Nico worked with a focused intensity, his small brow furrowed in concentration. The sight of them together, so natural, so happy, was a fresh stab of pain, but I pushed it down. This wasn't about me. This was about him.

"Nico," I said, my voice softer than I intended.

He looked up, and the happy light in his eyes instantly vanished when he saw me, replaced by a familiar, sullen annoyance. Sylvie's smile tightened, her eyes turning to watchful, possessive slits.

"What do you want?" Nico asked, not bothering to get up.

"Can I talk to you for a moment? Alone?" I glanced pointedly at Sylvie.

She placed a proprietary hand on Nico's shoulder. "Anything you have to say to Nico, you can say in front of me."

I ignored her, my focus entirely on my son. I knelt in the damp grass, trying to catch his evasive gaze. My heart hammered against my ribs, every beat a prayer. Please, let this work. Please let there be a part of you left that is still mine.

"Nico," I began, my voice trembling slightly. "I wanted to ask you something very important. A hypothetical question." I had to be careful. "What would you think… what if… what if I were to give you a little brother? Or a little sister? A tiny new pup for you to play with and protect."

The world tilted and went silent. The chirping birds, the rustling leaves, the sound of my own frantic heartbeat—it all vanished. There was only the sound of my son's words, echoing over and over in the sudden, vast emptiness of my soul. Daddy said so. It wasn't just a child's fantasy. It was a promise Damian had made. A future they had planned together, a future that had no place for me or any child of mine.

The last, fragile thread that connected me to my son, the primal, biological bond of mother and child, snapped. It didn't just break; it disintegrated into dust. I looked at the boy in front of me, his face a small, defiant mask of my husband's cruelty, and I felt nothing. No love. No pain. Nothing but the cold, quiet peace of a final, absolute ending.

He wasn't my son anymore. He was theirs.

He looked at me with his father's eyes, and then he turned and ran back to Sylvie.