Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 65

POV: Damian

With the secret medical mission underway and the news of Marcus's true condition locked down tight, I had one final, critical task: to face Seraphina. I had to gauge what she knew, what the little maid might have told her. I had to see the extent of the damage my actions had wrought.

I steeled myself and walked to her prison wing, a knot of guilt and dread tightening in my stomach. I was expecting hysteria, screams, accusations. Part of me craved it, a tangible reaction to the storm I had unleashed.

When the guards opened the door, the sight that met my eyes was far more unnerving.

She was sitting in a chair by the window, staring out at the stone courtyard. She was deathly still. Her face was pale, her eyes were hollow, but there were no tears. She didn't look at me when I entered. She just stared into the distance, her hands lying limp in her lap.

She looked… empty. A beautiful, precious thing that I had hollowed out from the inside. This wasn't the submission I had wanted; this was annihilation. A wave of self-loathing, so potent it was nauseating, washed over me.

"Seraphina," I said softly, my voice sounding rough and unfamiliar to my own ears.

"He's all I have left," she whispered, her gaze drifting back to the empty courtyard.

Her words were a dagger in my heart. A temporary relief that she didn't know the full truth was instantly consumed by the crushing weight of her despair. I had wanted to break her defiance, but I had broken her spirit instead. This hollow victory was a bitter, agonizing defeat. A twisted part of me was relieved that she wouldn't fight, wouldn't scream, but that relief was a poison. It offered no comfort against the sight of her vacant eyes. This broken, empty woman was a monument to my disastrous pride.

I left her, unable to bear the sight of her emptiness any longer. As I walked down the cold, silent corridor, I looked down at my own hand. It felt numb, chilled to the bone, as if the deathly cold of her touch had seeped into my own skin, a permanent brand of my sin.