My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Chapter 3 ALL I WANT

SERAPHINA’S POV

The words shouldn’t have hurt—not after a decade of waiting for this moment. Yet they sliced through me like silver, the pain radiating from my shattered heart to every nerve ending.

I’d always known that Kieran would eventually ask for this. Especially now. Celeste. His first crush. His real love. Back.

It didn’t matter that I’d loved him since we were children, long before Celeste ever noticed him. It didn’t matter that I’d given him a son. The moment she returned, I became invisible—just as I’d always been in his eyes.

Celeste was the dazzling diamond, blinding everyone to the plain pebble at her feet. I knew this. So why did it still feel like my soul was being ripped in two?

"It’s because of Celeste, isn’t it?" My voice was eerily calm. I already knew the answer, but some masochistic part of me needed to hear him say it. Needed him to twist the knife deeper.

Kieran’s eyes flashed—the first real emotion he’d shown me in years. "No," he snapped, jaw clenched. "Of course not."

Liar.

He dragged a hand through his dark hair, exhaling sharply. "Edward’s death just... reminded me life’s too short to waste on a mistake."

A mistake.

I would have preferred the knife. Would have rather he screamed Celeste’s name than reduce our marriage—our son—to a regret.

I couldn’t help but laugh out.

The sound was jagged, hysterical, tearing from my throat as Kieran stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had.

I laughed because the alternative was screaming.

My gaze traced the lines of this man I knew yet didn’t know at all, this stranger I’d loved for eighteen years who had never truly seen me.

Who was more pitiable—him or me?

He loved Celeste, yet honor and a single mistake had chained him to a marriage he never wanted. What had these ten years given us? If not for that night, if we hadn’t been forced into this loveless union, would his eyes have held even a flicker of warmth for me?

We were never meant to be like this.

Even though I could never regret Daniel, I’d meant it that night—I’d been ready to vanish. I should have run farther. Should never have stepped into that clinic, never let them know about the pregnancy.

I’d told myself staying, enduring, was for Daniel’s sake. But now, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. What kind of life had I given him, with parents whose hearts were oceans apart? While Celeste was gone, Kieran had played the part of a dutiful father. But now she was back, and the fragile facade of our marriage would shatter.

I won’t let my son watch his mother become a laughingstock.

"Fine," I said at last, the laughter dying on my lips.

Kieran’s brows lifted. Had he expected tears? Begging? Had he wanted to see me break?

Too bad.

My entire life, people had hungered for my surrender. But I refused to give them another ounce of my pain.

When I walked away from this marriage, I would take only two things:

My dignity.

And my son.

"I want full custody of Daniel."

His shock morphed into fury. "The hell you will! He’s my son!"

"And mine!" I snarled back.

"You can’t take the pack’s heir from his Alpha!" Kieran’s voice shook with barely leashed rage.

"And you can’t take a mother’s heart from her chest!" My hands trembled, but my voice didn’t waver. "I don’t want your money. Your property. Anything. Just my son."

Daniel was my only light in this wretched world. If Kieran took him from me...

I wouldn’t survive it.

"And most importantly... You and Celeste will have new children."

The words stole the breath from my lungs. Just the thought of it—of her giving him the pups I never could—made my chest ache like a fresh wound. But for Daniel, I would endure anything. Even this.

I watched Kieran closely, his expression unreadable in the dim kitchen light. Finally, he gave a single stiff nod.

"Fine. You can have full custody."

The catch. He agreed so easily.

Not a single denial. Not one word to contradict what I’d said about him and Celeste. He still preferred a family with her, didn’t he?

And the most pathetic part? Some foolish, desperate corner of my heart had still hoped. Still waited for him to say something—anything—to prove our marriage hadn’t been just a prison sentence to him.

I pressed my palms to my stinging eyes. Gods, what was wrong with me?

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify