Chapter 17
ELIAS VERNAL
She was guarding herself against me.
I could see it in her eyes. I understood everything. Bitterness flooded my heart. "Serenity, does it have to be like this?"
"I don't know what you mean."
I took a breath and noticed Arian in Serenity's arms. What I needed to say wasn't something he should hear. I had Herman take him back to his room. Serenity didn't stop him.
Arian's small arms clung tightly to Serenity's neck. He asked anxiously, "Are you fighting?"
"No, we're not fighting. We just need to discuss something important. Can you wait by yourself like a good boy?"
"Will I get to see you again?"
"Yes. Definitely."
The tenderness in her voice made my chest tighten with jealousy.
After Herman took Arian away, she turned to face me. All that warmth vanished. Her eyes held no emotion—only cold detachment. "Say whatever you need to say. Then let me leave!"
"Serenity, I know this is hard to believe.
But there's actually nothing between Liv and me.
" I felt like a criminal pleading my innocence before a judge, so anguished I wanted to cut my heart out and show her.
"The one I truly love is you. What I felt for her was just gratitude for saving my life.
But after losing you, I realized everything I'd done was wrong!
You're my only mate. I want us to start over! "
"Start over? How?" Serenity whispered harshly. "Wasn't I supposed to be the traitor, the criminal? The whole pack hates me, and you want me to come back here?"
I could barely breathe. I rushed to explain. "I believe you! I swear I'll never doubt you again! I'll reopen the investigation and find the truth, clear your name before the entire pack! Serenity, I've already found some suspicious things about Liv—"
"Enough! I don't want to hear any more!" Serenity cut me off. "Don't make yourself sound ridiculous. You want to investigate? You said the same thing back then, and the result was treating me like a prisoner!"
"You can't possibly understand my suffering.
You have no idea what my life has been like.
" She continued, looking at me. No anger or sadness in her eyes—only the calm of someone who had given up.
"Can you imagine? Living somewhere everyone treats you like an enemy?
The looks, the pressure, the fear? I put all my hope in you, over and over.
All I wanted was for you to believe me, to prove my innocence.
But you did nothing. You never even really listened! "
"Serenity..."
"I gave you so many chances, Elias. Even when I was dying after giving birth to Arian, I gave you a chance.
I was abandoned on that freezing operating table.
I crawled out, begging for help. The only call I made was to you.
But you didn't answer... After everything I went through, how can you expect me to believe you now? "
I was stunned. I had no idea what she was talking about. "You called me that day? I didn't know."
"Stop pretending," Serenity said. "You told Liv you didn't have time and told her to hang up. Don't tell me you don't remember!"
I genuinely didn't remember. Wait—hold on… Memory surfaced. Yes, Liv had asked me once that day if I wanted to take a call. What had she said? It's a telemarketer.
"That call was from you?" I murmured.
Serenity misunderstood my meaning and laughed bitterly. "So you do remember?"
That call had been from Serenity!
She had called me. I had had a chance to save her!
The moment I realized this, my limbs turned to ice. I couldn't breathe. Regret and remorse drowned me. Why had I chosen that moment to test Liv? Why hadn't I kept my phone? Why…
But no amount of questions could fill the four years of loss. Looking at the hatred in Serenity's eyes, I felt too ashamed to speak with any conviction. "This was a misunderstanding! Listen to me, Serenity, I had no idea that call was from you. Liv deceived me!"
"You think I'll believe that?"
"You won't believe me, Serenity?" My lips trembled. Her icy attitude left me dazed. I'd never realized that being cold to someone could cut like a knife.
Serenity lifted her chin stubbornly. Instead of answering, she asked another question. "Back then, I told you I never sold out the pack. I never pushed Liv into the sea. I never did anything to betray you... Did you believe me?"
I hadn't believed her. I hadn't trusted her.
I remembered her begging me to trust her, again and again. And what had I done?
I had told her over and over that I wouldn't believe her.
And because of that, I'd missed her desperate call for help.
I wanted to make amends. I wanted to win back her heart. But every question she asked left me unable to answer. Even knowing what to say, I couldn't get the words out. Because answering would mean admitting there was no hope left for us.
Only now did I finally understand how deeply my distrust had hurt her.
"Elias, it's too late for us."
But when I couldn't answer, Serenity quietly spoke the truth for me, shattering my last hope.
"I already have a new life. We can never go back."
"A new life. You mean marrying that man named Frank?" I laughed bitterly.
During the four years I'd lost her, she had found someone new.
But what could I say about it? I was the one who'd hurt her first. I'd nearly killed her... So when she chose to leave me, I couldn't say a single word to stop her.
Serenity seemed startled, but she bit her lip and lifted her chin. "That's right… I'm going to marry Frank. If you understand, let me go!"
She had asked this three times now.
"What if I refuse?" I asked quietly.
She hesitated. Just as a sliver of hope rose in me, she steeled herself again.
"If you won't let me go, I'll kill myself."
Her words tore my heart to shreds. I stared at her in disbelief. "Why? Do you hate me so much that you'd throw away your own life? Is that man Frank really that important to you?"
"What I want more than life is freedom," she said calmly. "If you destroy the life I built, then I'd rather have died four years ago!"
She meant it.
I searched desperately for any sign of weakness. But there was none. Her eyes were so resolute, without a trace of lies or bravado…
"Make your choice, Elias," Serenity said. "For the sake of what we once had, let me go."
I closed my eyes, feeling all warmth drain from my body as if all hope had vanished. When I opened them, I forced my voice to sound calm and natural. "Alright. I'll have someone take you back."
Surprise flickered in Serenity's eyes. She hadn't expected my answer.
I smiled bitterly.
She didn't need to be so suspicious. I truly meant it.
Because I was a criminal who would never receive a pardon. No matter how much I wanted to be with her again, to make up for everything she'd suffered—she wouldn't accept it.
So the best atonement I could offer was to let go.
Let her leave. And accept that I would lose her forever—
"Thank you," she said flatly.
Then she left.
I arranged a car to take her home. I watched her disappear, and with her, my world collapsed.
And this time, no one had shattered it. I had personally killed my own hope, sent away my one and only fated mate, my love—
"Alpha, are you alright?" Herman asked with concern.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Even as I said it, I couldn't feel myself breathing. I felt like an empty shell, disconnected from the world. Everything before my eyes had turned gray.
Herman looked worried. I ignored him and walked straight into my study, shutting myself inside alone.
I threw myself into work like a madman, trying to numb myself. Company business, investigation reports on the hunter attack from four years ago—I needed the truth to fill the void inside me. Whatever that truth was, I had to find it.
It was the only thing I could do now.
But the words wouldn't sink in. Finally, without realizing it, I found myself watching a video. The footage from the missing warrior showing "a woman dealing with hunters"—the "ironclad evidence" that had pointed all suspicion at Serenity.
The video quality was so poor you couldn't make out anyone's face. Even professional restoration had been useless. The only clue was that the woman's back closely resembled Serenity's. That's why the investigation had given up on it so early.
I didn't know why I was still watching it. Maybe I just missed Serenity so much that I was torturing myself, greedily replaying the footage over and over, staring at the woman on screen.
From day into night. From night into the next morning.
My eyes were exhausted and my vision blurred. I was about to stop this pointless viewing. But just as I reached for the pause button, something "off" flashed through the footage I'd now studied for an entire day.
I froze. I quickly rewound and watched again—there it was, that strange detail.
I suddenly noticed that the woman in the video had kept herself completely covered the whole time, but in one single frame, she'd turned her head slightly, revealing a small strand of golden hair near her ear.
It looked just like Serenity's hair color, which was why no one had ever noticed a problem.
But now, staring at that lock of near-platinum hair, I felt ice spread through my veins.
That wasn't Serenity's hair.
I had seen hair that color before. I'd even compared it to Serenity's real hair at the Moon Ceremony four years ago—
It was… Liv's hair!
The discovery horrified me. A possibility I'd never considered surfaced in my mind. I shot to my feet and started digging through all the location records and witness statements from pack members four years ago.
Line after line of text passed before my eyes. With each document I reviewed, the turmoil inside me grew stronger.
Nothing!
Not a single statement or record mentioned anything about Liv's whereabouts. On the day of the hunter attack, she'd vanished into thin air.