Celeste’s pause was deliberate, letting the silence weigh down the line before she spoke again. “Of course. She’s been asking for you; I hope you’ll come quickly. For her sake.”
“I’ll come,” I whispered, surprising myself with the certainty in my voice.
“Good.” And because she was Celeste Lockwood, she couldn’t resist adding a petty, spiteful barb. “Besides, I think you’ve spent enough time on that island playing House with my man.
It’s time to come home now, don’t you think?”
I hung up without another word.
I lowered the phone slowly. My breath felt shallow, like the air itself resisted entering my lungs.
“What happened?” Daniel asked, his little face creased with concern
Kieran’s jaw flexed. He reached for the phone, pocketing it without a word. His shoulders looked even heavier than moments ago, as though Celeste’s venom clung to him too.
I forced a smile that trembled at the edges. “Grandma Margaret is…sick. She’s in the hospital.”
Daniel blinked, processing, then looked up at me with those earnest eyes that always saw more than I wanted him to. “What happened?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure yet, I’ll have to see for myself.”
He stiffened. “You’re…leaving?”
The guilt grew, a choking grip around my throat. “Oh, baby…”
His mouth turned down, uncertain. “But what about our adventure?”
The ache in my chest spread, sharp as glass. I reached across the table, cupping his cheek. “
We’ll still have it. Just a little later, alright? We have our whole lives to have adventures.”
He nodded, though disappointment lingered in his eyes.
Kieran cleared his throat. “We’ll leave tomorrow.” His tone was businesslike, stripped of any softness.
I turned to him. “You don’t have to come with me.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I’m going with you.” That was it-final, no room for argument.
And just like that, the decision was made.
We were going back.
***
Daniel sat quietly on my bed as I packed.
I wanted to say something, help him feel better about my sudden departure, but I was too busy slipping in and out of my own head.
Images flickered unbidden: my father’s final moments, the chance I never got to receive his forgiveness, to be his daughter.
Would I lose my mother the same way? Would I carry another regret carved into my bones forever?
Yet beneath the guilt, a darker voice whispered: ‘Why should you go at all?’
This was the woman who looked through me as though I were invisible, who let Celeste bask in all the sunlight while I was left to rot in the shadows.
Who, just a couple of weeks ago, had publicly shamed me for Celeste’s benefit.
Did she deserve my presence now, when her body was weak and her pride fractured?
I pressed my palms to my eyes. The ghost of an instinct stirred restlessly inside me, urging compassion.
A mother was still a mother. And if I didn’t go, and she died, I knew the regret would eat me alive.
“Mom?”
I snapped back to the present, dropping a shirt into my suitcase.
Daniel’s lips were pursed as he looked at my suitcase.
“Yes, love?”
“You’re really going, aren’t you?” His voice cracked, raw and small.
I nodded, heart twisting. “I have to, sweetheart.”
He studied me, searching my face for what I didn’t know. Then, softly: “You’ll come back, right?”
Tears burned the backs of my eyes. I pushed my suitcase aside and crouched, pulling him into my arms. “Always. No matter where I go, I’ll always come back to you. You’re my home,
Daniel, remember?”
He clung to me fiercely, his little fingers digging into my shirt. For a moment, I almost broke. Almost told Kieran to fly back alone while I stayed here, where my son’s laughter was.
But grief and duty are cruel twins, and they drove me onward.
When I finally let Daniel go, his face was blotchy with unshed tears, but he gave me a brave nod. “Okay. Then go. Take care of Grandma. But don’t forget what I said, Mom. I want you to put yourself first. I want you to be happy.”
His words pierced me deeper than he knew.
CELESTE’S POV
“Was that seriously necessary?”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
Ethan stood at the entrance to the living room with his arms crossed, the early morning light slicing behind him, turning his expression into a judgmental silhouette.
“Calling Sera. Asking her to cut her visit with Daniel short.” His voice was low, dangerously even. The voice he used to lead our pack as Alpha. A voice he rarely used with me.
“What of it?” I smoothed my hair back, keeping my tone breezy. “Mom’s in the hospital, remember? Or do you no longer care?”
He stepped in closer, and my grip on my phone tightened.
I had only just ended the call with Kieran, and even now, the memory of his voice lingered in my ears-gravelly, reluctant, guarded.
Like every single fucking time we’d spoken while he was on that island.
“Oh, I care,” Ethan said, watching me with a brow raised, his unnerving eyes tracking mine.”
Which is why I rushed down to the hospital when I heard the news. And the doctors told us her condition isn’t serious. She fainted, that’s all. Stress, exhaustion, grief from Father’s death. You made it sound like she’s on her deathbed, not currently receiving a complimentary massage in the hospital’s wellness wing?”
My pulse spiked, though I tilted my chin higher, pretending I wasn’t rattled.
“Whatever. I’m just giving Sera the chance to be a good daughter and to come to her mother’s aid in her time of distress. Why is that so wrong?”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, and a flash of irritation shot through me. What the fuck was he putting me under a microscope for? Wasn’t he the one always lamenting that he missed when we were a close-knit family?
As if such a thing had ever existed with the Lockwoods.
“Admit it, Celeste,” he said flatly. “You just wanted to pull Sera off that island.”
I scoffed. “Why would I want to do that?”
“You tell me. She hasn’t seen Daniel in months, and now she’s coming back for a hyperbole.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sue me for being worried, Ethan. I was just trying to be a good daughter and sister, what’s so wrong with that?”
“You sure you weren’t just trying to separate her and Kieran?”
I froze. Heat crawled up my neck.
“They’ve been on that island long enough,” I snapped before I could stop myself. “Do you even know what could happen? She’s there alone with him. Alone with my Kieran.” My voice cracked around his name, and I disguised it as anger. “You think Sera’s above scheming? Above seducing? After everything she’s already done?”
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