Chapter 5
Edward’s expression shitted as he stared at the two crippled boys. His pride and fury warred in his face, and for once he had no words.
I smiled coldly. “Nathan, Ethan–there are your parents. Go on, greet them properly.”
At once, the slower of the two, Ethan, broke into a wide, mindless grin. “Mom! Haha… Mom!” he cried, throwing his arms around Vivian. Tears, snot, and drool smeared across her gown.
Vivian shrieked, shoving him away as if scorched. “Get off me! Filthy!”
Ethan stumbled, nearly falling, before his brother Nathan caught him and steadied him. Nathan’s eyes, sharp despite his frailty, fixed on Vivian with a hatred that silenced the room.
I tilted my head, voice dripping with mockery.
“What’s wrong, Vivian? Don’t you recognize your own flesh and blood? Or is it only worth calling them ‘sons‘ if they stand on the stage of the Royal Academy?”
Her jaw clenched. She swallowed hard, her lips twisting. They are mine. Of course I’ll claim them.”
Dozens of Stones had gathered to watch this spectacle. Whatever disgust they felt, Edward and Vivian had no choice but to play the part of doting parents. To deny the boys now would be to admit before the pack that they had abandoned their true heirs.
Still, Vivian’s eyes bored into me with barely concealed rage. “Why are my sons like this? Did you do something to them? Did you cripple them out of spite?”
I raised both hands innocently. “How would I know? Perhaps it was your bloodline. Perhaps Edward’s. Two children, both broken…. sounds like a curse of the Stone–Hart line, doesn’t it? I had my own pups to raise. When you discarded these two, I did what I could sent them to a sanctuary to survive. Be grateful they lived at all
Vivian’s face turned crimson. She pointed at me with a shaking hand, but no words came,
The humiliation was complete.
And so, under the eyes of the entire Stone clan, Edward and Vivian had no choice but to take the boys back–dragging their crippled. heirs out of the banquet hall like shadows of a nightmare.
The celebration trumbled into whispers and stares. No one laughed. No one toasted. My sons sat at my side, silent and loyal, while the once–proud Stones wept as though the ground had been pulled from beneath their feet. Their “perfect heirs” were gone.
I had known all along.
A week before the banquet, when I passed by Edward’s parents‘ home, I overheard her whispering “At the ceremony… we’ll strike Clara down. We’ll reunite Edward with his true heirs. Then she’ll have nothing left.”
So I prepared. I found Nathan and Ethan. And tonight, I gave the Stones exactly what they claimed to want: their long–awaited family
reunion.
Let them choke on it
After selling my old den, I bought a new one–deliberately across the lane from Edward and Vivian’s.
And that was when I discovered the cruelest irony of all.
They had been living here all along. For eighteen years, they played at being the perfect mated pair–neighbors hailed them as the very picture of devotion.
But behind their closed doors, their love had rotted into venom. The walls were thin, and every night their voices carried across the
Bleeet.
“Edward! If not for your stupid idea, we wouldn’t be trapped like this!”
“You’re the one who birthed two crippled pups! How are we supposed to live now?”
Checker 5
“Don’t you dare blame me! You were too weak! Don’t forget–Adrian and Lucas are healthy!”
“Healthy? They’re not even ours! Instead, we’re saddled with these worthless brats–damn it!”
The sound of crashing furniture followed, curses flying like blades.
From my window, I listened and smiled.
For eighteen years they thought they’d fooled me. Now the curse of their own bloodline had come home to them.
