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Chapter 146
Zora
“It is okay for you to feel protective of him. Before he broke his promise, he was your first best friend and confidant. I could see that even at the ball, I could see the connection. It was still there. I am not jealous, Zora, because I know I own your heart. He is a friend and a loyal one at that.” He linked me and kissed my hand, and I was relieved.
“But I can’t promise the same where Hardy is concerned,” He said, and I laughed because I honestly did not care about that.
I wished him well, but if he made a nuisance of himself, then it was okay that Darius messed him up. He deserved it for bringing Shanon and her uncle.
“I am excited about the blue moon,” Eloise said, rubbing her tiny bump.
Theo kissed her neck where his mark would rest, and she moaned.
“I think we should start leaving,” Kara said, and I knew she was a bit unhappy because she wanted a baby too.
“Should we go in the same car or separate cars?” Eloise asked innocently, but I knew Kara would say no, so before Kara spoke, I quickly spoke.
“It will be a great idea,Kara,” I told Kara, and she knew I suspected her mood was a bit foul.
“Okay, Lady Zora,” she said, and we all giggled. We left the dining room and went to prepare to leave.
I wore a simple Sage dress with a fascinator on my head. While Darius was decked up in his official outfit. Just like the ball night, he looked
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dashing.
“My prince charming,” I said, and he smiled at me.
I was nervous about our Croquet team, but I kept it to myself. I knew we would have lots of fun.
There was a knock at the door, and Darius asked the person to enter. To my surprise, it was Abelardo, and he was wearing the same outfit as Darius, but where Darius’s outfit was decorated in gold threads, his was decorated with regular cream–coloured thread, and he looked handsome.
He had on his official suit what I had come to know as the Hand’s crest. A profile of a wolf bearing its teeth. It was beautiful.
“I hear I am cutting the ribbon this year,” He said, and Darius smiled at him and nodded.
“Yes, big brother. You will also be welcoming the guests in my stead. You are a Hand, too,” Darius said and pulled me close to him.
It was obvious that we were genuinely happy.
A heavy load had been lifted, and the dark clouds of fate had been chased away. It was just us and the brilliant love sun.
Abelardo beamed at Silvester, and he looked like a child. His eyes wandered to me.
“She is good for you, I see,” he said, looking at me, and I did not know
what to say.
He walked up to Darius and shook his hand.
“Glenda shouldn’t know I did this, but I am proud of you. I thought you would do what father did,” He said, and my heart skipped because, contrary to what Nellie thought, Abelardo was aware of what was happening when he was little. I wondered what secrets he kept in his
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Darius frowned at him pretending not to know what he was talking about.
“What do you mean by that?” Darius asked, and I commended him for his quick thinking.
Abelardo looked at me and smiled.
“After what my brother did for you and seeing how you were indifferent towards your ex, I believe I can officially call you a member of my family now, Zora, so I will speak in front of you.”
“Father had a fate. Her name was Alissa, and she was one wicked bitch. He did not reject her for mother. Instead, he made her share. I wouldn’t call it sharing, really, because we were sent to the west wing,” he said. and his eyes became misty.
“That was why I did not want to go there when you sent me there, Darius. It just brought back memories,” He said with a sad tone.
“That woman was the reason father hated me so much. She set me up all the time, and my father disciplined me. He did things that I could never tell mother. She did not know, which was why I was quiet for most of my childhood. When we left, I was happy, but father asked us to return, and mother was turned into that bitch’s slave. Giving massages, washing her feet, name it. There was nothing that mother wasn’t made to do. Some I had to do because it degraded my mother. I dared not speak then,” He said and pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes.
“Father used to hit her, you know. I do not know if she told you, but he will beat her because she did not get the taste of Alissa’s food right, or she messed up with the menu. Mother did not know that I knew. I knew he would lock her in the dungeon for days and lie to me that she went to visit her nonexistent family, whom he had slaughtered because they refused to allow him to remain Lord if he divorced her. You see, Uncle Arnold Balyaev, mother’s brother, you did not know him because father
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killed him, would have ascended and become Lord, but father married his sister and kept the lordship in his bloodline while he controlled the council. There was a balance of power then. He killed our uncle so he could divorce our mother and wed that bitch. I prayed that she would die a painful death, and she did. Talking about answered prayers,” he said and chuckled a bit.
“Father seemed to have repented, and he became nicer to mother. When she had you, and he realised you would succeed him because you, unlike me, were an Alpha, he began to dote on her and did everything to make her forget what he did. I doubt she ever did.” He said and wiped away his tears. I could only imagine the trauma he went through as a child. Seeing everything that was happening but not being able to speak of it.
I could not believe the wealth of information Abelardo had locked in his
heart.
I could see Darius’s disbelief too.
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