Mated To The Crippled Alpha

Chapter 472: WHISPERS OF REVENGE

I didn’t bother explaining the whole mess to Harlan. He’d only recently found out about Riley’s background, and he had no idea about the history between Grant, Nicholas, and my mom. The look on his face was something between shock and a man whose entire understanding of the world had just quietly caved in. I cleared my throat and kept it simple. "The entanglement between my mom and those two isn’t something you can untangle in five minutes. Just focus on your own business and stay out of theirs."He blinked slowly and came back to himself. "I don’t fully get it, but okay. They’re divorced. Mutual decision. They’re both free." Then he turned to me, face crumpling. "Elena , my Riley wouldn’t do something like this, would she?"

I sighed. "Relax. She already has one fool to deal with. What makes you think she’s looking for a second?"

"Elena, I think that was an insult, and I have witnesses."

Looking at him, I finally understood why Janice had once been driven to jump into a river. If Lewis were half this clueless, I might have considered it too. "Take your time processing this," I told him. "Nicholas is your mother-in-law’s first love. He waited for her his entire life. My advice? Be smart and keep your mouth shut." That was all I could do for him. If Harlan could win Lena over, he’d already be halfway to winning Riley. No matter how much Grant objected, once Lena approved, he’d have no real choice but to accept the man.

"Harlan, figure the rest out yourself." I turned and went back inside.

Lewis was still sprawled across the bed, sluggish and half-awake. Harlan must have dragged him out of a deep sleep. He lay there flipping Everett over , onto his back, then his stomach, then back again , like a little puzzle he couldn’t stop fiddling with. After several rounds, Everett apparently had enough. He hadn’t even learned to crawl yet, but sheer frustration pushed him forward two shuffling steps, and he slapped Lewis right on the chin.

Lewis snapped back to reality, blinking. "What’s wrong, Everett?"

I laughed softly. "What’s got you so lost in your head?"

Everett gave me the most aggrieved look a baby could manage, so I scooped him up and held him close. "Daddy didn’t mean it." Lewis sat up and gave a tired smile, running a hand over his face. "Sorry. I was somewhere else."

"You’re thinking about your mom, aren’t you?"

Eleanor and Jeffrey had always been opposites in that way , one a father who’d never truly loved him, the other a mother who would have given everything. For years, Eleanor had stayed close to him wearing a different face, a different name. And now she was gone. How was he supposed to just let that go?

I set Everett down on the blanket and leaned into Lewis’s side, tucking myself under his arm. He pulled me in and pressed his lips to my hair. "Elena, I’m sorry."

"I told you, I don’t blame her anymore. Don’t carry this alone. You still have me, and Everett, and Everly."

He said my name quietly, with a weight to it, and leaned toward me with that look in his eyes I knew so well. Since I’d woken up from everything that happened, we hadn’t had a real moment to ourselves. Between my body still recovering, one loss after another, and two newborns demanding every hour we had, there had simply been no space. But now, back in this small town, something in the air felt different. Slower. Softer.

I lifted my arms around his neck and whispered his name.

Just as we were about to close the distance , something squirmed between us.

Everett had somehow crawled right into the middle and was sitting up perfectly straight, staring at both of us with enormous, unblinking eyes. I pulled back and covered his face with my palm. "No peeking, do you understand?" He clearly did not. His lashes fluttered against my hand, impossibly soft. "Ah boo boo..."

Across the blanket, Everly had found her own big toe and was chewing on it contentedly, blowing little spit bubbles. I looked at Lewis with a helpless smile.

He picked Everly up gently and extracted her foot from her mouth. She immediately grabbed for the buttons on his shirt. Her tiny hands were sticky with drool. "You little glutton," he murmured, his voice full of something that could only be described as pure adoration. With one arm holding her, he moved to the counter and prepared a bottle with his free hand, smooth and practiced, like he’d been doing it all his life.

By evening, we took both babies for a walk along Lotus Pond. The lotus wasn’t in season yet, but the cherry trees were on the edge of blooming. Every branch was packed with tight little buds, just days away from opening up. This old tree had probably stood here for a hundred years or more. When it finally let go, petals would drift for miles. The sight would stop you cold.

The wooden cabin was still there, unchanged. But the version of me from that other life, the one who had waited here , she was gone now. She must have waited a long time.

The wind chime under the eave rang softly in the breeze.

I stood there in front of it and felt something I couldn’t name , a deep, bone-level familiarity, like a memory that wasn’t quite mine. "Car," I said quietly, "I want to get married here."

"Alright. I’ll have Theo arrange it."

We stood at the window together and looked out at the mountains, watching the last colors bleed across the sky. Birds drifted high and slow. Everything was still. The setting sun caught Lewis’s hair and turned it golden, and for a moment he looked like something that didn’t quite belong to the ordinary world.

He held both of them , Everly pressed against one shoulder, fast asleep, and Everett clinging to his other arm, restlessly climbing and shifting. I watched him and felt something settle deep in my chest.

Why had I fought so hard to stay?

Maybe it was for this.

The beauty of it hadn’t hit me until now, standing right in the middle of it. I was still here. Still with the man I loved more than anything.

And this , this was happiness.