+25 BONUS
Chapter 295
His voice was soft when he asked, “Are you mad at Daddy?”
My breath caught.
I didn’t answer right away. I just held him tighter, brushing my lips against the top of his head, breathing in the familiar scent of shampoo and dreams.
“No, baby,” I said finally, my voice barely above a whisper. “Just sad.”
He didn’t ask anything else. Just laid his head on my chest and let me hold him.
Later, after I got him back to bed, I stood in the hallway and found Erin sitting in the kitchen, sipping tea like she hadn’t slept either.
“You okay?” she asked.
I sat down across from her, rubbing my hands over my face.
“I don’t know,” I said. “He admitted it. That he was wrong. That he was a coward. And for some awful reason, I think that hurt more than if he’d tried to lie.”
Erin reached for the teapot, poured me a cup.
“Because now you can see the whole picture,” she said. “And it’s not as simple as anger anymore.”
“No. It’s not.”
I stared at the steam curling from the mug.
“Does it ever stop hurting?” I asked.
“No,” she said honestly. “But it gets easier. If you choose to let it. Forgiveness isn’t about forgetting what happened. It’s about choosing to move forward. If you want to.”
I nodded. I didn’t speak.
Eventually, I wandered back to my room and opened the suitcase I hadn’t unpacked.
The one I’d brought to Iceland.
Inside were my clothes, still folded from the hotel. My travel charger. A wrapped bar of chocolate I never ate. A scarf I borrowed from Dawn and never returned.
And at the bottom- a note.
Folded paper, neatly creased.
I pulled it out, hands suddenly trembling.
It was Derek’s handwriting.
The note he left the morning I woke up in his bed. The morning everything still felt like possibility.
You looked too peaceful to wake, but I wanted to leave you with something beautiful. Thank you for last night. For your honesty. For everything. You make me feel like we can do anything. At our own pace. No pressure.
My breath hitched,
Beside it, dried and pressed between the folds of a scarf–the rose he’d left on the pillow. Erin must have packed it.
I closed my eyes and held the note to my chest.
1/3
Chapter 295
+25 BONUS
DEREK
I was a ghost.
Walking through Silverclaw, I didn’t see anything clearly. Faces blurred past me. Voices, colors, moments—they all washed over me like mist.
I went through the motions. Led meetings. Attended check–ins. At when I remembered. But everything was hollow.
Because she was gone again.
Not missing, not lost, but gone all the same.
My pack noticed. Of course they did.
And finally, Caroline cornered me outside the training yard.
“You look like hell,” she said.
I didn’t answer.
She stepped in front of me, blocking the path. Arms crossed. Eyes blazing.
“I owe you an apology,” she said.
blinked.
“For how I treated her,” she clarified. “Elena. I was wrong. I judged her. I never gave her a chance. And you let me get away with it. But you were wrong, too.”
I nodded. I had no defense.
“You have to win her back,” she said. “Not with some big speech. Not with flowers. Not with a title. Honestly. Quietly. With time.
11
I looked at her.
And I knew she was right.
That night, I sat down with a blank piece of parchment and wrote a letter.
No pressure. No demands.
Just truth.
Elena, I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. But I would like to earn your trust again. If you are willing, I’m going on a memory walk. I’d be honored if you came.
I signed it simply: Derek.
