Chapter 77
Sapphire
I thought I’d be okay with him leaving. After all, he hadn’t been part of our lives for years. But I wasn’t. The irony wasn’t lost on me, Aragon had only recently come back, and yet his absence felt heavier than I expected. It had been a week since he’d left, and the only real insight I had into him was through Charlie.
They have been talking a lot, doing video calls talking about things that made Charlie giggle a lot. I wasn’t jealous that my son didn’t want to spend time with me as such since he discovered he could just call up his father. Aragon has been trying his best, he stops whatever he is doing to give Charlie the time of the day. It was kind of sweet and that made Charlie disturb him more even when I told him to loosen up on the calls and let his father work.
The night 1 told Charlie that Aragon was leaving was one of the hardest I’d had as a mother. He’d refused to eat dinner, shutting himself in his room and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t know how to comfom him. Eventually, I coaxed him out with the promise that he could call his father whenever he wanted. That little assurance seemed to brighten him. Since then, their constant conversations have filled the house, and though I tried to be happy for Charlie, hearing Aragon’s voice through the phone hurt more than I cared to admit
In an effort to keep myself distracted, I’d been spending more time with Leah We were slowly mending our fractured friendship, which was good not just for us but for Charlie too, he and Leah’s daughter, Daisy, had become inseparable. At least he had someone his age to lean on
Today, I was on my way home from work, cager to relieve the babysitter, Charlie was on holiday, and I didn’t want him cooped up with someone he barely knew for too long. The second I stepped through the door, I barely had a chance to put my keys down before Charlie came running toward me at full speed, nearly bowling me over.
“Mom!” he exclaimed, his face alight with excitement. “Someone’s here to see you!”
“Someone I asked, confused. “Who?”
“You’ll see!” he said, bouncing on his toes.
I followed him toward the living room, my heart pounding a little faster than usual. Who could it be? Maybe Leah had dropped by unannounced. But the moment I stepped into the living room, the files in my hands slipped to the floor, scattering across the hardwood.
Sitting on my couch, wearing an unsettlingly calm smile, was Benita.
“You have a lovely home,” she said. Her eyes flicked to Charlie, who hovered near the doorway. “And an even lovelier son.”
Every muscle in my body tensed. I forced myself to breathe evenly, to not let her see how rattled I was “Charlie,” I said, keeping my tone steady. “why don’t you go upstairs and play for a bit! I need to talk to our guest.”
Charlie frowned, clearly not understanding the tension in the room. “But I want to stay-
“Charlie,” I said more firmly. “Now.”
Reluctantly, he shuffled upstairs, glancing back over his shoulder before disappearing.
Once I heard his door shut I turned back to Benita. “What are you doing here?
She leaned back on the couch, crossing her legs as if she owned the place. “Is that any way to greet an old friend?”
“You’re not my friend,” I pupped.
Her smile widened. “You used to be more polire, Sapphire. Motherhood’s made you prickly)
I clenched my fist resisting the urge to throw her out of my house. “Get to the point, Benita. What do you want?”
She examined her nails as if bored by my anger. “Oh, I just wanted to see you. The woman Aragon’s been so desperate to protect. I must say, you have grown up since the last time I saw you.
I felt a chill run down my spine. “How did you find me?”
“Let’s just say I have my ways,” she said cryptically. “You’ve been hiding for a long time, Sapphite. I was starting to think you didn’t want to see TIC.
“I didn’t,” I said bluntly, “You told me not to show my face, remember?”
Her laughter was sharp and humores. “Well, I’m here now. And I have to say, your late act is impressive. A quaint house, a sweet child it’s almost hür you have forgotten our agreemem.”
My jaw tightened. “I don’t owe you an explanation for toy life,”
“No, but you do owe me,” she uid, her tope clarkening. “You think you can just run away from the past, start over like nothing happened? That’s not bpw this works, Sapphire. You changed your name so I wouldn’t find you, but having that boy can’t save youi,”
I took a step forward, my anger ming despite my best efforts to stay calm. “You’ve had your revenge, Benita. You’ve nude my life hell in mare ways
han I can count. What more could you possibly want from me! I starved my wolf for years without her mate for you, don’t you think I have done
Herande vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating expression. “Oh I’m not done yet. Not by a long shot”
A dover ran through me, but I stood my ground. “If you so much as come near Curlie-”
“Oh, don’t worry,” she interrupted, holding up a hand. “Tm not interested in hurting your precious son. He x innocent in all this Unlike you,”
Chapter 77
My bread hunched, and for a moment,
ating. “Then why are you her
“To remind you,” she said, standing up slowly. “That you broke our deal You should have gotten rid of him. Your knew Aragon would find you and
I sundil have gotten zidat my son Wh
adadaack, twistribilasights do you have going on in your head‘ I wouldn’t have not if you paid me ruunigli money for it. And for your informations, I didn’t tank Aragon would final me, that’s why I had my name changed so don’t care what you
“Well ibnsight out, but now you are running any plans.”
“You had six years to execute those plans mod if by now it has not worked then you are just wasting your time
“I can assure you, I am not. I thought getting rid of you would make Aragon docile but it didn’t. He spent all that time looking for you and foiling my pla
pe blossomed in my chest when I heard that he didn’t stogelooking for me, didn’t have time to ssicomb to whatever she and Millicem had planned for lum. Something about that made me desperately happy-
She sighed, “I guess it’s not,”
I stared at her, my must racing. There was poolude in my mind that she had something planned, something that would put Charlie and me in
She tumed to me, “Hut you are the main reason why it’s not working out so we are going to do something about that.
(“I won’t let your ruin my life again.” Isaid firmly
Her lips curled into a sinister smile, “We’ll see about that.”
With that, she walked past ine, pausing only to glance up the stairs where Charlie’s room was He really is a lovely boy,” she said softly, almost to benell. Then she turned back to ine, her eyes glinting with malice. “I wonder how much of his father’s strength he inherited.”
I didn’t resporal, con stamed and enraged to form works. She chuckled lightly before santering out the door, leaving a trail of unease in her wake. 1 stood there for a long moment, my heart pounding as I tried to process what had just happened. When I finally gathered myself, I ran upstairs to Charlie’s room. He was sitting on the floor, playing with his action figures, completely oblivious to the storm that had just blown through our
“Mom?” he said, looking up at me with himnocent eyes. “Is everything okay)
1 koch down, pulling him into a tigla big “Yeah, sweetheart,” I said, “Everything’s fine.”
But it wasn’t fine. Not even close. Benita’s visit was a warning, and I knew better than to take it lightly. As much as I hated the thought. I needed to call Aragon
1 meant it when told him I wouldn’t let her intimidate for. Six years was more than enough for her and if she didn’t pull through then that’s on her.
So when I said the next thing to Cluarlie, I didn’t think of is. All Froudd imagine was the big fuck you I was going to wave to her face for daring to threaten my baby,
“We are going to visit your father,” Launounced.
veyes widened angl I could see the excitement brewing in them but I shook my
“Do not tell him when he calls, I want it to be a surprise,”
“I won’t, I promise
