GoodNovel\%
Chapter 268
-Ava’s POV-
| blinked, pushing myself up, but pain tore through me, sharp and unrelenting. A gasp slipped past my lips as the
sensation threatened to pullunder again. At the stime, memories poured into me, scattered and
disjointed, and my hands flew to my stomach in an instinctive, desperate movement. My heart pounded as |
focused, searching-feeling.
Relief crashed overwhen | knew, just knew, they were okay.
If I survived this-if | actually brought them into this world-1 was going to scream to the heavens for hours.
| tried again, forcing myself up despite the protest of my body. The pain bit down even harder, but | gritted my
teeth and pushed through.
Where was I?
What had happened?
The last thing | remembered clearly was Dylan's voice, venomous and cold, I'm going to kill Grayson. Then the
overwhelming pain of my legs healing, the way it consumed me-draggingunder.
I must have blacked out.
Despite the pain, | tried to move again, but a voice cut through the silence.
“Do you want to know the first t| saw you?”
I froze.
My head snapped toward the sound, and my eyes locked onto Crystal.
She sat there, perfectly composed, sipping tea as if we weren't in the middle of whatever this was. A small smile
curved her lips, and for a moment, the room seemed to sway.
| stared at her, but | didn’t say anything. | didn’t trust my voice.
She leaned back, completely unbothered, and continued, “It was on our eleventh birthday. Long before that,
Damien had already toldwho | was, where | cfrom-who all of you were. He told| had a sister.”
Crystal's fingers traced the rim of her cup, her eyes distant, “And | hated him for takingaway from my family.
But | never said anything. I let him moldinto what he wanted. Still, | was just a child. | was naive. So, one
day, I snuck out because | wanted to see you.”
Her voice was steady, but there was something beneath it. A flicker of something unreadable in her expression.
She placed the cup down and tilted her head slightly, “I remember everything about that night. | found my way
back to our parents’ house-it wasn’t difficult. | knew who they were, what they represented. But what struck me
the most was celebration. It was your birthday. And it was grand.”
Her lips curled into something almost amused, almost bitter, “There was music, lights, an endless parade of
people there just to celebrate you. And | stood outside, watching from the shadows, taking it all in. Watching my
mother, my father-” Her voice hardened slightly, “-watching the family | was stolen from dote on you, the
daughter they got to keep.”
The weight of her words pressed against my chest, but she didn’t stop.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt“I remember thinking, ‘I want to go inside. | want to see her up close. | want her to see me.”
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She exhaled softly, “And so, | did. | slipped in through the crowd, blending in as much as I could. No one noticed
She leaned forward slightly, her eyes gleaming with something sharp, something dangerous. “Then, finally, | got
close enough. And do you know what happened?”
| said nothing.
Her smile widened, slow and deliberate, “You bumped into me.”
A pause.
“You looked at me, and for the briefest second, | thought-maybe-you saw something. Maybe sunspoken
connection would ignite, maybe there would be a flicker of recognition, of something deeper.”
Her eyes darkened.
“But instead, you wrinkled your nose and asked, ‘Who let this thing in?”
Silence rang between us.
| felt the words like a slap to the face, but Crystal wasn’t done.
“And then our beloved parents turned, looked at me, and their expressions were exactly the same. Cold.
Disapproving. Like | was something that didn’t belong. And you know what they did? They told the guards to
throwout. They didn’t ask who I was, didn’t wonder why | was there. They didn’t seeat all.”
She gave a light, breathy laugh, but there was nothing joyful about it.
“That was our first meeting, Ava. That was the moment | learned exactly who we were. Prideful, stuck-up people
who didn’t care about anyone but themselves.”
Her gaze locked onto mine, unwavering. “And | realized something that night. | had spent my whole life mourning
a family that had never mourned me.”
| stared at her, searching for any trace of familiarity in the story she had just told me, but all | found was a deep,
unsettling void. | had no recollection of that night. No memory of ever treating someone like that. Of turning my
nose up at a lost little girl, of standing by while our parents discarded her like she was nothing.
But wasn’t that exactly how they would have wantedto act?
The realization settled overlike a thick, suffocating weight.
They had raisedto be the perfect daughter-the perfect heir. Proud. Untouchable. Unbothered by those
beneath me.
But | had never been like that.
Had 1?
I had never looked down on anyone, never dismissed someone as if they weren't worth acknowledging. And
yet... memory of Crystal that night, no recollection of the cruel words that had supposedly left my lips.
ad no
And then | thought of the other version of me. The one showedhow | like to bury every painful truth so
deeply that | had convinced myself they had never existed at all.
Repression.
| was so good at it.
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My mouth felt dry as | finally forced myself to speak, “I don’t remember that happening.” My voice was hoarse,
uncertain, “And if it did, | was a child-"
But she cut in sharply before | could finish, her voice laced with fury.
“And so was I!”
The words lashed out like a whip, raw and unfiltered.
“I was a child who wanted to meet her family. The family she had been stolen from. But you-" Her voice cracked,
just slightly, before she pressed forward, “you all treatedlike | was dirty.”
She exhaled sharply, reigning herself back in. The fury ebbed, but the resentment remained, simmering just
beneath the surface.
And then, just like that, her smile returned.
Cold. Calculated.
“That night marked the end ofever seeing you all as family.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
“Damien had already toldwhat | was,” she continued, her voice smooth now, detached. “That | carried the
essence. That | was going to hold so much power.”
Her fingers drummed lazily against the table, “So | made a choice. | stopped caring about the family that had
never cared about me. | chose to focus on what mattered. | stayed quiet. | learned. And | never let him know
what | truly thought of him.”
She tilted her head slightly, watchingwith something almost akin to amusement.
“Because while you all treatedlike dirt... he treatedlike | was nothing more than a weapon to be used at
his will.”
| swallowed, unable to look away from her, the weight of her words pressing in on me.
“So | followed his rules,” She continued, her voice softer now but no less dangerous. “I followed his commands. |
waited. And then the tcame-” She paused, her lips curling, “like a dog on a leash, he decided it was tto
letout.”
A cold chill ran through me.
“He sentto Dylan's pack.”
My breath caught.
“Dylan was my target.”
My stomach twisted violently.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm“I was supposed to help Damien dismantle the pack he believed he rightfully deserved.”
And then she laughed-soft, almost wistful. “And there you were again.”
| felt my fingers curl into the sheets beneath me, “A little part ofthought, after all these years, maybe you
had changed.”
Her eyes met mine, sharp and knowing. “But do you know what you did, Ava? When | was brought into the
pack?”
Silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating, “You still had that look in your eyes.”
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Chapter 268
My pulse pounded in my ears.
“Except this time, you didn’t even bother looking at me. | was so beneath you.
| sucked in a breath but that part, | do remember
| clenched my jaw and faced her fully. “Dylan was making my life a living hell
She arched a brow, unimpressed.
fi
| pushed forward, He didn’t permitto look at the pack members. It was supposed to be the other way around,
but from the very start, he made it clear that it didn’t matter that we were married-1 was nothing to him.
Nothing to the pack. And anytI fell out of line-
“Oh, please.”
Her voice was dripping with disdain.
“Sparethe pity act, Ava.”
She leaned forward slightly, her expression hard and unrelenting, You are not the victim in this. You never were.
And you never will be and it doesn’t matter what you say, nothing will change the fact that you are going to die.
Tonight.”
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