Chapter 100: Ashes and Redemption
Chapter 100: Ashes and Redemption
(Olivia’s POV)
I handed Ethan the death certificate, watching as his eyes scanned the document. His face drained of color when he read the cause of death: kidney failure.
“No…” he whispered, his powerful frame seeming to shrink before my eyes.
The Alpha King of the Silvercrest Pack, the man who commanded respect with a single glance, now looked utterly broken. His amber eyes, usually so commanding, now pleaded with
- me.
“Where is she buried?” His voice cracked. “Please, Olivia. I need to see her grave.”
I felt nothing as I watched him crumble. The satisfaction I’d expected from his pain never
came. Instead, there was only emptiness where my rage had been.
“You don’t deserve to see Lily,” I stated flatly, my emerald eyes hardening. “You chose to favor
the very person who caused our daughter’s death.”
Without another word, I turned and walked away. Ethan, consumed by grief, didn’t attempt to
stop me.
The cool night air hit my face as I left the Moonlight Fair. Behind me stood a man who had
finally learned the truth, but it was five years too late.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. Margaret Shepherd’s name flashed on the screen.
“Mrs. Winters,” Margaret’s voice was urgent. “The Matriarch has awakened and is insisting on
being discharged. The healers are trying to convince her to stay, but she’s quite determined.”
“I’ll be right there,” I replied, quickening my pace toward my car.
The drive to the Silvercrest Pack Medical Den was a blur. My mind kept replaying the look on
Ethan’s face when he finally accepted Lily’s death. Part of me had wanted to hurt him as deeply as he’d hurt me, but now I felt hollow.
Dr. Harrison Fletcher met me at the entrance, his expression concerned.
“Mrs. Winters, thank goodness you’re here. The Matriarch is refusing treatment and
demanding to return home.”
I nodded and followed him to Matriarch Evelyn’s room. The elderly woman was sitting up in
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bed, her silver hair loose around her shoulders, arguing with a young healer.
“Grandmother,” I called softly, approaching her bedside.
+15 Points >
Her eyes lit up when she saw me. “Olivia, dear! Tell these people I’m perfectly fine to go home.”
I sat beside her, taking her frail hand in mine. “Grandmother, the healers are concerned about your health. They believe you need more time to recover.”
She waved dismissively with her free hand. “Nonsense. I’ve survived worse than this.”
I thought of Lily then, of how she would sit beside her great–grandmother’s bed during her visits, telling stories and making the elderly woman laugh.
“Lily would want you to stay,” I said gently. “Remember how she always worried about you?”
The Matriarch’s expression softened at the mention of Lily’s name.
“She used to bring you those little moonberry tarts,” I continued, “and she’d check your temperature with her small hand on your forehead.”
A smile touched the elderly woman’s lips. “She was such a thoughtful child.”
“She was,” I agreed, feeling the familiar ache in my chest. “And she would want you to stay and
heal properly. She always said a strong pack needs a strong matriarch.”
The fight seemed to leave her then. She sank back against her pillows with a sigh.
“Very well,” she conceded. “For Lily’s sake, I’ll stay a bit longer.”
I stayed with her until she fell asleep, her breathing deep and even. As I was leaving the medical den, my phone vibrated again. A message from Gregory Tanner, the Sacred Moonlight Cemetery guardian, appeared on my screen.
“Mrs. Winters, I thought you should know that Alpha King Stone is here at Lily’s grave.”
Attached was a photo of Ethan kneeling before Lily’s Moonstone Tombstone, his head bowed.
My first instinct was protective rage. How dare he visit her now, after ignoring her for so long? But something else stirred within me – a recognition that despite everything, he was Lily’s
father.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard before I typed my response: “He’s Lily’s father. Let him
- be. He owes her this penance.”
I stared at my own words, surprised by them. For the first time, I acknowledged Ethan’s right to
mourn our daughter.
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(Ethan’s POV)
+15 Points
I knelt before my daughter’s moonstone tombstone, the cold ground seeping through my pants. The cemetery was silent except for the occasional rustle of leaves in the night breeze.
The polished stone gleamed in the moonlight, Lily’s smiling face captured in the colored
photograph embedded in the granite. She looked so happy, so alive blood–spattered child I’d seen in the surveillance footage.
nothing like the pale,
“Lily,” I whispered, tracing her name with trembling fingers. “I’m so sorry.”
The words felt pathetically inadequate. What apology could possibly make up for years of
neglect? For missing her final moments?
I remembered her voice on the phone that last time: “Daddy, can you come be with Lily? Lily is
sick, and the treatment hurts…”
And my cold response: “Don’t be like your mother, full of lies.”
A sob tore from my throat, raw and agonizing. I had failed her in every way a father could fail a
child.
“I built you an amusement park,” I said, my voice breaking. “I was going to make it up to you. I
was going to be better.”
The tombstone offered no absolution, no forgiveness. Just the stark reality of my daughter’s
name etched in stone.
Hours passed as I knelt there, memories washing over me. Not memories of time spent with Lily – those were painfully few – but memories of opportunities missed. Birthdays I’d skipped, school events I’d ignored, bedtimes I’d missed.
All while I lavished attention on Emma, a child who wasn’t even mine.
The eastern sky began to lighten, casting a silvery glow across the cemetery. Dawn was breaking, marking the end of my night–long vigil.
My joints were stiff as I finally rose to my feet. My Alpha strength, usually so reliable, seemed
diminished by grief.
“I’ll return tomorrow; Lily,” I promised, my voice hoarse from unshed tears. “Every day, until you forgive me.”
I turned and walked slowly toward the cemetery gates, my body heavy with grief.
Maxwell Chen was waiting outside, leaning against my car. His usually impassive face looked
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troubled, and he straightened quickly when he saw me.
“Alpha King,” he greeted me with a slight bow.
I nodded in acknowledgment, too drained for words.
Maxwell shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting away from mine. Something was wrong.
“What is it?” I demanded, my voice sharper than intended.
He hesitated, clearly reluctant to speak.
“Maxwell,” I growled, my patience wearing thin. “Tell me what you’re hiding.”
+15 Points
He took a deep breath. “It’s about the man who attacked Mrs. Winters in Desolate Hollow.”
My jaw tightened at the mention of the incident. “Darius Reed. What about him?”
“During interrogation, he mentioned the necklace he stole from Mrs. Winters,” Maxwell said
carefully. “The one you… recovered.”
I remembered the crystal pendant I’d taken from Darius Reed after tracking him down. The
necklace Olivia had fought so desperately to protect.
“What about it?” I asked, though something in Maxwell’s expression made my stomach clench
with dread.
“Darius Reed said Mrs. Winters became hysterical when he took it,” Maxwell continued. “She
told him it contained her daughter’s ashes, kept as a memento…”
The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet. The pendant – Lily’s Ashes Crystal Pendant – had
contained my daughter’s remains.
And I had thrown it into the Moonlit Reflection Pool in a moment of blind rage.
The horror of what I’d done crashed over me like a physical blow. I had discarded my own daughter’s ashes as if they were nothing.
“Alpha King?” Maxwell’s voice seemed to come from far away.
“Take me to the Stone Estate,” I ordered, my voice barely recognizable. “Now.”
Maxwell didn’t question me, just opened the car door and slid behind the wheel. The drive passed in a blur of self–loathing and desperate hope that the pendant might somehow be
recovered.
As soon as we arrived at the estate, I leapt from the car and ran toward the Moonlit Reflection Pool. The morning sun glinted off its surface, deceptively peaceful.
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Without hesitation, I removed my Black Alpha Overcoat and plunged into the frigid water. The cold shocked my system, but I barely noticed as I began searching the bottom of the pool with desperate hands.
