Chapter 209: Night of Reckoning
Chapter 209: Night of Reckoning
(Ethan’s POV)
This night was extremely long.
I knelt before Olivia’s door, my Alpha pride cast aside as each passing second
became an agonizing torment. My wolf whined beneath my skin, exhausted and remorseful.
The cool night air carried Olivia’s scent from inside the cottage. So close, yet unreachable. My mate was just beyond this door, but the distance between us felt infinite.
My knees ached against the hard ground, but the physical discomfort was nothing compared to the weight of my guilt. I deserved far worse for what I had done to Olivia and Lily.
Hours passed. The moon traveled across the sky, casting shifting shadows around
- me. Still, I remained, head bowed in shame.
Dawn approached, painting the horizon with pale light. Birds began their morning songs, oblivious to my suffering.
I had been here since 3 AM, and now the sun was rising. My body was stiff, my muscles protesting, but I wouldn’t move. Not until Olivia acknowledged me.
My wolf, usually so proud and dominant, lay subdued within me. We both knew we deserved this penance and much more.
(Olivia’s POV)
I woke to the soft ping of my phone. A message from Lucas Blackwood.
Rubbing sleep from my eyes, I opened it to find a video. The timestamp showed it was from last night.
The footage showed Ethan’s, Shadow Ghost parked outside Victoria Frost’s residence at Rosewood Haven. Despite myself, I felt a pang seeing his car there.
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Today was both Lily’s death anniversary and Emma’s birthday. Of course he would be with her.
The video continued. Ethan’s car pulled away from the house, engine revving as he accelerated down the private road.
Then something unexpected happened. Emma appeared in the frame, wearing only thin nightclothes, barefoot in the cold night.
She was chasing after Ethan’s car, her desperate cries clearly audible through Lucas’s enhanced recording device.
“Daddy! Please don’t leave me! I’m sorry!” Emma’s wolf’s desperate whines echoed in the night as she begged for forgiveness.
Ethan didn’t stop. Even when Emma fell, her knees scraping against the gravel, he kept driving.
The video ended with Emma crying on the ground, blood staining her nightgown, completely abandoned.
understood Lucas’s intent in sending me this. He wanted me to see Emma’s downfall, to witness her suffering as I had suffered.
A cold satisfaction settled in my chest. This was retribution. Victoria and Emma deserved every moment of pain for what she had done to Lily and me.
Losing Ethan’s protection and her place in his pack was the ultimate punishment for Emma. Without him, she was nothing in werewolf society.
Before I could reply to Lucas, another notification appeared on my phone. The security system alerted me to someone lingering at my door.
I checked the notification history and froze. Multiple alerts from as early as 3 AM showed Ethan kneeling outside my cottage for almost four hours.
His Alpha scent was strong enough that even the security system had registered it. I wasn’t moved by this display.
He must have discovered the truth about Emma. Perhaps he finally sa. nrough her manipulations.
I quickly typed a message to Lucas, thanking him for the video and inviting him for
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breakfast. Then I prepared to confront Ethan.
If Lucas wasn’t coming, I would have ignored Ethan completely. He could kneel until his wolf surrendered to exhaustion.
I would not forgive the harm he and Emma had caused me and Lily. No amount of kneeling could erase that pain.
With steady hands, I unlocked the door and pulled it open.
Ethan looked up at me, his face gaunt, amber eyes bloodshot. He looked like he
hadn’t slept in days.
“Liv, I’m sorry,” he croaked, his voice rough from disuse.
His wolf’s scent projected genuine remorse as he continued, “I was blind. I trusted
Victoria and Emma. I believed their lies.”
He swallowed hard, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “I let them use me to hurt you
and Lily. I was a fool.”
Tears welled in his eyes, something I’d never seen before. The mighty Alpha King, crying at my doorstep.
“I have sinned,” he whispered. “I am so sorry to you, and even more sorry to Lily.”
Tears streamed down his face as he recalled the past. “I remember how Lily would wait for me at the Moonlight Fair. How she made that coffee mug for me at the Howling Clay Pottery Studio.”
Each memory seemed to deepen his regret. “I was never there for her. I chose Emma over my own daughter.”
His wolf whined pitifully, recognizing the damage done to our mate bond. “I know I can spend a lifetime trying to make it up to you, Liv. But Lily…”
His voice broke. “Lily is beyond my reach now. Her spirit has already passed to the Moon Goddess.”
I remained unmoved by his remorse. My emerald eyes were cold as I stared down at him, my wolf unnaturally still within me.
I had anticipated this moment since Ethan’s betrayal with Lucas’s kidney. His
< Chapter 209 Night of Rec
realization came too late.
“Ethan Stone,” I said, my voice devoid of emotion, “what’s the use of you kneeling here? Until Lily’s revenge is taken, you don’t even have the right to say sorry to her!”
Ethan staggered at my words, unable to speak. He knew he was complicit in Lily’s death, having prioritized Emma’s access to a kidney.
“Liv…” he began, but I cut him off.
“Ethan Stone, if you haven’t thought about avenging Lily, then don’t act like you love Lily so much and feel so guilty about her. This appearance of yours will only disgust
me and Lily.”
My words were harsh, but they were the truth. His tears meant nothing without
action.
Ethan looked up at me, his amber eyes filled with desperation. “Liv, is it only if I die for my sins that you and Lily can forgive me?”
I frowned, my wolf bristling beneath my skin. “Ethan Stone, what’s the use of you dying for your sins now? If you want to die, first bring Victoria, the murderer who killed Lily, to justice, and avenge Lily, then go and die in front of Lily’s Moonstone
Tombstone!”
Only after helping avenge Lily would I allow him to die, should he still wish to.
Ethan’s brow furrowed, noticing something amiss in my tone. “Liv, why do you keep saying that Victoria is the murderer who killed Lily?”
My animosity toward Victoria seemed different from what he’d expected.
“Why? Because the kidney Lily was waiting for didn’t match Emma at all, she couldn’t use it at all!” I revealed, my voice rising with suppressed rage.
Ethan’s amber eyes widened in shock. This was clearly news to him.
“Victoria clearly couldn’t use it for Emma, but she stole Lily’s kidney when Lily’s condition worsened and she needed immediate surgery,” I continued, watching realization dawn on his face.
I reminded him of Connor Blackthorn’s words: “She deliberately stole the kidney donor in order to kill your daughter. What’s more, in order to hide this matter, she paid for
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Chapter 209 Night of Rec
murder.”
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