Chapter 9
“I won’t sign it!”
“I can’t lose Lavinia! I love her!”]]
Malik’s condition was rapidly deteriorating. His wolf had gone completely silent, and his moments of consciousness were becoming fleeting shadows.
Marcus, terrified of losing his son entirely, finally grabbed Malik’s unconscious hand and pressed it to the mate bond severance papers.
I took the signed decree and walked away without a backward glance.[]
Before leaving, I pried our pup’s ashes from Elena’s death grip.
The former Moon Priestess stared at me with devastation etched into every line of her face.[]
She probably never imagined her precious son could be such a monumental fuck–up.
Her blessing would keep her from dying with the rest of the pack.]
But living alone with this crushing shame? That was its own special kind of torture.]]
They’d all failed to raise Malik properly–now they could live with the consequences.]]
“If you want Malik to survive, you’ll need to completely replace every drop of blood in his body.“[]
I carried my baby’s ashes to a beautiful hillside and laid him to rest properly.[]
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you, sweetheart.“[]
“If there’s another life waiting for us, will you give mama another chance?”
I found peace at an orphanage near the cemetery.
Here, I poured all my maternal love into every abandoned child, treating them like the precious babies they were.
My days became quietly purposeful.]
News of the Hawthornes reached me through television reports.{}]
Within months, the pack had been virtually exterminated.
Marcus aged forty years in four weeks.
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Rather than drag Elena into his financial grave, he divorced her and took a swan dive off the Hawthorne Group building, taking billions in debt with him.
After three complete blood transfusions, Malik finally opened his eyes.[]
But his mind had shattered like glass.]
He’d wake up sobbing and laughing hysterically, screaming that he could hear phantom baby cries echoing in his head.
Elena couldn’t cope with his broken state. She dumped him in a psychiatric ward and fled to
Malik oscillated between brief moments of clarity and complete psychotic breaks.
Europe.
The overworked asylum staff eventually gave up trying to contain him. He slipped out one night and disappeared.]
I never thought the bastard would track me down.]
He’d devolved into a filthy vagrant, skulking around the orphanage like some deranged stalker.[]
When he finally worked up the nerve to approach me, Malik collapsed at my feet like a beaten animal.]
“Lavinia! God, I’ve missed you so fucking much!”
“Look at me now–does this make you happy? Is this what you wanted?“]
I stared down at his pathetic, broken form with absolute indifference.[]}
“Malik, what you’ve become is completely irrelevant to me.”
“You’re worth less than the shit on my shoe.“[]
He recoiled like I’d stabbed him, then whispered with desperate hope:[]
“Lavinia could I please visit our baby?“]
“I just want to say I’m sorry.“]]
“He haunts me, you know? Sometimes I see him as a newborn, sometimes he’s older and he’s calling me daddy…”
Rage flared through me like wildfire. “STOP!“]
“You lost the right to mention him the day you chose that whore over your own son!“]]
“I’ll never tell you where he’s buried. You don’t deserve to breathe the same air as his memory!“]
“Pieces of shit like you would only contaminate his soul’s journey!“]]
I had security drag him off the property like the trash he was.
That was the last time anyone saw Malik alive.[]
A few weeks later, my coworkers were showing me something disturbing on their phones during lunch.
“Lavinia, this is so gross! Look at this!”
“Some homeless guy died in a storm drain. They only found him because of the smell–his body was completely decomposed!“]]
Uglanced at the screen with detached curiosity. Malik’s bloated, rotting face was barely recognizable in the crime scene photo.
I felt absolutely nothing.
My coworkers shook their heads in disgust. “What goes around comes around, right? Nobody dies like that unless they seriously fucked up in life.“]]
A cold smile tugged at my lips.]
The newest addition to our orphanage–a baby girl with luminous eyes–gurgled happily in my arms.]
السلام الله الله الله
ان الله الله الله الله الله
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1.0
The Hawthorne pack had controlled and consumed my entire existence, but even they couldn’t escape divine justice in the end.
Finally, mercifully, it was over.[]
I could bury the past and step into my rebirth–a new life built on my own terms, surrounded by innocent laughter and unconditional love.
From the ashes of suffering comes the promise of renewal
Children possessed such pure, healing energy.[]
ريال
6
