Chapter 196

Agnes

“What do you think of this couch?”

I pointed at a plush sectional sofa on my laptop screen. It had been two and a half weeks since Elijah’s bombshell about Thea, and we’d fallen into an unspoken agreement—act normal on the outside, freak out on the inside.

Elijah peered over my shoulder, his coffee mug hovering near his lips. “It’s... big.”

“We have a big family room now,” I said, clicking through to another color option. “And it matches the accent wall we picked. Besides, Thea likes to sprawl when she watches movies.”

He nodded absently, and I knew his mind wasn’t on furniture. Neither was mine, really. But we had to keep up appearances. We had to pretend everything was normal until we knew for sure.

The DNA samples had been sent to a testing facility several packs away. Elijah had been meticulous about it—making sure the samples were handled only by people we trusted, using fake names on the paperwork, paying in cash. We couldn’t risk anyone catching wind of what we were doing.

In the meantime, James had been digging into Elemental Enterprises, although so far, there was absolutely nothing to find. No paper trail, no business records, not even a mention in any database he could access.

Whoever ran the organization had covered their tracks well. All we knew was the name, and the fact that it was possibly connected to my family.

The doctor who had helped Olivia was supposedly on sabbatical in another country. James had tracked her down, but she wasn’t due back for another month and there was no way to contact her. We’d have to wait to speak with her—assuming she’d be willing to talk to us at all.

“I like the gray one,” Elijah finally said, tapping the screen. “Neutral. Goes with everything.”

“Gray it is,” I agreed, adding it to the virtual shopping cart. My laptop was full of tabs for furniture, light fixtures, appliances—all the things we needed to replace after the fire. The insurance money had come through quickly, probably due to Elijah’s status as Alpha, and the new house was rising from the ashes at record speed.

From the outside, our life looked like it was getting back on track. Elijah went to work each day at the pack headquarters. I handled the interior design and handled the design department remotely—Maria was an excellent fill-in while I was out, and the team understood why I couldn’t be in the office regularly.

Thea finished out the school year, then went to summer camp with her friends during the days. We had dinner together every night at the hotel restaurant, just like a normal family.

But nothing was normal. Every time I looked at Thea, I searched her face for my features, for Elijah’s. Her eyes, so much like his. The shape of her nose, which I’d always thought looked familiar. The way she bit her lip when she was concentrating—just like I did.

The allergy to poison ivy. The birthmark…

Could she really be ours? Our biological daughter?

Neither of us wanted to believe too strongly, not yet. The disappointment would be too crushing if we were wrong, and yet given everything we knew so far, Olivia’s claims seemed to hold some truth to them.

More than once, I’d considered contacting my father. If anyone knew about this alleged organization, it would be him. His cryptic warning about not trusting the DNA results made so much more sense now.

But each time I reached for the phone, I stopped myself. This was the man who had thrown me out when I needed him the most. Who had chosen his new wife and daughter over me after my mom had died. Who had treated me like I was nothing.

If he was involved somehow, if he had known all along that Thea was mine...

No. I couldn’t trust him. I wouldn’t give him the chance to hurt me again.

So we waited. And we pretended. And we built our new home, piece by piece, just like we were rebuilding our understanding of our family.

Two days before Thea’s eighth birthday, Elijah and I went to tour the nearly-finished house. The exterior was complete—a stately brick manor, similar to our old home but with subtle differences that made it feel fresh rather than an exact replica. I missed the ivy that used to climb up the outside, but knew it would grow back with time.

Inside, painters were finishing up the walls, and electricians were installing the last of the light fixtures.

“The master bedroom is done,” the foreman told us as we walked through. “Just need to move in your furniture. Same with the kid’s room. We’re putting the finishing touches on the bathrooms today.”

I nodded, making notes on my phone. “And the kitchen?”

“Appliances arrive tomorrow. We’ll have them installed by the afternoon.”

“It’s amazing how quickly everything has come together,” I said, running my hand along the banister. “Thank you for pushing the timeline.”

The foreman grinned. “Anything for our Alpha and Luna. Besides, everyone in the pack wanted to help. You’ve had volunteers showing up every day.”

That was true. The outpouring of support from the pack had been overwhelming. People brought food to the hotel for us, offered their spare bedrooms (which we politely declined), and showed up at the construction site in droves to help with everything from framing to painting.

“We should host a feast,” I said to Elijah as we climbed the stairs to the second floor. “Once everything is done. To thank everyone.”

“Good idea,” he agreed. “But after Thea’s birthday. I want that to be just the three of us.”

I nodded, knowing what he was thinking. If the DNA results confirmed Olivia’s story, Thea’s birthday would be the perfect time to tell her the truth. A private, intimate celebration where we could focus entirely on her reaction, on answering her questions, on being a family.

If the results confirmed it. If Olivia hadn’t been lying.

But we wouldn’t know for sure until the DNA results came back. Hopefully they would before Thea’s birthday.

We continued through the manor, checking each room, making notes about what still needed to be done. The painters promised to be finished by tomorrow. The furniture delivery was scheduled for the morning of Thea’s birthday.

Somehow, impossibly, we would be able to move in on her birthday—exactly as we’d hoped. We might be eating her birthday dinner on the floor if the dining room furniture didn’t come on time, but it would be fun. Like a picnic.

Suddenly, just as I was wandering around my new study—where I’d be doing all of my work and sewing in the future, and my mother’s gown, which had miraculously survived the fire partially thanks to its case, was already on display—Elijah stepped into my field of vision.

“Come with me to the basement,” he said, taking my hand and nodding his head toward the door. “I’ve gotta show you something.”

“What’s in the basement?” I asked, curious as I followed him. We’d discussed turning it into a rec room eventually, but it hadn’t been a priority in the rebuild. That was supposed to be a “down the road” type of thing.

“Just a little something I had added to the plans,” Elijah said with a cryptic wink. “It’s a surprise, though, so stop prying.”

I furrowed my brow, but didn’t argue.

He led me downstairs, then to a door off the kitchen that opened to a staircase leading down to the basement. The basement was unfinished compared to the rest of the house, with concrete floors and exposed beams, but it was clean and dry.

And in the far corner, there was a steel door. Heavy and industrial-looking, with a keypad lock.

“What the hell is this?” I asked, staring at it as Elijah moved to type a code in the keypad. “Are you building a doomsday bunker or something?”

Elijah chuckled over his shoulder. He typed in four digits, and the small lights on the keypad turned green, a soft beep echoing in the space. “Not exactly. It’s—” He paused, his expression turning serious as he hesitated with his hand on the doorknob. He held his free hand out to me.

“Just cover your eyes, Agnes. And follow me.”