Chapter 67

Renee

My hand tightened around the glass. “What?”

“She had a lover,” Arielle said gently. “Even before she married Philip. For years.”

I stared at her. My brain didn’t know what to do with the information.

“She was young when she married Phillip,” Arielle went on, quieter now. “It was strategic, on her part. But your mother wasn’t the only Mountainhowl woman with a similar arrangement.”

I sat down, the cold water forgotten. I thought back to all the times Phillip had talked about my mother and their marriage, how he would hold her up as this ideal of a perfect wife. I remembered thinking about how many of the things that he said didn't quite add up. But I also knew that after she died, I just didn't have the energy to think more about it. It was so much easier to just give in and do what he said. For the sake of peace and being provided for. After all, he made it no secret that he'd probably dumped me on the side of the road, given half the chance.

“You’re telling me I’ve been living in the shadow of a perfect marriage that never actually existed?”

"I'm going to make him suffer. I promise." Arielle gave a half-smile. “And I’m telling you your mother was more complex than people gave her credit for. Just like you.”

The silence between us stretched deep and long.

Finally, I whispered, “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?”

“Probably because it didn't matter,” Arielle said simply.

I looked at her. "How can you tell me that it doesn't matter? This is probably exactly why he treated the way he did all my life. Because he didn't think I was his. Because she had some other man behind his back and --"

"Your mother, unlike Philip, was a woman of Mountainhowl. Of honor and integrity." Her tone was cold. "But she made it clear that her lover wasn't going anywhere long before she and Philip had even started dating. To my understanding, Phillip grit his teeth and bore it. Or ignored it. Hard to say. But he had every opportunity to get out."

My jaw trembled.

"And I know this hurts," she whispered, reaching out to take my hand. "I know it is… heart-breaking, but this isn't the first time Phillip broke your heart, and I'm sure it won't be the last." She set her jaw.

"It… wouldn’t have been an issue if she just committed to him."

"And you think, somehow, that would have made him treat you better?"

I said nothing.

She cupped my face, pulling out a handkerchief and dabbing at my eyes.

“Why are you trying to empathize with a man who doesn't give a fuck about you?"

I sat there unable to speak, trapped in the cold finality of her words.

"Why are you making excuses for him?"

My eyes burned. I turned away. She turned me back gently, her expression a bit softer.

"You did not deserve it," she said. "Even if you aren't his. Even if he had doubts. Even if he never knew and your mother cheated on him. There is no combination of different ifs, could have beens, or maybes that can change that he took his problems out on an innocent child and that is a weight you will have to carry for the rest of your life until you heal from it."

I dropped my gaze, hot tears streaming down my cheeks. My voice came out smaller than I meant it to.

“Do you think--- it it true?"

"What?"

"Tha-That he knew? Before."

"Yes. You can ask grandpa, if you'd like. See the prenuptial agreement."

I sniffled, my voice cracking. "Do you think I’m really his?”

Arielle’s eyes softened, but she didn’t speak right away. I hated that. I hated the space between the question and the answer.

“Would it make it easier or harder if you were?" She asked.

I sniffled, barely holding back a sob. She stood and wrapped her arms around me, stroking my hair.

"Maybe he did know that I wasn't."

"Would it bring you peace if he did?"

"No…" I croaked. "I don't know what to feel…"

She stroked my hair and rocked me as I cried. "That's okay. I'm not asking you to… Is there anything I can do other than hold you and maybe get you some more hot chocolate?"

I sniffled, I gripped her arm.

"… I want… to know… I want… to talk to him."

“We’ll go tomorrow.”

I looked up at her. “Just like that?”

“You have every right to know the truth if you want to. And… honestly, having it confirmed will make your suit against him that much more vicious." She smiled viciously. "He's made you cry far too many times for my liking."

As promised, Arielle got me up, let me get dressed, and drove me to the prison before I had to get to classes. Arielle didn’t seem fazed. She drove with quiet purpose, checked us in with clipped efficiency, and led the way like she’d been here before.

Maybe she had.

The prison was colder than I expected. Not in temperature, though the stone halls had a dampness that clung to my skin. It was the atmosphere. Every step deeper into the facility felt like it was pressing a weight onto my chest. When they brought Philip out, I barely recognized him.

His hair was grayer than I remembered. Thinner too. He was still tall, still carried himself like an alpha, but there was something hollow about his expression. Diminished. As if a part of him had already died, and no one had bothered to bury it.

It should have… made me happy to seem him brought so low, but I felt no joy. Arielle didn’t sit. She stood behind me, arms folded, radiating cold fury.

“Renee,” he said, with the faintest trace of a sneer. “Didn’t expect you.” Philip looked at Arielle with the same sneer, then back to me. “If you're not hear to apologize and set things to right, we have nothing to discuss. You have --"

"Shut your mouth," Arielle said, her voice shaking the air. His mouth clicked closed as if she'd compelled him, but she hadn't, I didn't thin. "And listen for the first time in your life to what your daughter has to say."

I swallowed, looking up at her before taking a deep breath.

“I want a DNA test,” I said plainly. “I want to know for sure.”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "I suppose that means you've found out what kind of woman your mother was."

"Before the test," I started. "I want to know… how much you knew."

Something in my chest twisted as he smiled wryly.

“Thinking about being a --" He choked. It took a moment to realize that Arielle had her hand around his throat. His face started to turn blue.

"This is your last warning," she said. "Next out of line word out of your mouth, and you'll be getting a new cellmate with an incredible interest in you."

My eyes widened as she let him go. She knew who his cellmate was?

She let him go. He coughed and wheezed.

"Answer the question."

"Of course I knew," he glared at me. "He had a fucking room in her house."

I blinked, grateful that Arielle had been telling me the truth the way she always had. I cleared my throat.

"And… me?"

“I never had you tested,” he interrupted, “because what would that have made me? An alpha with no rightful heir? I might have hated you, Renee, but you were still useful. You were supposed to be a son." He scoffed. "I should have negotiated better."

Every word he said felt like a daggered pressed into old wounds.

“I… shouldn't be surprised that your… ambition was more important to you,” I said, biting the inside of my cheek. "I don't want to give you the option to pretend any longer. You don't have to know the results, but I want them."

He scoffed. "You think you can order me around? I don't have to agree. After all you've done, undoing years of --"

"You don't," Arielle said. "But I could just as easily have you killed and use your corpse for the test.“

Philip blinked and went pale.

"And it doesn't have to be a slow death," she said, leaning on the table. "I'll make sure that everyone in the prison knows you're to suffer slowly. Think about it. Every waking minute, every sleeping hour, on guard and helpless because you can't fight for shit and you don't have the spine to go out on your feet." Arielle continued, voice flat. “You don’t get to pretend you’re the aggrieved one. Not after what you did to her. Not after what you cost my family. Do not tempt me into ending what little protection I have been willing to afford you.”

I looked between them. Protection? I looked at Philip. He was pale, haunted, fearful. I had never seen such a look on his face. Philip’s mouth opened, then shut. Slowly, he sat back in his chair and nodded once.