Chosen as the Cursed Alpha's Seventh Bride

Leighton’s POV

"How can I help?"

"Later, after your parents fall asleep, could you sneak me my phone and my keys?"

I bit my lip. "What if they catch me?"

"Be careful. Everything should be in your dad’s pockets. I believe in you. You can do it."

She looked at me like she was so sure. I hesitated, then nodded. "Okay, Emilia. I’ll help you."

The time crawled by. Emilia kept staring at her legs, willing them to move. I sat there and watched the clock.

Finally I whispered, "Emilia, Dad’s definitely asleep now. I’m gonna go get it, okay?"

"Okay."

I crept up the stairs to my parents’ room. I turned the handle slow so it wouldn’t creak. The room was dark. They were breathing heavy, deep asleep.

Dad’s clothes were tossed on the sofa. I tiptoed in and crouched down. My hands shook as I dug through the pockets. And then, there they were. Emilia’s phone. Her keys.

My heart slammed so hard I nearly shouted. I grabbed them and bolted.

"Emilia, Emilia, I got them, I got them..."

I ran back clutching the phone and keys.

The medicine had worn off. She was standing now, dressed again. She took the things from me, and her hands were trembling. "Leighton, thank you. Thank you so much."

She didn’t wait a second. She grabbed the keys and rushed for the door. I ran after her, out into the dark, and stopped beside her car. She reached for the handle.

And that’s when this awful feeling came over me. Like someone had cut open my chest. Like I was about to lose the most important thing in the whole world.

I couldn’t breathe. My head started to hurt, a deep, splitting hurt.

"Emilia," I asked. "From now on... I won’t see you again, will I?"

Her hand froze in the air. She turned around slow. And her face crumpled into that same sad, hurting look. She walked toward me but didn’t say anything.

It was like she was holding back words. Like there were things she wanted to say that would hurt me, and she was swallowing them down instead.

I just wanted Emilia to be happy, the way we used to be, laughing, playing, chasing each other through the house. Right now she was so unhappy. Was it because of me? Did I make her like this?

I gritted my teeth. "Hurry. If my dad wakes up, he’ll tie you up again."

I dragged my sleeve across my eyes. Somehow, in that moment, I felt older. I didn’t beg her to stay this time. I didn’t pull on her arm. I just wanted her to go, before they could hurt her again.

Emilia’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t say a word. She climbed into the car and pulled the door shut.

I couldn’t hold it in anymore. That awful, tearing feeling dropped me into a crouch, and I started to cry.

I thought Emilia was going to drive off right then. Instead she shoved the door open and jumped back out. She threw her arms around me and hugged me tight.

"I’ll never forget what you did for me tonight," she whispered, tears on her cheeks. "Leighton, thank you. Take care of yourself."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead. She got back in the car, started the engine, and drove off.

This time, she really left.

I stood there in the dark and waved both arms after the car. I waved and waved. The taillights got smaller and smaller, then turned the corner and vanished.

She was gone. And somewhere deep inside, I knew, Emilia was never coming back.

The second that thought hit me, the pain returned. That cut in my chest, that splitting in my head, all of it came roaring back at once, twice as bad as before. It swallowed me whole.

The last thing I remember is the ground rushing up to meet me.

Then everything went black.

Emilia’s POV

Through the rearview mirror, I watched Leighton stumble to his knees, both arms still waving after me in the dark. Tears came before I could stop them.

He’d saved me tonight, and I would never forget it.

Goodbye, Leighton.

I drove through the night, back toward Silverlake City, both hands white-knuckled on the wheel.

Sebastian was already up when I got home the next morning. He looked genuinely thrown to see me. "Emilia. What are you doing back at this hour?"

I didn’t answer. I crossed the room and threw myself against his chest, and then I fell apart.

His whole body went rigid. "What happened?"

I shook my head into his shirt. "Nothing. I just missed you."

I was furious, humiliated, sick with everything Richie and Madam Lind had done to me. But I didn’t breathe a word of it to Sebastian. Not because I feared Richie. Not because I owed him anything. It was Sebastian’s temper. I knew it too well. If he found out, he’d bury Richie and his wife without blinking. I couldn’t have cared less whether those two lived or died.

But Leighton would be left alone, an innocent kid loose in a rotten world. I wouldn’t let that happen.

The next two days, I couldn’t shake the fog. Learning I was infertile had already hollowed me out. Then Richie had piled his filth on top of it. Leighton never touched me, but the memory of being stripped, taped down, slapped across the face by Madam Lind, it clung to me like a stain that wouldn’t wash off.

I didn’t leave my room. On the third morning, Mila knocked and slipped inside, careful, like she was afraid the floor might give out under her.

"You haven’t come out in two days, sweetheart." She sat on the edge of my bed and covered my hand with hers. "Don’t let this fertility business eat at you. It’s just a bump in the road. We’ll figure it out together."

I looked at her, at how gently she was treating me, how hard she was trying not to upset me, and it hurt worse than if she’d shouted. From the day I married into this family, I’d known how badly Mila wanted a grandchild, how she’d dreamed of a little one running through this house. She’d never once thrown it in my face after the diagnosis. That was the problem. Her kindness cut deeper than any insult.

So I did the only thing I could. I put on a smile for her sake.

"You’re right," I said. "I think I just need some air. I’ll go for a drive."

Her face lit up with relief. "Take all the time you need."

I got in the car with no destination. I just drove, mind blank, hands moving on their own. Some long while later I looked up and realized where I’d stopped.

My mother’s grave.