Chapter 44
Dominic’s POV
“What does that even matter? I’m unlucky enough to be marrying Samantha as it is.”
The words echoed in my mind, sharper now than the day I had spoken them on our wedding day, and I saw the broken look in her eyes, the way her shoulders had slumped as though carrying a weight too heavy to bear. I had been too blind to see it then, or I just did not care. I was too consumed by my own bitterness and resentment to realize that I had been the one breaking her.
I ran through the woods as the cool night air whipped against my face. The revelation of my children’s existence surged through me like a storm, leaving me breathless, and excited, but at the same time, the regret was consuming me like a fire determined to turn me into ashes. Devon and Diana were mine. Mine. And yet, Samantha had kept them from me, hiding their existence for six years. But I understood, or perhaps, I wanted to because I knew that I had done her wrong, but I also thought that I had the right to know, and the twins had to right to know who their father was. Did she tell them that their father was dead? Had they been seeing Killian as their father figure already?
I told myself I was furious at her deception, but the truth gnawed at me from the inside out. The anger was only a mask for what lay beneath, regret, shame, and a pang of festering guilt that I had tried to bury for far too long.
By the time I reached the manor, my legs were shaking, but my thoughts refused to settle. The house stood silent in the darkness with its windows gleaming faintly in the moonlight. I pushed open the door and stepped inside, the familiar scent of wood polish and lingering embers doing little to calm the chaos in my head.
Dropping onto the couch in the dimly lit living room, I buried my face in my hands. The truth was undeniable now.
Samantha had stolen six years of their lives from me, and yet... I had driven her to it, hadn’t I?
I leaned back, staring at the ceiling as memories clawed their way to the surface.
The day we married had been a day of duty, not love. My mother had orchestrated it, seeing Samantha as the perfect Luna for our pack. I had not disagreed outright, but neither had I embraced the idea. She had been so young, so in love with me, and so eager to prove herself, and I had barely looked at her.