Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother - Chapter 232

Chapter 232: Chapter 232
Seraphina’s POV

The drive home was a blur.

I don’t remember getting in the car. Don’t remember starting the engine. Don’t remember navigating traffic or stopping at lights or any of the thousand small actions that should have required my attention.

All I could see was that footage.

Damien’s arm around Emma. Supporting her. Carrying her into that room.

My hands gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles went white. But I barely felt it. Barely felt anything except this vast, hollow emptiness spreading through my chest.

I’d known. Some part of me had known the second Gabriel showed me that picture.

But seeing the footage… that was different. That was proof. Undeniable. Irrefutable. Real.

My husband had spent the night in a hotel room with another woman.

The house appeared through the windshield like a mockery. Our home. Where we were supposed to be building our life back together. Where our children slept and played and believed their parents loved each other.

I pulled into the driveway. Killed the engine. Sat there.

The silence was deafening.

I should cry. Should scream. Should feel something other than this terrible numbness.

But I couldn’t.

My phone buzzed. Text from the nanny.

**Nanny: Kids are at their friend’s house. Picking them up at 5. Is that okay?**

I checked the time. 3:47 PM.

More than an hour alone in this house. This empty, lying house.

**Me: That’s fine. Thank you.**

I got out of the car. My legs moved automatically. Carrying me up the front steps. Through the door. Into the entryway.

The house felt different now. Like it belonged to someone else. Some other version of my life where husbands didn’t cheat and families stayed together and everything worked out fine.

I walked to the living room. Sat on the couch. The same couch where I’d waited up for him that night.

While he was with her.

A sound escaped my throat. Small. Broken. Like something dying.

Then another.

Then I was sobbing.

Not the quiet, controlled crying I’d been doing. This was violent. Gut-wrenching. The kind of crying that came from somewhere deep and wounded and utterly destroyed.

My whole body shook with it. Tears streaming down my face faster than I could wipe them away. Snot running. Throat raw from the sounds tearing out of me.

I curled into a ball on that couch. Made myself small. Tried to disappear into the cushions.

How could he do this?

How could he bring me back? Tell me he’d never stopped looking? Lock me in that hotel room because he couldn’t bear to lose me again?

How could he do all of that while sleeping with Emma?

Unless… unless Gabriel was right.

Unless Damien had already moved on. Already chosen Emma. And I was just… what? The inconvenient ex-wife who’d come back at the wrong time?

The mother of his children he couldn’t completely discard?

Fresh sobs tore through me.

Maybe that’s all I’d ever been. A convenience. A vessel for his heirs. Someone to play house with until someone better came along.

And Emma was better, wasn’t she?

Beautiful. Capable. Present. Everything I hadn’t been.

Of course he’d want her instead.

The sobs gradually slowed. Not because I felt better. Just because my body was running out of resources. Running out of tears and breath and the ability to keep feeling this much pain.

I lay there on the couch. Staring at nothing. The clock ticking loudly in the silence.

4:23 PM.

Less than forty minutes until the kids came home.

I forced myself to sit up. My face felt swollen. Hot. Probably looked like hell.

I stumbled to the bathroom. Looked at my reflection.

Red eyes. Tear-stained cheeks. Lips bitten raw. Hair a mess.

I looked exactly like someone whose world had just ended.

I splashed cold water on my face. Once. Twice. Three times. Until the worst of the puffiness faded.

But my eyes… there was nothing I could do about my eyes. They were dead. Empty. Exactly like they’d been when I first came back.

I heard the front door open. Voices. High and young and achingly familiar.

“Mama!” Lily’s voice rang through the house. “We’re home!”

I forced my face into something resembling normal. Walked out of the bathroom.

Adrian and Lily stood in the entryway. Backpacks thrown on the floor. Both talking at once about their day at their friend’s house.

“We played video games!” Lily bounced. “And Maya’s mom made us cookies and Adrian beat everyone at Mario Kart!”

“I didn’t beat everyone,” Adrian corrected. “Maya’s brother is really good.”

“But you beat me!” Lily insisted.

They both looked so happy. So normal. So blissfully unaware that everything was falling apart.

I pulled them both into a hug. Held them tight. Too tight probably.

“Mama?” Lily’s voice was muffled against my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, baby.” The lie came automatically. “Just missed you guys.”

“We were only gone a few hours,” Adrian pointed out. But he hugged me back anyway.

I released them reluctantly. Forced a smile. “Who’s hungry?”

“Me!” Lily raised her hand. “Can we have pizza?”

“We had pizza yesterday,” Adrian said.

“So? Pizza is good every day!”

“That’s not healthy.”

“You’re not healthy!”

I let them bicker. Let their normal kid chaos wash over me like white noise.

We moved to the kitchen. I pulled out ingredients. Started making sandwiches because cooking an actual meal felt impossible.

They sat at the table. Still talking. Still arguing. Still being perfectly, beautifully themselves.

Adrian noticed first. “Mom? You look tired.”

“Just a long day at training.” I set the sandwiches in front of them. “Eat up.”

“Did you beat anyone?” Lily asked around a mouthful of food.

“Lily, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Adrian scolded.

“You’re not the boss of me!”

“I’m older so technically—”

“Age doesn’t make you the boss!”

I listened to them. Watched them. Memorized every detail.

Because this might be the last normal moment. The last time before everything changed. Before they found out their parents’ marriage was a lie. Before their family shattered completely.

After sandwiches came homework. Math worksheets for Adrian. Reading practice for Lily.

I sat with them. Helped where needed. Pretended everything was fine.

“Mama?” Lily looked up from her book. “Can you read this word?”

“Elephant.”

“Oh! Like the animal we saw at the zoo!”

“Exactly like that.”

Adrian finished his math. Showed me the answers. I checked them mechanically. They were all correct. He was so smart. So careful with his work.

Bath time came next. Lily splashed everywhere. Adrian complained about the water temperature. Normal. Everything normal.

I helped Lily into her pajamas. The pink ones with unicorns. Her favorite.

“Mama? Why do you look sad?” She tilted her head. Those ocean-blue eyes—Damien’s eyes—staring up at me.

“I’m not sad, baby.”

“But your eyes are red. Like when you’ve been crying.”

Kids saw everything. Missed nothing.

“Just allergies,” I lied. “Nothing to worry about.”

She studied my face for another moment. Then threw her small arms around my waist. “I love you, Mama.”

My throat closed completely. “I love you too, baby. So, so much.”

Adrian was already in bed when I checked on him. Reading. Always reading.

“Night, Mom.” He didn’t look up from his book.

“Night, buddy.” I kissed the top of his head. He didn’t pull away. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I turned off his light. Left the door cracked. Walked back downstairs.

The house felt empty again now that the kids were settled. Silent except for the clock and my own breathing.

I sat back on the couch. Waited.

7:43 PM.

8:15 PM.

8:52 PM.

Headlights swept across the living room window. A car door slammed. Footsteps on the front walk.

The door opened.

Damien.

He looked exhausted. Wrinkled suit. Tie loosened. Dark circles under his eyes. Guilt written all over his face.

He saw me sitting there in the semi-darkness. Froze.

“Sera.” My name came out uncertain. “I didn’t know you’d still be up.”

I didn’t respond. Just looked at him.

“Are the kids asleep?” He closed the door quietly.

“Yes.”

He walked further into the room. Stopped a few feet away. Like he was afraid to get closer.

I stood up. Walked toward him. Stopped right in front of him.

Close enough to see his pupils dilate. Close enough to smell his cologne. Close enough to feel the warmth radiating from his body.

“Sera—”

“I already know.” The words came out flat. Final. “I know everything, Damien.”