Chapter 4

Alexander came home completely hammered that night. When he stumbled down to the basement like he usually did to check on me, he found the cell empty.

He blinked, thinking his drunken eyes were playing tricks on him. "Lily Parker?"

He rubbed his eyes, threw the cell door open, and searched every corner of the basement, only to find nothing.

The reality finally hit him: I was gone.

"Tell me what the hell happened," Alexander growled, all traces of alcohol vanishing instantly behind a mask of icy authority.

He ordered the butler to assemble every pack member in the mansion, interrogating them one by one. "Who unlocked Miss Parker's cell?"

The butler's face went pale. The staff exchanged nervous glances, shaking their heads in unison.

Alexander let out a cruel scoff. "Refusing to speak, are we?"

Terrified of getting the others into trouble, Mrs. Garcia stepped forward. "Sir, it was me."

Alexander pinched the bridge of his nose, his voice low and dangerous. "Where did she go?"

Mrs. Garcia shook her head, pulling a sealed envelope from her apron and holding it out. "Sir, Miss Parker told me to tell you not to worry about her. She left this letter for you before she walked out."

Alexander's entire frame stiffened.

He stared at the paper in silence for what felt like eternity before his trembling fingers reached out to take it.

The envelope looked heavy, like it held a long, painful goodbye.

Alexander stared at it for minutes on end.

Yet only I knew there were merely two brief sentences inside:

*Goodbye, Alexander.*

*I can never repay you for everything you've given me over the years. I hope life treats you well.*

In the end, Alexander shredded the letter into tiny pieces, roared at everyone to get out, and slammed his fists into the imported glass coffee table, shattering it to dust.

Only Mrs. Garcia remained in the room.

Keeping her head down, she held out another crumpled piece of paper toward him.

It was an ultrasound report, torn to shreds and meticulously taped back together.

"Sir, you need to see this."

"Miss Parker didn't give this to me. I found it in the trash can, and I couldn't bear the thought of her suffering in silence, so... I taped it back together myself."

"Sir, take one look, and you'll understand everything."

Mrs. Garcia let out a quiet sigh.

Alexander drew a sharp breath, took the ragged paper, and froze the moment his eyes scanned the text.

The veins on his forehead bulged. "This is... Lily's pregnancy test?"

Mrs. Garcia nodded firmly.

Alexander swayed on his feet, reaching out to brace himself against the wall. He stared down at the dates on the page, his voice trembling when he spoke again. "Whose... whose baby is it?"

Mrs. Garcia blinked in disbelief, caught completely off guard by his question.

Before she could get a word out, Alexander let out a hollow, bitter laugh.

"I had no idea the girl could hide things so well. Seeing someone behind my back for that long, and I never noticed a damn thing."

Deep, suffocating despair washed over his eyes.

He dragged his feet through the shattered glass, collapsing heavily onto the sofa like a man who had aged ten years in a single second.

"No wonder she wanted to get away from me so badly."

"She planned this for a long time, didn't she?"

Hearing his twisted self-pity, Mrs. Garcia couldn't hold back her frustration. "Sir, how could you think that?!"

"Look closely at the timeline on that report! That was three months ago! Don't you remember anything at all?!"

Mrs. Garcia had practically spelled it out for him.

Yet Alexander still looked lost—until a sudden spark hit his mind, and his head snapped up!

"What did you say? Three months ago?!"

Mrs. Garcia nodded furiously.

Three months ago was the night of the pack summit, when someone had slipped a powerful drug into Alexander's drink, forcing him to rush back home out of his mind.

All he remembered was spending that reckless night with a woman.

Afterward, Helena had claimed she was the one in his bed.

And he had believed her.

Now, with Mrs. Garcia's words ringing in his ears, jagged fragments of memory crashed through his haze.

He remembered that night of absolute madness...

He remembered pinning the sweet, fragile girl he had sworn to protect right beneath him, taking her with an intensity that bordered on cruelty.

Alexander completely lost his composure.

He shot up from the sofa and bolted up the stairs toward his second-floor study, desperate to pull up the security footage from three months ago.