The call ended, leaving me in silence again.

"Her last call… the final one she made before she died… was to Alpha Damien."

His voice came through steady, professional. "Miss Sofia… I have something for you."

My wolf stirred, getting annoyed with me. "You won’t know until you find out," she urged.

A faint smile tugged at his lips–small, but real.

"Hello?"

"They spoke for fifteen minutes," he continued firmly. "Fifteen minutes. I traced the time stamp. It was the very night she was beheaded. After that call… nothing. Her line went dead."

I swallowed hard and contemplated how I was going to stand in front of Damien and confess that I still love him.

Fifteen minutes. Damien had told me he knew nothing, that he hadn’t spoken to her for a long time. He swore it.

Maybe I should have loved it. This was what I wanted, wasn’t it? We were co-parenting. Civil. Respectful. Distant. Exactly how I had imagined it should be.

What would he say? Will he say it’s better we just co-parent? Will he say he loves someone else now? Will I be able to live with that?

But the tears came anyway, hot and stinging. I pressed my palms over my eyes, willing them back, but they refused to stop.

Before, minutes never passed without him finding some excuse to reach for me.

I swallowed hard, my heart aching at the mention of her. Olivia and I had similar situations, and Olivia still chose to be with her mates and me? Here I am wallowing in pain.

The investigator’s tone softened. "I will… I will inform you if I get any other information."

I shook my head weakly. "No…"

And my heart ached.

My hand trembled around the phone, my voice barely a whisper. "Thank you… please keep digging."

No smiles. No laughter. No touches.

"You still love him," my wolf whispered, her voice cutting straight into my chest.

My chest tightened, my breath caught. "W–What?"

And I knew Damien. When it came to me, he was always a man of touch. His hand on my waist as he passed. His fingers brushing mine when he handed me something. His palm against the small of my back when we walked side by side.

I clenched my fork so tightly my knuckles ached. A wave of heat surged through me, sharp and jealous, though I had no right to feel it.

He paused, and I heard the weight in his voice before the words came.

Before he could even glance up, I stood and left the table, my chest tight, my wolf restless under my skin.

The thought crushed me, and I pressed my palms over my face, my body trembling.

I sat up straighter, clutching the phone tight. "Tell me."

I couldn’t sit there, watching him give his attention, his smile, to someone else while I sat invisible on the other side of the table.

The words caught in my throat. I hated myself for this—for feeling something I knew I shouldn’t.

The investigator.

My wolf scoffed, pacing in the back of my mind. "Excuses. Olivia is with the triplets, isn’t she? Everyone said it was impossible, and yet she chose them anyway."

When I got to my room, I sank onto the edge of the bed, my hands trembling as I tried to hold myself together.

The chair scraped against the floor as I pushed back abruptly.

Now… nothing.

The sharp vibration of my phone broke through the storm in my head. I flinched, snatching it from the nightstand, my heart leaping when I saw the name on the screen.

"Excuse me," I muttered in annoyance.

We sat across from each other at the dining table, lunch spread neatly between us. Damien’s phone buzzed against the table. He picked it up without hesitation, his thumb gliding across the screen.

"But what?" she snapped, impatient, almost angry.

It was becoming harder to bear, seeing him every day but not really seeing him. Sitting across from him at the table with nothing but words about Charlie between us. Passing him in the hall and not even brushing shoulders.

As usual, silence was the constant thing between Damien and me. I could practically count the times we spoke in a day. When we did, it was only about our son, or something general. Never about us.

"Yes," she pushed, sharp and certain. "I told you. You love Damien."

With shaky hands, I pressed the phone to my ear.

Sofia’s POV

I had never buried her. I couldn’t. Not without answers. Not without knowing who had the audacity to take her head and leave her body like that.

Who was he texting? His beautiful secretary? The one I saw the other day?

"I’m scared… what if he no longer has feelings for me and just wants to co-parent…"

The absence of it left an ache I didn’t want to admit to. And worse–it made me wonder if co-parenting was really what I wanted… or if I was lying to myself all along.

Then–ring. Ring.

My lips trembled, the truth clawing its way out. "Yes… I love him." My voice cracked.

"But-"

"Stop being stubborn and tell Damien how you feel," My wolf urged, but I frantically shook my head.

"I went through her records–Rebecca’s. I pulled them directly from the phone companies. It wasn’t easy, but I managed."

"We are related. And our families…" My breath hitched. "There’s blood between us. Too much hate. It can’t work."

Damien had sworn he knew nothing, that he had no hand in it. And for once, I believed him. But that left me with a truth even darker—if it wasn’t him, then who?

But lately… I wasn’t so sure anymore.

The one I had paid weeks ago to dig into Rebecca’s death.

I froze, my wolf stirring inside me, restless and growling.

And now the investigator is telling me they spoke before her death? But if he had spoken to her that night—what did they say? Why hadn’t he told me?