Alpha's Abandoned Daughter is the Secret Heiress novel Chapter 439

Chapter 439: Strangers in the Village

Chapter 439: Strangers in the Village

(Theodore’s POV)

Amelia wrapped her fingers around mine.

Then she bit down–lightly, deliberately on the tip of my index finger.

“Very much so, she murmured against my skin.

+25 Points?

The words hit me like a current. Every carefully maintained wall I’d built over the last hour came apart in

an instant.

I’d lived thirty years with iron self–control. I’d faced down rival Alphas, survived assassination attempts, endured years of pain in that wheelchair.

None of it had prepared me for this.

My jaw tightened. I could feel the heat spreading through my chest, my hands, the base of my spine.

*Not yet.*

I pulled my finger back slowly and closed my hand into a fist under the edge of the blanket.

She had to remember this. Every detail of it. I would make certain of that – but not tonight, not like this, not when I’d only just taken my first real steps.

When I finally gave her that, it would leave no room for regret.

Then her phone buzzed.

The vibration broke through the silence like a stone dropped into still water.

I exhaled. Slow. Controlled.

“Answer it,” I said. My voice came out rougher than I intended.

Amelia turned and reached for the phone on the nightstand.

The moment she saw the screen, the warmth left her expression.

She sat up and answered.

“Ethan.”

I watched her face.

Whatever Ethan said on the other end, it changed her immediately. Her spine straightened. Her eyes sharpened.

<Chapter 439 Strangers in the Village

“Say that again,” she said.

A pause.

“How many?”

Another pause.

25 P

25 Points

“Don’t move. Don’t approach them. Don’t let Alaric go near them either.” Her voice was flat and precise. “I have people in the village. Stay where you are and wait.”

She hung up.

For a moment she just sat there, the phone in her hand, staring at nothing.

“What happened?” I asked.

She set the phone down and turned to face me.

“A group arrived in the village today. Fourteen of them. They told the locals they’re here for a long holiday –

a full month.” She paused. “Ethan recognized one of them. A man who should have been executed. A

serial killer.”

I went still.

“Ethan thinks they’re assassins,” she continued. “Sent by Griffin or someone higher up. Targeting him and

Alaric.”

She was already reaching for the phone again.

Silas picked up on the second ring.

“I need everything you can find on a group of fourteen people who arrived in Meadow Brook today,” Amelia said without preamble. “One of them is a convicted serial killer who was supposed to be on death row.

Verify that first. Then I want full background on all fourteen.” She paused. “And increase coverage on

Alaric, the pack members in that village, and Ethan. All three. Tonight.”

“Understood,” Silas said. “I’ll have preliminary results within the hour.”

Amelia ended the call.

I’d been watching her the whole time.

“You think this is Zane Jenkins,” I said.

“Who else would it be?”

I shook my head slowly.

“That’s exactly why I don’t think it’s him.”

She looked at me.

<Chapter 439 Strangers in the Village

+25 Points

“Zane Jenkins has survived this long because he never moves in straight lines,” I said. “Sending fourteen people – including a known death row convict – into a village where you already have eyes? That’s not his method. He’s too careful for something this visible.”

Amelia was quiet for a moment.

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said honestly. “But something about this doesn’t fit. It’s too obvious. Too easy to trace

back.”

She pressed her lips together.

“Maybe that’s the point,” she said. “Draw our attention to the village while something else happens

somewhere else.”

“Possibly.”

“Or maybe someone is using a death row escapee as a message. To tell us they have resources we

haven’t accounted for.”

“Also possible.”

She exhaled through her nose.

“Either way,” she said, her voice dropping to something colder, “if those people are truly escaped convicts

and they set foot anywhere near Alaric or the pack members – I won’t be calling the authorities to handle

it.”

The look in her eyes was not warm.

“They’ll disappear into the forest,” she said quietly. “And no one will find them.”

I said nothing. I didn’t need to.

The room had grown late around us. The light was low. Outside, the city was quiet.

“Get some sleep,” I said finally.

She glanced at me.

For a moment I thought she might argue. But the tension in her shoulders eased, just slightly.

“You too,” she said.

(Celine’s POV)

Two days.

That’s how long I’d been unconscious.

I came back to myself slowly – the ceiling first, then the white walls of the recovery room, then the dull

< Chapter 439 Strangers in the Village

ache spreading through my lower abdomen.

I pressed my hand flat against my stomach.

Empty.

The word landed in my chest like a blow.

+25 Points

I’d planned this so carefully. A pup would have given me leverage. It would have tied Griffin to me in a way that couldn’t be undone. It would have given me something to hold over him – something even his

coldness couldn’t dismiss.

And he’d taken it from me without blinking.

*He didn’t even hesitate.*

The rage moved through me in slow, ugly waves.

I’d given him everything. My obedience, my time, my body. I’d swallowed every humiliation with a smile

because I’d believed it was building toward something.

And he’d had the child removed like it was an inconvenience.

My phone rang.

I stared at the ceiling for one more second. Then I picked it up.

“Three o’clock,” Griffin said. No greeting. “Bring me a girl. Young. Similar face and bearing to Jade York.

Have her ready.”

The line went dead.

I lowered the phone.

*Similar to Jade.*

Of course. Because Jade had escaped him, and now he wanted a replacement. A copy. Something that looked close enough to scratch whatever itch she’d left behind.

I sat up slowly, ignoring the pull of pain in my abdomen.

Men.

Every single one of them. Without exception.

They used what they wanted and discarded the rest. They smiled at you until they found something shinier. They made you believe you were necessary right up until the moment they proved you weren’t.

I stood in front of the mirror.

My face was pale. There were shadows under my eyes. I looked like someone who had just spent two days unconscious in a recovery room, which was exactly what I was.

I picked up my makeup brush.

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Chapter 439 Strangers in the Village

By the time I was finished, you couldn’t tell.

Points

+25 Point

The administrator brought twenty–three girls into the selection room.

I walked down the line slowly, looking at each face.

Most of them were too soft. Too young. Too blank. They had none of the particular quality Griffin had

described – that sharpness behind the eyes, that cool self–possession that Jade carried like armor.

Then I stopped.

Near the end of the row.

A girl with dark hair and quiet eyes. She held herself differently from the others – not nervous, not eager.

Just still.

Her eyes were the closest thing to Jade’s I’d seen.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Sherry,” she said.

“And what are you hoping to get out of being here?”

She met my gaze without flinching.

“I want to learn a real skill,” she said. “Something I can use to support myself. I’m not looking for shortcuts

or things that don’t belong to me.”

I stared at her.

*What an irritating answer.*

There was no ambition in it. No hunger. No understanding of how the world actually worked – that waiting quietly for what you’d earned got you nothing, that you had to take what you wanted before someone else

did.

But she had the eyes.

That was all that mattered right now.

“There’s a good opportunity available,” I said smoothly. “A position. Well–compensated.” I smiled. “We’ll get

you ready.”

I nodded to the staff beside me.

They moved to escort her out.

At three o’clock exactly, I brought Sherry to the Drake house.

< Chapter 439 Strangers in the Village

She’d been dressed and styled. She looked presentable. From a distance, in the right light, the

resemblance to Jade was passable.

Griffin was already on the sofa when we entered.

He looked up.

His eyes moved to Sherry.

The expression on his face went flat.

+25 Points

I watched him take her in – the hair, the face, the way she stood. I saw the moment he decided she wasn’t

enough.

“Name,” he said.

“Sherry,” I answered for her.

He raised one hand.

A servant stepped forward from behind the sofa, lifting a bundle of clothing from the low table. They

carried it across the room and stopped in front of Sherry.

The fabric was minimal. Deliberately so.

“Put this on,” Griffin said.

Sherry’s eyes went wide.

She turned to me and I saw the fear in her face, raw and sudden, cracking through the composure she’d

held all afternoon.

“You said this was a job interview,” she whispered. Her voice was trembling. “Why do I have to wear

something like this…”

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