Alpha's Abandoned Daughter is the Secret Heiress novel Chapter 455

He didn’t ask anything else.

+25 Points

After a moment, he lifted his head and said quietly, “Thank you. For stopping him before he crossed a line

he couldn’t come back from.”

The weight of that sat over the table for a breath.

I decided the table had carried enough weight for one evening.

“Alright,” I said, reaching for the serving dish in the center and pushing it toward Jasper. “We are

celebrating tonight. Eat something. All of you.”

I looked around the table with my best authoritative expression.

“The dust has finally settled. That deserves a proper meal.”

Gideon made a sound that was almost a laugh.

Even Jasper picked up his fork.

When the plates were cleared and the wine was gone, I followed Theodore down the hallway toward his

rooms in the Pack House.

He pushed the door open and I walked in ahead of him.

The room was exactly what I would have expected. Clean lines, nothing unnecessary, a single lamp

casting warm light across the window seat.

I made a slow circuit of the space, checking corners, running a hand along the bookshelf, peering at the

view from the window with great seriousness.

Then I settled into the armchair by the window, tucked one leg under me, and tilted my head to look at

Theodore.

The corner of my mouth pulled up.

“Theodore,” I said, “why don’t you ask me to stay?”

Comments

LUCK DRAW >

K

729

Vote

A

< Chapter 455 Derek Gets Attacked

+25 Points

Chapter 455: Derek Gets Attacked

Chapter 455: Derek Gets Attacked

(Amelia’s POV)

Theodore smiled at my question.

It wasn’t his usual controlled smile. This one reached his eyes.

“If you stayed here with me,” he said, “we’d be sharing the same room. I’m not certain my self–control

would hold.”

He leaned back slightly, his expression settling into something more serious.

“When I stay at your place, there’s at least a wall between us. I can manage that.” He paused. “My legs are

almost fully healed. I don’t want to ruin our first night together at the very last moment.”

I tilted my head and looked at him with a deliberately innocent expression.

“So you’re not worried that without any rehearsal, our first time might disappoint you?”

He laughed. Low and genuine, the kind of sound he didn’t let out often.

Then he straightened his expression with great effort and said, “I won’t let that night leave either of us with any regrets. I promise you an experience unlike anything you’ve had before.”

He paused, and a trace of amusement crept back in.

)

“And if it somehow falls short of expectations, I’ll compensate you repeatedly until you’re fully satisfied.”

I burst out laughing despite myself.

“A compensation system,” I said. “That’s surprisingly considerate of you.”

Then my phone rang.

The sound cut straight through the warmth in the room. I pulled it out and checked the screen.

Silas.

I answered immediately. “What is it?”

Silas’s voice was as calm as always. “Lyra is screaming to be let out. She’s making quite a scene.”

I curved my lips slightly. “She cracked that fast? Fine. I’ll come handle it.”

I ended the call and tucked the phone away, rolling my shoulders back in a slow stretch.

“It’s getting late anyway,” I said to Theodore. “I’ll head out. Lance and Lyra need dealing with.”

Theodore reached for his cane and pushed himself to his feet.

“I’ll walk you out,” he said. “Consider it physical rehabilitation.”

<Chapter 455 Derek Gets Attacked

I looked at his legs.

+25 Points

He was standing steadier than he had a month ago. The time he could stay on his feet kept growing

longer. Something genuinely warm moved through my chest.

“Alright,” I said.

We walked out together.

Outside the room where Lance and Lyra were being held, I could already hear the noise before I reached

the door.

Shouting. Something hitting a wall. A woman’s crying that kept breaking into screams.

I pushed the door open.

Lance had Lyra backed into the corner. He was hitting her, not carefully, not holding back. His fists

connected with her arms and shoulders as she tried to shield herself, and he was cursing between every

blow.

“You’re a curse on this entire family,” he spat. “You’re the reason we’re finished. You offended her, and now every single one of us is paying for it.”

Lyra sobbed and reached for him. “I raised you. I gave you everything. How can you-”

“Drake family money raised me.” Lance shoved her back against the wall. “Not you. If it weren’t for you, my father wouldn’t be where he is. My family wouldn’t be destroyed.”

I stood in the doorway and watched for a moment.

Then I said, “Lyra.”

She snapped her head toward me instantly, her face streaked with tears and already beginning to bruise.

“Do you still want to be reunited with your son?”

She didn’t even hesitate.

She crossed the room and threw herself at my feet, grabbing at the hem of my coat, crying so hard the

words barely came out coherent.

“He’s a traitor,” she wept. “He’s worse than a dog. I raised him and this is what I get-”

I stepped back and extracted my coat from her grip.

“I’m giving you one last chance,” I said. “Out of blood relation. Go take care of Alaric. Look after him. properly.”

Lyra’s whole body went rigid with relief. She pressed her forehead to the floor and swore, over and over, that she would dedicate herself to the old man’s care, that she was genuinely sorry, that she understood

everything now.

I let her finish.

215

Chapter 455 Derek Gets Attacked

Then I turned to Silas.

“Send them both to Thornpeak Settlement.”

Silas nodded without blinking.

+25 Pants

Lyra’s swearing stopped mid–sentence. She looked up at me with an expression that had gone completely

blank.

I didn’t explain myself.

The Drake Pack was already gone. Lance was the kind of person who would never stop being dangerous if left with any freedom at all. Keeping him locked up indefinitely was a waste of resources.

Thornpeak Settlement was remote and unpleasant. Lance had spent years using his family’s power to bully Lyra. Out there, stripped of that power, the balance between them would shift completely.

Let them spend the rest of their lives tangled up with each other in that desolate place. They deserved exactly that kind of company.

(Author’s POV)

Derek had been pacing since he heard the news.

Twenty years in Africa. The entire branch relocated. No exceptions, no negotiations, no timeline to revisit

the decision.

He had counted on Theodore’s legs never recovering. He had watched the family’s internal tensions and

waited for a crack he could slip through. He had thought, if the right moment came, he could use it to get

at Amelia.

That possibility was gone now.

Every door had closed at once.

Garrett lay in bed, his injuries from the day’s events keeping him flat on his back. He watched his younger

brother grab his phone and head for the door and said, sharply, “Don’t.”

Derek didn’t stop walking.

“Derek.” Garrett’s voice hardened. “Don’t be an idiot. Sit down.”

“I just want to take a walk,” Derek said, not turning around.

He pulled the door open and stepped outside.

The screaming started less than a minute later.

It was the kind of sound that made the servants freeze in place. Raw and desperate, like something had

gone very wrong very fast.

Two of them found Derek just outside the door, thrashing and clawing at his own skin. By the time they got him back into the room, his arms and neck and face were covered in red welts, dense and spreading, and

795

Chapter 4hh Derek Gets Attacked

he was still scratching even as they held him down.

25 Pointe

“Bugs,” he gasped. “There were hundreds of them. They came out of nowhere. I couldn’t–I couldn’t even

run-”

He kept scratching. His fingernails had already broken the skin in a dozen places.

Garrett stared at him from the bed.

His expression was not sympathetic. It was calculating, and then it was grim.

He had heard the rumors about Amelia. The Shadow Healer. The Shadow King. Someone who had dismantled the Drake family from the inside out while they were still convinced they had the upper hand.

Someone who reportedly had ways of dealing with enemies that didn’t require her to be in the same room.

“This was her,” Garrett said flatly.

Derek looked up, still twitching with the need to scratch.

“She set this up before we even thought about moving against her,” Garrett continued. His voice was quiet

and very serious. “The Drake family had centuries of power behind them. Connections, resources,

influence. She destroyed all of it.”

He let that sit for a moment.

“What exactly did you think you were going to do to her?”

Derek opened his mouth.

“Don’t answer that,” Garrett said. “Just listen.”

He pushed himself up slightly against the headboard, ignoring the pull of his own injuries.

)

“Heal up. The moment you can travel, you get on a plane to Africa. You don’t look back, you don’t reach out

to anyone here, and you don’t spend a single second thinking about revenge.” His grey eyes were flat and

certain. “If you do anything else, what happened to you just now will look like a pleasant afternoon.”

Derek sat on the floor surrounded by servants who didn’t know whether to help him or leave, covered in

welts, shaking slightly.

The anger that had been driving him all day was simply gone.

What was left was exhaustion and a deep, humiliating itch he couldn’t do anything about.

“Fine,” he muttered. He dropped his head back against the wall. “Fine. Just–find something to make this

stop.”

Victor’s situation was no better.

He had spent two full hours being dealt with after the family meeting, and the evidence of it was written across his entire body. He was barely functional.

< Chapter 455 Derek Gets Attacked

+25 Points

And Theodore’s order carried no room for appeal: the moment the family meeting concluded, immediate departure for Africa.

No recovery period. No grace window.

Comments

LUCK DRAW >

[

Vote

729

)