Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever novel Chapter 325

Chapter 325: Chapter 325 – Esperanza answers questions on a full stomach

Voren was the first to snap out of the stunned silence. He hadn’t been around for the full story, so even though he was missing some of the bigger pieces, the little girl’s words still hit him like a truck.

"Espe, what are you talking about?" he asked, his voice staying as steady and calm as it always did. But the look in his eyes gave him away completely—he was totally thrown.

Esperanza studied him for a long moment with those big innocent blue eyes of hers. "Daddy, will you believe me?" she asked, her gaze locking onto his face, full of hope mixed with that little bit of uncertainty.

The question landed harder on Voren than he would’ve expected.

Just last night she’d shut down when he’d tried asking her stuff, but now here she was, ready to open up if she trusted them enough. How the hell was he supposed to say no to that?

He softened his expression and leaned in a little closer. "Let’s pretend for a second that everything you’re saying isn’t just some crazy dream," he said, his eyes flicking quickly over to Corvine before settling back on her. "Let’s say it’s all real. How do you know him?"

Esperanza immediately tightened her little arms around Corvine’s neck in this instinctive, protective way.

Her small fingers curled into his shirt as she kept looking back and forth between both of her parents. "He was supposed to kill me," she said simply.

The whole room went dead quiet. Even Seraphine held her breath for a second.

But Esperanza stayed perfectly calm and kept going. "But he gave me to that woman instead." Her brows pulled together a little, like she was digging through her memories to get every detail right. "And that woman gave him a goat to slaughter."

The silence that dropped after that felt even heavier than before. Corvine’s chest tightened up, his heart hammering away as the pieces clicked into place. "There’s no way she’s making this up," he muttered before he could stop himself.

Everyone turned to look at him. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to wrap his head around it all. "I remember it," he said, his voice sounding far away. "It was weird seeing a regular farm animal in a place like that back then. I used it to trick Ravyn."

His eyes went back to Esperanza. The little girl looked way too sure of herself, way too familiar with something nobody her age should even know about.

"If she knows that..." The words trailed off in his throat because there was really only one explanation, and it seemed flat-out impossible. Or at least it should have been.

Across the room, Seraphine took a few deep breaths, her mind racing with about a hundred different questions.

How had Esperanza ended up with Voren? How much did she actually remember from back then? And why did she seem so connected to things that happened long before she should’ve even existed? Then she remembered the girl’s simple request—food first.

Seraphine forced herself to focus on something normal and straightforward. "I’ll whip up those pancakes really quick," she said, already moving.

Corvine frowned right away. "We were making breakfast for you," he pointed out, watching her every move. "You really gotta cook right now?"

It was still that time of the month for her, and the last thing he wanted was her standing in the kitchen working when she should be taking it easy.

Seraphine ignored the worry in his voice and kept gathering ingredients. When she didn’t answer, his frown only got deeper.

Before he could push the issue, a pair of tiny hands suddenly grabbed both sides of his face.

"It’s mine," she said, and without waiting she hurried out of the kitchen. The rest of them watched her disappear around the corner. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

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