Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 288

Chapter 288: Epilogue 1

Brenna’s POV

I spilled tea on him within the first five minutes.

Not a delicate splash, either. The full cup. Straight across his chest. The pale amber liquid bloomed across his shirt like a map of my inadequacy.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no—" I grabbed a napkin and lunged forward, dabbing uselessly at the spreading stain. "I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I—my hands just—"

Finnian looked down at his chest. Then at me. Then he laughed.

Not a polite laugh. A real one. Deep and warm, rumbling up from somewhere genuine.

"It’s fine," he said, catching my frantic hand and holding it still. His palm was rough. Calloused. Warm in a way that made my breath catch. "I’m a blacksmith. I own about a dozen identical shirts. Hazard of the trade—you learn not to get attached to clothing."

I stared at our hands. His thumb rested against my knuckles. Casual. Like it belonged there.

"Still," I muttered. "Terrible first impression."

"Actually, it’s memorable. I prefer memorable."

The tea shop was quiet. A small place tucked along a side street near the market district. Wooden beams. Dried herbs hanging from the ceiling. A few other patrons at a far table, paying us no attention.

I’d chosen it because it was unremarkable. Because nothing dramatic had ever happened here.

I needed that. After everything.

Finnian released my hand and leaned back. Golden hair fell across his forehead. His brown eyes studied me with an openness that was almost alarming. No guile. No calculation. Just genuine curiosity.

"So," he said. "Tell me something real."

"Real?"

"Something you actually think about. Not small talk."

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

"I feel like a side character," I said. And then immediately wanted to crawl under the table.

But Finnian didn’t laugh this time. He tilted his head. "In what?"

"In... everything. My best friend is the Alpha Empress. She fought in a war. She died and came back—well, her mate died and she brought him back. She can heal people with her tears. She turned into a silver wolf in the middle of a battlefield." I was rambling. I couldn’t stop. "And I’m just... Brenna. The friend. The one who held things together while the real story happened to someone else."

Silence stretched between us.

Finnian leaned forward. His elbows rested on the table. His gaze didn’t waver.

"You ran supply lines during the siege," he said. "Didn’t you?"

I blinked. "How do you—"

"Elara told me. When I asked about you." His voice was steady. Matter-of-fact. "You organized the evacuation of the lower quarter when the rogue forces breached the wall. You carried two children out of a burning building. You stayed when half the court fled."

My throat tightened.

"That’s not a side character," he said quietly. "That’s a hero who doesn’t know it."

I couldn’t look at him. I stared at the tea stain on his shirt instead.

"I just want to know you," he added. "The real you. Not the version standing in someone else’s shadow."

---

He asked me out again two days later.

Then every three days after that.

Then every weekend. Without fail.

The journey from his village to the capital took three hours by carriage each way. Six hours round trip. He never complained. Never mentioned the cost or the time. He simply appeared at my door, slightly dusty from the road, with that same easy grin.

We walked through the night market. He bought me roasted chestnuts and ate them too fast and burned his tongue. We sat on the old stone bridge and watched boats drift beneath us while he told me about a sword commission that had gone hilariously wrong.

One night we found a hill outside the city walls where the sky opened up enormous and endless. We lay on our backs in the grass and he pointed out constellations. Some of them I was fairly sure he invented on the spot.

"That one’s called the Blacksmith’s Hammer," he said, tracing a shape between stars.

"That is absolutely not a real constellation."

"It is now. I’m the star master."

I laughed so hard my ribs ached. And when the laughter faded, I felt his fingers brush mine in the dark grass. Tentative. Questioning.

I didn’t pull away.

But later, alone in my room, the doubt crept back. Like water seeping under a door. Quiet and relentless.

He was kind. Patient. Devoted, even. But surely someone like him—strong, good, uncomplicated—would eventually realize he wanted someone more. Someone extraordinary. Someone like—

Stop it. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

I couldn’t stop it.

---

"You’re being ridiculous."

Elara didn’t mince words. She never did anymore. Motherhood and near-apocalypse had stripped away whatever politeness filters she’d once possessed.

We were in her private study. Afternoon light slanted through tall windows. The twins were napping. Valerius and Lyra were at the academy. For once, the palace was almost peaceful.

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