Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Chapter 35

Kaelen’s POV

After a twenty-minute carriage ride, the carriage jolted over another rut, and the small body pressed against my side shifted closer.

“Lord Kaelen?”

I looked down. Valerius had his face tilted up toward me, those wide golden eyes—so eerily familiar—searching mine with the kind of open trust that made something in my chest clench.

“Yes?”

“Are we almost at Mommy’s house?”

“Almost.”

He nodded seriously, as if he’d received a military briefing, then tucked himself tighter against my arm. His small fingers curled into the fabric of my coat sleeve. He hadn’t let go of me since I’d found him—shivering, tear-streaked, but alive—in that godforsaken border forest. And I hadn’t let go of him either.

The carriage turned onto a narrow lane. Brick buildings crowded together on both sides, their facades crumbling in places, laundry lines strung between upper windows like tired flags of surrender. This was the merchant quarter’s edge—the part the merchants themselves pretended didn’t exist.

We stopped in front of a squat brick building. Peeling paint. A cracked window on the second floor patched with oiled cloth.

This was where she lived. Where she’d been raising her son.

My jaw tightened.

I lifted Valerius down from the carriage. He immediately reached for my hand, and I gave it to him without thinking. His fingers were impossibly small wrapped around mine.

We climbed the stairs to the second floor. Before I could knock, the door flew open.

Brenna stood in the doorway. Her dark hair hung loose and tangled around her shoulders. Her eyes were swollen, rimmed an angry red, and the skin beneath them was bruised with exhaustion. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

The moment she saw Valerius, a sound escaped her—half sob, half laugh—and she dropped to her knees.

“Little man!” She pulled him into her arms so tightly he squeaked. “Oh, thank the Goddess. Thank the Goddess, you’re here. You’re okay.”

“Aunt Brenna, you’re squishing me.”

She laughed—a wet, broken sound—and loosened her grip just enough to press her lips against his curls. “I don’t care. I’m squishing you forever. You’re never leaving my sight again.”

Over Valerius’s head, her red-rimmed eyes met mine. The gratitude in them was raw. Unguarded. She didn’t bother with formalities or titles.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t know how you found him, but—thank you.”

I gave a short nod. “How is she?”

Brenna’s expression crumbled. She stood, keeping one hand on Valerius’s shoulder, and lowered her voice.

“Bad. Elara collapsed at the academy. High fever. She hasn’t woken up since I brought her home.” Brenna’s throat worked. “There’s bruising—bad bruising—and I think something happened at that manor, something worse than what she told me before. Her ribs might be cracked. I need to get to the apothecary for herbs and a pain salve, but I couldn’t leave him alone, and she’s—”

“Go.” The word came out harder than I intended. I softened it. “I’ll stay with them. Go get what she needs.”

Brenna hesitated for only a breath. Then she grabbed a worn cloak from a hook by the door, kissed Valerius’s head once more, and disappeared down the stairwell at a near-run.

The door closed behind her.

And suddenly, it was just me and a four-year-old boy in a cramped apartment that smelled of dried herbs and old wood.

Valerius tugged my hand. “Lord Kaelen?”

“Yes?”

“I’m hungry.”

I looked down at him. He looked up at me. Those golden eyes. Patient. Expectant. Completely confident that I could solve this problem.

I had commanded armies. Negotiated treaties with hostile clans. Personally executed traitors who threatened the empire’s stability.

None of that had prepared me for this.

“What do you want to eat?” I asked.

“Mac and cheese!” The answer was instantaneous. His face lit up with the first real brightness I’d seen since I found him trembling in the dark. “Mommy makes the best mac and cheese. With the crunchy bits on top.”

Mac and cheese. Crunchy bits. Fine.

I walked into the kitchen. It was barely larger than my wardrobe back at the palace—a narrow strip of counter, a wood-burning stove, a shelf of mismatched pots. I found a sack of dried pasta, a block of hard cheese, and a tin of butter.

How difficult could this possibly be?

I filled a pot with water and set it on the stove. Stoked the fire. Waited. Valerius sat on a wooden stool in the corner, swinging his legs, watching me with fascination.

“You gotta put salt in the water,” he informed me. “Mommy always puts salt.”

“Right.” I found a salt cellar. Added some. Probably too much.

When the water finally boiled, I dumped in the pasta. The cheese was next. I hacked off several chunks and dropped them into a smaller pot with a lump of butter.

Twenty minutes later, I had created a smoking culinary disaster. The pasta was scorched, and the cheese sauce had fused to the pan in a bubbling layer that looked like something excavated from a volcanic site. Smoke began curling up in thick clouds.

Valerius giggled. A real, genuine, belly-deep giggle that bounced off the tiny kitchen walls and settled somewhere warm in my chest. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

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