ADELE’S POV
I didn’t know how my feet carried me away from the training ground.
I just knew that if I stayed one more second—if I heard that word again, if I felt one more pair of eyes on me, if I watched Lucien stand there with that child clinging to him – was going to break in a way I might never recover from.
So I walked.
My vision blurred, the world around me fading into colorless shapes. Gravel crunched beneath my boots, the sound too loud in the silence roaring inside my head. My chest felt tight, like invisible hands were squeezing my lungs, refusing to let me breathe properly.
Daddy.
The word echoed again and again, cruel and relentless.
I pressed my hand to my mouth as a sob threatened to escape. I swallowed it down, forcing myself to keep moving, even as my legs trembled beneath me.
I didn’t stop walking until I reached the royal wing.
And then I collapsed.
Emilia caught me before I hit the floor.”Adele,” she gasped, wrapping her arms around me as my knees gave out. “Oh my God—Adele.”
The moment her arms closed around me, everything I’d been holding back shattered.
I cried.
Not the quiet kind. Not the graceful kind.
I cried like my heart was being ripped out piece by piece.
My hands clutched at her dress as if she were the only solid thing left in the world. My body shook violently, sobs tearing out of me so hard it felt like my chest might split open.
Emilia didn’t say a word.
She just held me.
She guided me to the couch, sitting down with me still pressed against her, my face buried in her shoulder. Her fingers moved gently through my hair, slow and soothing, over and over again, like she was trying to calm a wounded animal.
“It hurts,” I choked out between sobs. “It hurts so much.”
“I know,” she whispered softly. “I know, sweetheart.”
I clung to her, my tears soaking into her shoulder, my breathing uneven and broken. Images kept flashing in my mind no matter how hard I tried to stop them.Lucien standing there.
That little boy running toward him.
The way Lucien froze.
The way the world seemed to stop.
And the way everyone looked at me.
Pity.
Judgment.
Curiosity.
Like I was already the woman being left behind.
I pulled back suddenly, wiping my face with shaky hands.
“They looked like one big family,” I whispered, my voice breaking all over again. “Lucein on the ground, the boy hugging his leg, calling him Daddy. Naomi rushing over like she belonged there. It hurts so much to watch. Like a knife twisting in my chest, over and over.”
“Oh, Adele…” she murmured, pulling me back into her arms.
I buried my face against her again, crying harder now, the sobs coming fast and sharp. “I know I said I was going to stand with him,” I cried. “I promised him I would. I meant it. I swear I did. But why did this have to happen now?
Why now, Emilia?”My chest heaved. “Four months. Four months of fighting, of being pushed away, of wondering what was wrong with me. And then he finally let me in. He finally chose me. And now-now there’s a child.”
My voice broke completely on the last word.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“I need you to be strong,” she continued. “For yourself.
And for Lucien.”
I shook my head weakly. “I don’t feel strong.”
“You don’t have to feel it,” she said. “You just have to be it.”
She took a breath. “And I need you to promise me something.”
My heart thudded painfully in my chest. “What?”
Her gaze locked onto mine, intense and unyielding. “No matter what happens… no matter what the test says… you will not let another woman use a child as an excuse to take Lucien away from you.”
The words hit me like a shock.
“I-” My voice caught. “Emilia-”
“Promise me,” she insisted gently but firmly. “Do not let that happen. Lucien is not something to be taken from you. You are his mate. His choice. His love.”
Tears filled my eyes again, but this time they burned with something sharper. Fear. Resolve. Pain all tangled together.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” I whispered.
Emilia rested her forehead against mine. “You can,” shesaid softly. “And you must.”
My chest tightened.
Because deep down…l knew.
If I didn’t fight now-
I might lose him forever.
And I didn’t know if my heart would survive that.

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