Ex-Mate Wants Me Back (Seraphina and Mortimer) novel Chapter 177

Chapter 177

Third Person’s POV

Seraphina didn’t utter a single word of blame. She simply thanked him with absolute calm. “Thank you.”

She gave him a polite nod, picked up the spoon, and took small, slow sips of the soup.

As the warm liquid slid down her throat, her pale complexion finally regained a bit of color.

“I’m sorry,” Mortimer spoke, his voice completely hoarse.

Seraphina paused her movements, looked up at him, and smiled gently. “It’s fine. It was my own choice to go skiing.”

She had thought she could overcome that psychological barrier, not realizing she had severely overestimated herself.

Mortimer looked at her, his eyes growing red all over again. “I’m the one who did this to you.”

His eyes were entirely filled with wretchedness, self-blame, and the massive, suffocating panic of a predator on the verge of losing its mate.

The calmer Seraphina was-not complaining, not scolding, not even showing a hint of anger toward him-the heavier Mortimer’s anxiety became.

Seraphina, however, just shook her head. “It has nothing to do with you. No one could have predicted an avalanche.”

After saying that, she lowered her eyes and continued to slowly sip her soup.

“That’s not true, Sera.”

Mortimer frantically grabbed her hand, his dark eyes pleading.

But the moment his fingers wrapped around hers, he realized that no matter how much soothing Alpha pheromone he desperately tried to release, Seraphina’s body remained completely unresponsive.

“Can you please just yell at me? Sera, don’t be this calm. I’m begging you, scold me.”

Her gaze remained as placid as a stagnant pool, without a single ripple of emotion.

She gently pulled her hand back out of his grasp and shook her head again. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“How could it have nothing to do with me?! If I hadn’t left you there alone, even if there was an avalanche, I would have been right by your side! Your wolf wouldn’t have…”

Mortimer’s voice grew increasingly agitated, the rims of his eyes so red they looked ready to bleed. “You wouldn’t have…

suffered so much…”

“You had no obligation to be there.” Seraphina interrupted him, her tone completely cool.

Her tranquil eyes looked straight into Mortimer’s bloodshot ones as she repeated her words, “Mortimer, you had no obligation.”

“How could I have no obligation? We are…”

The word “mates” reached the very tip of Mortimer’s tongue, but he forcefully choked it back down his throat.

He didn’t have the face to say those two words.

Mates?

If he had truly understood the obligations of a mate back then, he wouldn’t have abandoned her so callously, leaving her to endure the suffocating terror of imminent death all by herself.

Chapter 1

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Now, how could he dare to call them mates?

He was absolutely terrified of the mocking, sarcastic look she would give him if he did.

She used to look forward to him.

He remembered the night she had that terrible nightmare, crying and asking him why he didn’t save her.

She had asked him, “I am your mate, why didn’t you save me?”

In that darkness swallowed by nightmares, she must have been entirely, thoroughly disappointed in him.

That was exactly why, even after nearly dying in the snow, she hadn’t breathed a single word of it to him upon her return.

Seraphina watched the violent, turbulent emotional storm raging in his eyes.

She simply put down her spoon, looked at him seriously, and said, “Let’s have a real talk.”

Mortimer subconsciously shook his head, wanting to refuse, but ultimately surrendered under her stern gaze.

He slumped defeatedly into the chair beside her hospital bed.

Seraphina looked at him. After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly asked, “You heard my conversation with Edwin earlier, didn’t you?”

Mortimer’s expression shifted. He opened his mouth, but ultimately just gave a silent, heavy nod.

“So, did you only find out today that I had feelings for you?”

Mortimer stiffened, completely at a loss for how to answer.

Seraphina just looked at him with a faint, knowing smile. “Actually, you guessed it a long time ago, didn’t you?”

Faced with her calm, analytical questioning, Mortimer looked incredibly wretched and exposed.

“You are the CEO of the Craig Corporation. For someone as sharp as you, how could you not have noticed at all? Your absolute, unreserved indulgence of Vivian-choosing her over me time and time again… besides repaying her for saving your life, it was also a deliberate show put on specifically for me to see, wasn’t it?”

“Sera…”

“You were afraid that because I fell in love with you, I would cling to you and refuse to dissolve the mate contract when it expired. You wanted to make sure I gave up all hope.”

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