Let Them Kneel (kaelani and Julian) novel Chapter 195

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Chapter 195

“I think I’ve heard enough.”

But Garrick didn’t stop.

“When you turned eighteen… and you were still wolfless,” he said, the confession weighing in his voice, “I’ll admit… I used that.”

He dragged a hand over his face.

“For my own benefit. And for yours.”

He shifted slightly, like the words themselves were uncomfortable to hold.

“It gave me a way to release you from the pack. To reduce the risk of the truth coming out.”

He pressed his lips together briefly before continuing.

“And to give you a chance to build a life somewhere else. A better one.”

His gaze dropped again.

“I could have done better, Kaelani. I see that now. But I did what I thought was best at the time.”

His gaze found hers again, the control in it faltering just enough to show what lay beneath.

“I did care about you.”

Kaelani shook her head, her eyes still closed.

“No,” she said, her voice sharp, unmoved.

“You only cared about yourself.”

Garrick shook his head slightly.

“I cared for you,” he said. “Whether you believe it or not.”

Kaelani’s eyes snapped open.

And this time, she didn’t hold back.

“If you cared about me,” she said, her voice slicing ugh the space between them, “you would have been a

damn father to me.”

She stepped forward, the distance between them closing just enough to make the words land harder.

“You wouldn’t have left me in some orphanage to grow up alone and rejected. Year after year, watching other children get adopted–go to happy homes, to people who actually wanted them.”

Her voice threatened to break, but she didn’t let it.

“While I was left wondering what the hell was wrong with me.”

Her expression left no room for doubt.

“But you heard it, didn’t you?” she went on. “The whispers.”

A bitter edge crept in.

hapter 125

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“She’s weird… her scent’s off… she’s a wolfless freak.”

She let out a short, unamused breath.

“And it didn’t stop there. Not when you moved me in to the packhouse.”

She held his attention.

“If anything, it got worse.”

Her features settled into something colder.

“Only this time, it came from your own spoiled–ass children.”

Her voice dropped slightly, but the weight behind it only grew heavier.

“And you saw it. The way they treated me. The mental abuse. The physical abuse.”

Her fingers curled against her palm, nails pressing into skin.

“And you did nothing.”

Silence stretched for a fraction of a second.

Then-

“So don’t you dare sit there and tell me you cared,” she finished, her tone rising with indignation. “Because you never gave a shit about me.”

Kaelani wiped at the tear that slipped free, brushing it away with a sharp flick of her hand-

had fallen at all than anything else.

Garrick pushed himself to his feet and moved toward her slowly.

more irritated that it

“You deserved more,” he said, his voice fraying at the edges. “I know that. You needed me to be there. You needed

a father… and I failed you in every sense of the word.”

He took another step, closing the distance between them.

“But it’s not too late for us,” he went on, the words catching as something real finally pushed through.

“If you give me a chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for it… for all of it.”

He stopped just in front of her.

“I’ll be the father you needed me to be.”

He lifted his arms slowly, uncertain.

Kaelani flinched.

It was immediate. Instinctive.

Garrick stilled, something tightening across his face–but he didn’t step back.

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