Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 186

Chapter 186: Chapter 186

Aria’s POV

I chose a low-key café on purpose.

No windows facing the street. Corner table. Nothing flashy. The kind of place where nobody cared who you were or what you were talking about.

I got there early. Ordered a black coffee I didn’t really want. Stared at the door.

The night before, after Kael went back inside the mansion, I’d stood alone in the dark and scrolled to Serena’s name in my phone. My thumb hovered over it for a long time.

She picked up on the third ring.

*"What?"*

Classic Serena. No hello. No surprise. Just that flat, vaguely hostile tone she’d perfected since childhood.

I told her I needed to talk. She laughed and said she was busy. I told her it was about Lucian.

Silence.

Then: *"Fine. Tomorrow. But somewhere public. I don’t trust you."*

I almost laughed at that. She didn’t trust ME.

So here I was. Nursing cold coffee and watching the door.

She showed up twenty minutes late.

I spotted her the second she walked in. Hard not to. Serena had always had a gift for entering a room like she expected a spotlight to follow her. Today she was wearing a cream fur-trimmed coat, gold hoop earrings the size of my fist, and sunglasses that probably cost more than my monthly rent. Her lips were painted a deep wine red. Her hair was done in elaborate waves.

She looked like money.

Borrowed money, I suspected. Lucian’s money, maybe.

The thought made my stomach turn.

She scanned the room, found me, and pulled off her sunglasses with a dramatic flourish. Tossed them on the table. Dropped into the seat across from me like she owned the place.

She was chewing gum.

"You finally decided to stop messing around out there and come back, huh?" Her voice was sharp. Impatient. Like I was wasting her time just by existing.

I wrapped my hands around my coffee cup.

"It’s good to see you too, Serena." I kept my voice level. "I’ve been back for a while actually. I just didn’t reach out."

Her perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched. "And why would you, right? Too busy playing house with your rich boyfriends to bother with your actual family."

There it was. Thirty seconds in and we were already here.

I didn’t take the bait.

"I’m not here to fight."

"Then why ARE you here?" She leaned back, crossing her arms, looking at me with that expression she’d had since we were kids. Half bored. Half suspicious. Like she was waiting for me to ask for something so she could say no.

I set down my cup.

"Are you seeing Lucian Blood Crown?"

The tiniest flicker crossed her face. Gone before I could read it properly.

Then she smiled. Slow and sharp. "My love life isn’t really any of your business, is it?"

"Serena."

"What?" She spread her hands. All innocence. "I’m serious. You don’t get to disappear for years and then show up demanding I report my relationships to you."

"I’m not asking you to report anything." I kept my voice even. "I’m asking because I know. I know you’re seeing him. And I know you’ve been giving him Wolfsbane."

The smile didn’t disappear exactly. It just froze. Set like concrete.

Her jaw worked the gum slower.

"Where’d you hear that?"

"Doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s true."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she shrugged. One shoulder. Casual. Like we were talking about the weather.

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