Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 187

Chapter 187: Chapter 187

Aria’s POV

The moment I stepped through the front door, I felt it.

That heaviness in the air. The kind that settles into a room and refuses to leave.

Kael was already home. He was sitting on the couch with both girls, one on each side of him—Lina pressed against his arm, Lilith curled up quiet and still. The TV was on but nobody was watching it. Three sets of eyes turned toward me when I walked in.

"Mommy!" Lina jumped up immediately. Launched herself across the room.

I caught her. Held her tight. Pressed my nose into her hair and breathed.

She smelled like shampoo and crayons and everything familiar.

"Did you eat?" I asked into her curls.

"Kael made pasta." She pulled back. Made a face. "It was okay. Not as good as yours."

"It was fine," Lilith said from the couch. Her voice flat. Careful. Like she was walking on glass and didn’t want to make noise.

"It was edible." Kael’s voice was dry. "High praise from both of them, clearly."

I almost smiled. Almost.

Lina wiggled down from my arms. Grabbed Lilith by the hand. "Come on. You said you’d teach me that card game."

Lilith looked at Kael. Then at me.

Something passed between us. An unspoken *it’s okay, go.*

She nodded. Let Lina pull her toward the bedroom.

The door clicked shut.

And then it was just the two of us.

---

The silence stretched out between me and Kael like something with weight. Like something you could reach out and touch.

He was still sitting on the couch. Elbows on his knees. Head tilted slightly, watching me.

I set my bag down by the door. Didn’t move any further.

"How is she?" I asked. "Your mom."

Kael exhaled slowly. Shook his head.

One small movement. But it said everything.

My chest tightened.

I looked at the floor. At the carpet fibers and the small scuff mark near the coffee table and all the nothing that was easier to stare at than his face.

I thought about Serena this morning. That frozen smile. That shrug—*so what if I am?*

I thought about Kael’s mother last night, the way she’d screamed. The way the words had come out of her like something tearing.

*Your cursed, demon family—*

*They destroyed my son—*

She wasn’t wrong.

The thought sat heavy in my stomach. Thick and dark and impossible to swallow down.

"Hey."

Kael’s voice. Closer than I expected.

I looked up.

He was standing right in front of me. I hadn’t even heard him move. His black-gold eyes were focused on my face, reading every microexpression the way he always did. Like I was a text in a language only he knew how to speak.

"What’s that face?" he asked.

"What face?"

"That one." He reached out. His fingers brushed my jaw. Just barely. "The one that looks like you’re about to apologize for something."

I opened my mouth.

"Don’t," he said quietly. Before I could get a single word out.

"Kael—"

"Don’t." His hand curved around my jaw. Gentle. Firm. "I know what you’re thinking. I can see it happening in real time."

My throat got tight. "Your mom—"

"Is in pain." He said it simply. Without flinching. "And scared. And exhausted. And she said things she shouldn’t have said."

"But she wasn’t wrong." The words came out rough. Barely held together. "My family did this. Like—"

My voice broke on the last word.

I pressed my lips together. Breathed.

Kael pulled me in.

I just stood there and let him hold me and tried to remember that I was not responsible for every terrible thing a person who shared my blood had done.

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