Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 193

Chapter 193: Chapter 193

Serena’s POV

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The needle went in wrong again.

Third time this morning. Third time I missed the vein. The inside of my arm was a mess of bruises now, purple and ugly and throbbing. I hissed through my teeth, pulled it out, tried again.

This time it caught.

The rush hit me like a freight train. Heat pouring down my spine. The world going soft at the edges. The shaking in my hands finally—*finally*—easing off.

I slumped back against the cracked tile of the bathroom wall and let myself breathe.

Thirty seconds of peace. Maybe forty.

Then it started to fade. It always started to fade too fast now.

I pressed my knuckles against my mouth and stared at the ceiling. Water stain up there in the shape of something I didn’t have the energy to identify. The tap was dripping. My phone on the counter had three missed calls from a number I didn’t recognize, probably a debt collector, probably someone Lucian had owed money to before they locked him down.

Lucian.

I felt something sharp move through my chest. Not guilt—I didn’t have the luxury of guilt anymore—just frustration. Pure, grinding frustration.

He’d been my cash flow. My safety net. Stupid as it sounds, that was what he’d been. A man with enough money and enough shame that he’d do anything to keep me from talking. And then Kael had pulled him back in like a dog on a leash, and the money stopped, and I was here. In this bathroom. Three missed veins and a water stain for company.

My mother had been useless. Called her last week, desperate enough to beg, actually beg, and she’d laughed at me. High as a kite herself, barely coherent, told me there was nothing left. That she’d already gone through the last of it. That I should figure it out myself.

*Figure it out myself.*

Like she hadn’t spent twenty years figuring nothing out. Like she had any room to talk.

I’d been so low I was genuinely considering selling my earrings.

And then Aria came back.

--- 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I’d already been thinking blackmail. Simple, clean, straightforward.

But then.

Then I overheard something at the bar that changed everything.

Two men in the booth behind me. Talking low, thinking no one was listening. I almost wasn’t—I was halfway into my second drink and the room was loud—but one phrase cut through everything.

*"Young ones fetch more. Especially if they are healthy. Their little organs are so worthy. Millions of dollars? Maybe?"*

I’d gone very still.

Kept my face forward. My drink in my hand. And I listened.

They were careful about it. Vague where they needed to be. But the shape of it was clear enough: there was a market. There had always been a market, I supposed, but these people were organized, well-connected, and very generously funded. And they were actively looking for—what they called, delicately—*new inventory.*

The number they mentioned made my ears ring.

I put my glass down. Very slowly.

Aria had a child, didn’t she?

Finn’s family was finished. His money gone, his status gone, his reputation in ruins. There was nobody left in his corner. And the child—who was she, really? An Omega’s daughter. Nobody with real power watching over them.

I put down my drink.

And I started planning.

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I did my research carefully. More carefully than I usually did anything.

The school wasn’t hard to find. One of the pack information networks.

I found out their pickup time. Found out the usual routine. Found out that Aria picked them up herself, most days, though occasionally she was late.

I needed documentation. A legitimate-looking consent form. A story.

The story was the easiest part. I looked enough like Aria—same bone structure, same general coloring, the family resemblance was there if you weren’t looking too closely—that claiming relation was believable. I was her *sister,* after all. Half-sister. That was true.

I had someone make the documentation. It cost me money I didn’t have. I put it on a credit card that was almost maxed out and didn’t think about it.

I told myself I could back out. I told myself this was just information-gathering, just seeing if it was even possible, just—

I didn’t back out.

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