Stepbrother Mine A Son For Alpha Zoren (Ciara) novel Chapter 5

5: Regret

Ciara

I felt numb.

Numb and angry. Stupid and hurt. Betrayed and foolish.

I was standing in the garden long after everyone had gone to bed. I couldn’t sleep. How could I? When my heart was feeling like it was falling apart.

I still couldn’t believe Zoren was getting married. During the rest of the dinner, his father revealed it was set to happen in a month. I had ended up excusing myself from the rest of the meal for my own sanity.

I felt so stupid. If I had known he had someone he was getting married to, I definitely wouldn’t have let him fuck me. Now the thought of him marrying someone else almost had me sobbing. I hated it, I hated this, and I hated Zoren for keeping that away from me.

I didn’t hear anyone approaching, but when strong hands wrapped around me from behind, I stiffened before the familiar smell of Zoren’s cologne filled my nose. It didn’t calm me down, it just filled my insides with hurt and I quickly whirled around to shove him away.

“You bastard.” I swore as I pushed him again. He didn’t resist, and that angered me even more.

“So you’re getting married? A- and you didn’t bother letting me know? You really are an asshole!” I cried out, breathing hard.

He finally sighed and pulled on his hair.

“This is such a complicated situation. It was exactly what I’ve been avoiding.”

I rolled my eyes, hating him even more. “Oh, please spare me. This woman you’re getting married to, you love her, don’t you? Your father said so. If you’re in love with her, why the hell did you fuck me?”

I waited with bated breath for him to deny loving the women he was engaged to and call his father’s words bluff.

However, his face blanked and a shutter came over his face just as he nodded sharply, eyes empty.

“You’re right, Ciara. I really am in love with her.”

Something stilled within me at his words.

“Oh.” I whispered and he nodded sharply again before turning away from me.

“Yeah. So… whatever it is that happened between us mustn’t happen again. It was a stupid mistake.”

I barked out a bland laugh, my heart shattering within me. “You know what, Zoren? Fuck you. You really are an asshole!”

I whirled around, my eyes blurring with stupid tears.

“You said you wouldn’t fall in love with me.” He echoed behind me, his voice cold, and that only made me hurt more.

“Fuck you, Zoren.” I walked off the garden after that, and he didn’t stop me.

I didn’t break down until I was in my room.

My chest hurt so much that it was hard to breathe. Was I really in love with him? I didn’t know, but him saying what happened between us was a stupid mistake and broke my heart even more, and the thought of him marrying someone else in a month hurt so much. The fact that he fucked me despite being in love with someone else, the fact that he made me utter those stupid words of me belonging to him and no one else while he was deep in me… made me hurt even more.

Gosh, I’m so stupid.

I was still silently crying when my door creaked open and my heart soared before dropping on realizing it was my mother.

As I quickly wiped my eyes, I regarded my mother, confused over what she was doing here when she was supposed to be in bed with her new husband. “What are you doing here, mom?”

“Get up, Cici. We have to get moving fast,”

I frowned, getting more confused. “What?”

She snapped her fingers. “Everything is in place. I’ve successfully wired all the money from Gregg’s account to mine, and I even grabbed a lot of diamonds while he’s dead asleep.” She revealed and I froze, unable to believe my ears.

“What the fuck, mum?!” I cried out but she tugged me up fast.

“Are you stupid? You might wake Zoren because I noticed he didn’t eat his food tonight. I laced his and his father’s food with some sleeping pill.” She continued fast, already heading for the door. “There’s no need to pack anything, let’s go.”

That was when it all clicked. My mother didn’t get married to Gregg because she loved him like she claimed. She married him because she wanted to steal from him.

“Alice, where should this picture of dad be positioned?” Gina’s voice pulled me out of my inner thoughts. I pointed at the spot above the television and she went off.

I sighed as I looked around our new home located in a small town, where we just moved into a week ago. After our mother made us travel across the world to be sure we don’t get discovered by Gregg, we’ve finally settled in a small town after changing our identities, which is why I now go by Alice. My siblings now go by Vera and Kate.

It was gonna take me some time to get used to these new names.

My mother wasn’t here with us right now, and I was honestly glad about that, cause her presence was just gonna keep annoying me. It’s been almost a month since we fled Gregg’s house, and a week since she parted ways with us to resume traveling across the world. Before she left, she gave me a huge amount of the stolen money, assuring me I had no reason to work a day in my life anymore. Even though I rejected the money, swearing to never use it, she still left it behind.

And I was glad she did. Even though I’ve taken up working in a restaurant a few buildings away, the pay was very measly, and to get a lot of essentials to set this house up, enroll my siblings in schools and start living normally, I had to take out of that stolen money while being guilt ridden, and although the money barely made a dent in the large sum my mother left behind. I promised to replace the money once I’ve saved up enough from my new job as a waiter.

Life wasn’t much now, but at least I was together with my siblings and they were back to living normal lives again… while I lived each day like a huge part of me was missing.

I went to get changed, prepared to return to the restaurant for my next shift, and that was when my eyes snagged on the pregnancy test strips I got from the pharmacy store at the end of our new street, and at once, my stomach twisted into sharp knots. I began to panic as soon as I missed my period, and even though I got these stripes days ago, I was too afraid to use them because I was scared of the results I’d get.

Zoren’s grey eyes flashed across my mind for a moment, followed by a flash of pain before I quickly shoved that image away.

With my lips pressed into a line and determination rushing through my veins, I picked up the stripes and disappeared into the bathroom, determined to get this over with.

As I followed the steps and waited for my alarm to go off, I reasoned with myself. My period is just delayed because of the stress I went through these past weeks. Moving from country to country, hotel to hotel, all in the name of hiding from Gregg, was beyond stressful. So, it’s logical for that to make my period get delayed.

The moment my alarm went off, I almost dropped my phone from shock, then I spent a minute frozen in place before I finally summoned the courage to pick up the stripes.

The two bright red lines that stared right back at me almost made me faint.

I looked at the other stripes, and the results were the same. Two bright red lines.

I was pregnant.