The Alpha's Chubby Obsession. novel Chapter 164

Side Story 15-2

Clairy

By morning, Olivia excused herself, saying she had been called and needed to attend to something. But staying away from her for long had never been something I liked. So, like a fool,! followed her… wanting to remain close, wanting the distraction.

But when I got to where she was attending to her guest, the last face I expected to see was the one standing in front of me.

Aria,

Older now, matured, but that fire-her fire-still burned in her eyes. Beside her sat a boy who looked like her exact male replica from her youth. His brown hair shone, and his pale skin was a mirror of the girl she once was. My breath caught before I forced myself to act normal.

When they saw me, they both stood and greeted me. I forced myself to respond, careful not to stumble over my words, careful not to sound like a man seeing someone he once shattered… and

once loved.

Aria did her part well too. Calm. Composed. She asked where her daughter was, spoke as if our past had never existed. Olivia, oblivious to everything that had happened between us, was thrilled at the idea of welcoming Aina into our home.

But I had two reasons to stop that from happening.

First, because I wanted Bella for Osborne.

Second… because Aina was Aria’s daughter-someone tied to the part of my past I had buried long

ago.

I believed I hid it well. I thought I had remained composed. But soon enough, when Osborne came over and we started discussing him and Aina, things shifted.

Both my wife and my son began to sense something-something unspoken.

Because no matter how much Aria and I tried to act like strangers, like two people who knew

themselves but not too well…

that familiar pull, that familiarity we once shared, lingered in the air, giving us away.

A reminder that some pasts don’t stay buried, no matter how hard you try.

After Aria left, Osborne-ever perceptive, ever attentive-came straight to me. He told me that he

had asked her directly, and she had confirmed everything. And when Olivia found out, she was furious with me. She brought up the past, reminded me of how I’d treated her in the early years of

10

1/2

2

M

|||

O

<Side Story 15-2

our marriage, how distant and cold I had been.

Clair

But somehow… as always… we found a way to make up. We patched it over the way mated pairs often do-through touch, through closeness, through a bond we had worked hard to strengthen over the years.

Still, nothing prepared me for the weight of what I had discovered.

I never imagined that the past I believed was long buried had left something behind.

A fruit.

A child.

1

A child she had carried without me ever knowing because I had ghosted her in the most unforgivable way.

A child who silently spoke the truth of the love we once shared.

A child who looked more like me than even Osborne did.

Realizing I had never been part of her life-realizing I had missed everything because I had been

weak-ate at me slowly, painfully.

And for a while, I felt something ugly inside me… jealousy.

I watched my son the way others watched their heroes-how he stood unwaveringly beside his

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify