The Omega and The Arrogant Alpha (by Kylie) novel Chapter 302

She nods. “Sort of. Not formally. There were notes. Recommendations. Conditions attached to approvals. Nothing that said no outright. Just enough barriers that everything slowed down or quietly stopped.”

That sounds exactly like the system we dismantled.

“Did you consent,” I ask.

Her mouth twists. “I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

The answer hits harder than anything else she’s said.

“I thought everyone went through it,” she adds. “I thought this was just what it meant to need extra guidance.”

I let the silence stretch, not because I don’t know what to say, but because rushing would be a mistake here, and because this isn’t about me proving I understand.

“How long did it last,” I ask finally.

“Five years,” she replies. “Longer, if you count the way it followed me even after the restrictions lifted. The reputation stuck. The assumptions. The feeling that I was always one misstep away from being contained again.”

Contained.

The word settles deep and uncomfortable, because it isn’t dramatic enough to sound like abuse, and that’s exactly why it worked.

“When the reforms started,” she continues, voice tightening just slightly, “I thought it would end everything. I thought whatever that was would finally be named as wrong. But then nothing happened. And I realized no one even knew it had existed.”

My hands curl slightly on the table before I consciously relax them again.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” I say.

She looks up at me then, eyes sharp and searching. “I know. That’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you,” I ask gently.

She exhales, slow and shaky, and when she speaks again her voice is steadier, like she’s made peace with what the answer costs.

“Because people like me are still walking around carrying the consequences,” she says. “And if the system is gone but the silence stays, then nothing actually changed.”

The room feels smaller suddenly, not because of her presence, but because of the truth of what she’s saying.

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