The Secret Heirs of the Lycan King (Bella and scott) novel Chapter 143

Chapter 143

Bella

For a second Isla just stared at me, like she didn’t trust her eyes. Then she gave a sound that was half laugh and half gasp, and she hurried toward me with a happiness that felt almost childlike.

“Bella,” she said, voice shaking. “Oh my God. You’re here.”

Before I could speak, she hugged me tightly. I stood still for a moment, then hugged her back, feeling her warmth and her trembling hands. Behind me, Scott stepped inside with the kids in his arms. Isla pulled back, her eyes widening as she looked at Ryan and Emma.

“Oh, my lovelies…” she began, almost breathless.

Scott smiled politely. “Ryan and Emma,” he said. “Your great–grandchildren.”

Isla looked like she might cry on the spot. She went to the kids immediately, kissing their cheeks and talking to them softly. Ryan wrinkled his nose and giggled. Emma stared at Isla with wide eyes, curious and excited.

I cleared my throat and said, “Kids, this is Isla. She’s my grandmother.”

Emma blinked. “So she’s… my grandma too?”

I couldn’t help smiling a little. “She’s your great–grandmother,” I explained.

Ryan looked confused. “How can she be great? Is she a superhero?”

Scott let out a small chuckle. Isla laughed too, wiping at the corner of her eye.

Emma leaned forward seriously and asked, “Do you have magic, great–grandma?”

Isla laughed again, her joy bright and real. “No, sweetheart,” she said kindly. “I don’t have magic. But I have you.”

They kept asking questions as Isla led us into the main room. Ryan asked if she was older than the dinosaurs. Emma asked if she had ever met a princess. Isla answered them patiently, amused and happy, as if their innocent questions were the sweetest thing she had heard in months.

When we all settled down, Isla’s expression softened, and she looked at me with concern. “Jared is not doing well,” she said quietly, meaning Jared. “Not mentally, and not physically. He tries, but he’s struggling.” Then she took a deep breath. “I wondered where Lucy was,” she said, “but I don’t care anymore. I only saw in the papers that Maya and Craig are in prison, and I was glad about that.”

My lips tightened briefly. “I was glad too,” I said. “After everything they did.” My eyes scanned the room without me meaning to. I kept looking toward the hallway, the backyard door, any place father might appear. Isla noticed.

“He’s in the backyard,” she said gently. “He’s been trying to focus on small things. Simple tasks. It helps him stay steady.”

10:42 Fri, Jan 16

Chapter 143

I hesitated, then asked quietly, “Does he… pine for Lucy? Or Maya?”

AC

Isla shook her head firmly. “No,” she said. “He doesn’t speak about them like that. He only remembers Catherine and you. Sometimes at night, when the house is quiet, he sits alone in his room, drinks, and inoks at pictures of his wife and his daughter. He talks like he has woken up from something terrible, and he can’t understand how he let his life become what it became,”

Her words hit me hard. My chest tightened with emotion and guilt. I suddenly felt like I had been very harsh with him outside the villa, even if a part of me still believed I had the right to be harsh.

I looked at Scott. He was watching me closely, his eyes calm and knowing, because through our bond he could. read what I couldn’t say out loud. He gave me a small nod, encouraging me to go and seek him.

I swallowed hard and stood up slowly. As I walked toward the backyard door, I heard Ryan and Emma still talking to Isla. Their voices were bright and innocent.

“Can you make cookies?” Ryan asked her.

“I can,” Isla replied happily.

“Do you have a farm?” Emma asked.

“A small one,” Isla said. “And you can see it later.”

Their voices followed me as I stepped outside.

The afternoon air was cool and quiet. The backyard was wide, with a neat garden patch near the fence. Jared was there, wearing old clothes and gloves, bent over the soil. He was planting vegetable seedlings carefully, pressing the dirt around them with slow movements. There were small rows of green–maybe tomatoes, maybe peppers. He had a small watering can beside him and a basket of seedlings v

I stood still for a moment, watching him.

He looked different, older. A white beard had appeared. He looked like someone who had been broken and was trying to learn how to stand again using the simplest things.

I took a deep breath and walked toward him.

Maybe he sensed my footsteps, or maybe he sensed my presence the way people sometimes do when they are thinking deeply. He paused and slowly looked up.

When he saw me, his eyes widened. He removed his gloves with shaking hands, blinking hard as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His lips parted, and his voice came out rough. “Bella,” he rasped. Immediately, his eyes turned wet immediately, and a tear slipped down his cheek. “I–I never dreamt,” he said, his voice trembling, “I never d–dreamt in my life that y–you would come to m–meet me,” he stuttered.

I clenched my fists, holding myself in my place.

His throat bobbed, and then his words spilled out quickly, like he was afraid that if he stopped, I would vanish. “Oh, Bella! I love you,” he said. “I love you so much. There isn’t a day when I haven’t thought about you. After Catherine… after Catherine died, my life became a horrible dream. I–I don’t know what I did, Bella.

10:42 Fri, Jan 16

Chapter 143

I don’t know why I did the things I did. I can’t even understand it now. But now I’m

He didn’t get to finish because I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. I stepped forward and throw my arm around him tightly.

Father froze at first, as if he didn’t dare move. His hands hovered awkwardly, like he didn’t trust that this was real. I held him tighter and spoke into his shoulder, my voice shaking.

“I want to move forward, Daddy” I said softly. “And I have forgiven you already.”

For a second he didn’t react, as if his mind couldn’t take it in. Then his arms wrapped around me slowly, carefully, like he was holding something precious and fragile. His grip tightened, and I felt him shaking too.

We cried there in the garden, holding each other, the afternoon sun warm on our backs, as if all the years of distance and pain had finally cracked open to make space for something new.

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