To ruin an Omega novel Chapter 446

Chapter 446: The Apple

LYSANDER

The garden was too quiet.

I walked the stone path between my mother’s rose bushes and felt the silence press against my ears. There were no birdsongs or even wind. All that was in this space was just the muffled sound of my own breathing and the crunch of gravel under my shoes.

The roses were still blooming. Red, coupled with white and even pale pink. My father had made sure of that. He hired gardeners to tend them. He paid for the best soil and the best fertilizer, and the best tools. He made certain that this space remained exactly as my mother had left it.

A shrine to a woman he had killed.

I stopped near the center of the garden where the largest rose bush grew. My mother had planted this one herself. I remembered watching her dig the hole. I remembered the way she had smiled when the first bloom appeared.

That felt like a lifetime ago now.

I sank onto the bench beside it and dropped my head into my hands.

Everything was falling apart.

My father had been planning this for only hours. But it was starting to feel like the seed had been born even longer. He had his ears around, and they started to chirp. People already fed him information about Skollrend. About Cian Donlon. About the internal politics and the power struggles and the weak points he could exploit.

He got nothing useful. Only that A Gabriel Donlon was arrested.

Gabriel’s arrest should have been the end of it.

I had felt something close to relief when I heard the news. The man my father had been waiting to meet with was finished, captured, and locked away somewhere in Skollrend, where he could not do any more damage.

The hope had, however, quickly crumbled before it even started to fly.

I thought it was over.

I thought maybe we could move on... Then Luna Pauline killed herself.

The news came through one of my father’s contacts. They claimed it was suicide. The clean cut one that left no room for interpretation. Not that my father remotely cared.

And just like that, the fire that had dimmed roared back to life ten times hotter.

My father wanted his healer.

He was not going to let anything stop him. Not Gabriel’s arrest. Not the political fallout. Not the risk of a potential war with Skollrend.

He would use every mechanism at his disposal... Every tool... Every person.

Including Hazel.

Including me.

I pulled the tie from my pocket and let it hang loose between my hands.

The silk was smooth and cool against my palms.

I still thought about wrapping it around my father’s neck. About pulling it tight until he stopped breathing. Until that calculating smile disappeared from his face forever.

Could I do it?

Really?

I thought I could. I had thought about it before. After my mother died. When the grief was still raw and the anger burned hot enough to make me reckless.

I had packed herbs that day. Nightshade. Hemlock. Things that would kill him swiftly in right amounts. None that would make it look natural.

I had been ready.

Then I saw Fia.

She had fallen and she had needed my help. And somehow... I stared. Somehow I cared.

I forgot about the herbs in my bag. I forgot about my father. I forgot about everything except her.

Despite falling from that height... She looked like she was free.

I wanted that. I wanted to be near it. To understand it.

So I let the plan die. I buried the herbs in the garden and told myself that there were other ways. Better ways.

I told myself I was being smart and strategic.

But the truth was simpler than that.

I was a coward.

I had always been a coward.

My hands tightened on the tie.

Hazel was right. Everything she had said in that dining room was right.

I loved Fia. Or I had loved her. Or maybe I still loved her and I was too broken to admit it.

And now my father was going to take her. He was going to lock her away and use her and break her the same way he had broken my mother.

And I was going to let it happen.

Just like I always did.

The anger rose hot and fast in my chest. It clawed at my ribs and pushed against my throat until I thought I might choke on it.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear something apart. I wanted to burn this whole garden to the ground and watch the roses blacken and curl.

But I just sat there.

Useless... Pathetic...

I wad deep in my thoughts when a hand touched my shoulder.

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