Too Late Alpha The Mate He Never Wanted (Iris and Eric) novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Eric’s POV

I dropped to my knees, brushing dirt away with my bare hands frantically.

My throat tightened as I prayed within myself. Please let it be a rock. Just a large flat rock.

But I already knew it wasn’t.

The more I cleared the soil, the more the truth stared back at me. It wasn’t a rock, but a coffin.

A small coffin.

No. No. No.

I stared at it, frozen in disbelief. My mind refused to process it. It was getting harder to breathe. I was sweating profusely, but I didn’t notice it at that moment.

The coffin could be empty. It could be part of the lie, probably just to make it look real.

My hand hovered over the lid for a moment, then I yanked it open.

Almost immediately, I shot back like I had been burnt.

The smell hit me first. That heavy stench of death.

I fell back, gagging with my eyes wide as I stared at the body inside.

It was Evie.

Her face was pale and sunken. Her little hands were folded over her chest. She was wrapped in her favourite blanket, and her favourite unicorn was placed by her side.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. The image burned itself into my brain and at that point I knew that this image would forever hunt me till the day I died.

.I scrambled backward, breathing heavily. It wasn’t a lie, neither was it a trick.

Evie was gone.

And Iris… Iris was telling the truth.

My chest clenched, and I shoved my fist into my mouth to muffle the broken scream I released.

I bent over and gripped at the dirt tightly as I tried to stop the wave of grief that hit me.

But it was of no use as tears ran down my face, and I began sobbing.

All my body shook as I sobbed violently.

I had left her.

That night… the night she had a seizure… I thought she was faking it.

I told Iris she was lying. I told her Evie was manipulating me. I turned my back on both of them.

I let my daughter die.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the image of her face wouldn’t leave me. Her tiny body in that coffin with that unicorn beside her.

The same unicorn she had brought for Tiffany.

1/3

Chapter 20

+25 Bonus

She had tried to give away her favorite thing just to feel included, and I had coldly rejected her gesture.

Even with everything I did to her, she still called me “Daddy.”

Even when I had never earned it.

My hands trembled as I remembered more memories, no matter how much I tried to repress them all.

And Iris had carried it all. She had held Evie in her arms when she died. She had buried her alone, and carried that pain in silence.

Because I told everyone not to bother me. I had been so damn convinced she was manipulating me.

I had called her a liar, a manipulator, when she was just desperate to save our daughter.

What kind of monster had I become?

I lost track of how long I knelt by the open grave, trying to wipe the image from my head, but it wouldn’t go. It wouldn’t fade.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I didn’t reach for it.

I just kept staring.

I had been so wrong, and there was no way to fix it.

There was no apology that could bring Evie back. There was no gift that could bring her back. She was gone, and I had let her go, without ever telling her I was proud of her, or that I loved her. I would never see those eyes staring into mine with a hopeful smile on her face.

I reached into the grave and gently touched the edge of the unicorn with a bitter smile on my lips. “I’m sorry, Evie, for everything. I love you so much, I’m so sorry that I was blinded by my hate to see it. But now, I will do my very best to make things right as much as I can.”

I forced myself to move, wiping the dirt from my face.

I had to find Iris.

I didn’t even know what I was going to say to her, but I needed to see her. I needed to make sure she was still breathing, still alive. She couldn’t survive alone on her own outside the pack border. It was too dangerous.

I needed to make sure she was safe. It was the least I could do for Evie.

I pulled out my phone and dialed my Gamma, Marcus.

“Marcus,” I croaked when he picked up. My voice didn’t even sound like mine.

There was a pause. “Alpha?”

“Put out a search party,” I said.

A silence.

“For who?” Marcus asked slowly.

“For Iris.”

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