TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 142

CHAPTER ON SAAD BYL EMPER

CHAPTER 94: GOOD BYE, EMBER

EMBER’S POV

“Because I saw you on the news.” His voice cracks again. “During a press conference. I saw you standing

up there, speaking to the camera, saying five words they have haunted me every night. You are dead to me. And though it wasn’t directed at me, felt it so much. I felt it down to my depths that you also said those words for me. But also, I realized… I realized that my daughter was the bravest person I’d ever seen. And I was too much of a coward to even watch it sober.”

He wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand, not bothering to hide the tears.

“I checked myself into rehab after your mum sent the divorce,” he continues. “Cold turkey. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But every time I wanted to give up, every time I wanted to reach for a bottle and make it all go away, I thought about you. I thought about the little girl who used to wait by the door for her daddy to come home. And I told myself that maybe, if I could get clean, I could find her again. I could tell her I was sorry. I could try to be the father she deserved, even if it was twenty years too late.” The tears are falling now, sliding down my cheeks despite my best efforts to hold them back.

“I missed you,” Maurice says, and his voice is barely a whisper. “Every single day, even when I was too drunk to remember my own name, some part of me missed my little Birdie. And I know I have no right to ask for anything from you. I know I destroyed any chance I had at being your father a long time ago. But I needed you to know that I’m sorry. That I love you. That i never stopped loving you, even when I was too

broken to show it.”

I don’t know what to say.

Part of me wants to fall into his arms and sob, to let him hold me the way he used to when I was small, to pretend that everything can be fixed with a hug and an apology.

But I’m not that little girl anymore. I stopped being her the day they sold me to the Crawfords. And no amount of sorry can bring her back.

“I believe you,” I say finally, and my voice comes out thick and unsteady. “I believe that you’re sorry. I believe that you’re trying to get better. And I… I can forgive you. For the drinking. For not being there. For all

of it.”

Hope flares in his eyes, bright and desperate.

“But forgiveness doesn’t mean access,” I continue, and I watch that hope flicker and dim. “It doesn’t mean we get to have a relationship. It doesn’t mean you get to be my father again.”

“Ember-”

“I can’t forget.” My voice breaks, but I push through. “I’ve tried. Goddess, I’ve tried so hard to forget. But I can’t. Every time I close my eyes, I see you passed out on the couch while Mom screamed at me. I see you stumbling through my sixteenth birthday too drunk to light the candles. I see you signing those papers

< CHAPTER4 GOOD BYE EMPER

without even reading them, trading me away like was nothing.”

I take a shaky breath.

“I can forgive you for being weak,” I say. “Ican forgive you for being sick. Addiction is a disease, and I

understand that now in a way I didn’t when I was younger. But I can’t give you access to my life. I can’t let you back in just because you’ve been sober for two months. I can’t risk letting myself hope that this time

will be different, because I’ve hoped before, and it nearly destroyed me.”

Maurice’s face crumples, but he nods slowly, accepting.

“I understand,” he says, and his voice is barely audible. “I do. I’m not asking you to trust me. I haven’t earned that. I just… I needed you to know that I’m sorry. That Nove you. That if you ever change your mind, if you ever want to try, I’ll be here. Sober. Waiting. For as long as it takes.”

“I won’t change my mind.” The words come out harder than I intended, but I don’t take them back. “I can’t. There’s been too much damage, too many broken promises, too many years of disappointment. I don’t consider myself your daughter anymore. That ship sailed a long time ago, and I don’t think it’s ever coming

back.”

He flinches like I’ve slapped him, and for a moment I feel guilty. But then I remember all the nights I cried myself to sleep waiting for a father who never came, and the guilt fades.

I have crossed my own boundaries over and over again, just to please others. I keep making excuses for their excesses. I can’t keep being that version of me.

“I hope you stay sober,” I say, and I mean it. “Not for me. For yourself. Because you deserve to be free of

never have a relationship.” that poison, even if we can

“Ember…”

you. But because seeing “I hope I never see you again.” The words are gentle, but final. “Not because I hate you hurts too much. It reminds me of everything I lost. Everything I never had. And I can’t keep carrying that weight. I need to let it go.”

Maurice is crying openly now, tears streaming down his weathered face, but he doesn’targue. He doesn’t beg, which I appreciate.

Maurice only nods, slowly, like a man accepting a sentence he knows he deserves.

“I understand,” he says again. “And I’m… I’m proud of you, Birdie. For standing up for yourself. And even for getting away from that sick bastard. You are becoming the woman you were always meant to be.” He tries to smile, but it comes out broken. “Your father may have failed you, but you didn’t let that failure define you. You’re stronger than I ever was. Stronger than I ever could be.”

He moves toward the door, and I step aside to let him pass.

“Goodbye, Ember,” he says quietly. “I love you. I always will. Even if you never want to see me again.” He opens the door and steps out into the hallway.

CHAPTER 94 RODAVE EMBER

And then he’s gone.

I stand there for a long moment, staring at the closed door, feeling something complicated and painful

shifting in my chest.

It’s not closure, not exactly. More like… the beginning of letting go. The first step toward healing a wound

I’ve been carrying for so long I forgot it was there.

I turn back to the mirror and look at my reflection.

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