Chapter 5

Lucas's POV:

I was just about to get back to the paperwork on my desk, trying to wrap my head around what the servant had just dropped on me, when my office door swung open again. This time it was Aria, carrying an elegant tray and wearing that sickeningly sweet smile of hers.

"Lucas, darling!" she chirped, "I brought you lunch. You've been working your ass off—you must be starving."

I looked up at her, the servant's words still ringing in my ears. That innocent act of hers made it impossible to connect her with the nasty shit I'd just heard about.

"Put the tray down," I said coldly. "We need to talk."

Aria seemed to pick up on something off in my tone, but she kept that fake smile plastered on, carefully setting the tray on my desk. "What's wrong, Lucas? You look pissed."

"Tell me," I stood up and walked around the desk toward her, "how exactly have you been treating Sophia?"

A flicker of panic flashed in her eyes, but she quickly covered it with that innocent look. "I... I don't know what you mean. I've always been nothing but kind to her."

"Kind?" My voice rose. "Dumping dirty water on her clothes is kind? Making her clean your room over and over again in one day is kind? Humiliating her in front of the staff is kind?"

Aria's face went white as a sheet, and she stumbled backward. "Lucas, who's been filling your head with this garbage? She must be bad-mouthing me! She's always been jealous of what we have, so she's making up lies to drive a wedge between us!"

"Making it up?" I stepped closer, my anger making her shake like a leaf. "So threatening the servants not to rat you out, saying you'd make Sophia's life even more of a living hell if she complained—that's all made up too?"

Seeing I wasn't buying her bullshit, Aria realized the jig was up. Tears welled up in her eyes, her body trembling as she protectively cradled her belly.

"Okay..." her voice became soft and shaky, "maybe... maybe I did do some things I shouldn't have. But Lucas, you have to understand where I'm coming from!"

I stared at her coldly, waiting for her sob story.

"I was just jealous for a hot minute!" Aria blubbered. "Sophia has everything! She's got the Luna title, your protection, the whole pack's respect. And what about me? I'm your fated mate, the one the Moon Goddess handpicked for you, but I've got jack shit!"

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, her voice getting more pathetic by the second: "Pack members talk behind my back, calling me a homewrecker, saying I'm some shameless slut who seduced a married Alpha. They look at me like I'm trash!"

"None of that gives you the right to make Sophia's life hell!" I snapped.

"I know I screwed up!" Aria's voice cracked. "But I was in so much pain! Watching her sit pretty in the Luna position every day while I had to put up with all that gossip... I just couldn't take it anymore!"

She rubbed her belly, tears streaming down her face: "And Lucas, I'm carrying your child. Our baby needs legitimacy, needs to be accepted by the pack. I just want to get the position that's rightfully mine, to give our little one a real family."

Seeing her playing the victim card, I felt my anger waver for a split second, but then I remembered all the cruel shit the servant had described, and my rage flared up again.

"Even so, you had no right to take your pain out on an innocent person!" I said harshly. "Sophia never did anything to hurt you—she even kept her mouth shut about our relationship!"

"I know... I know I messed up..." Aria hung her head, her voice barely a whimper. "But Lucas, I'm terrified of losing you. The mate bond makes me lose control of my emotions. I'm scared you'll always choose her over me..."

My eyes couldn't help but drift to her slightly rounded belly. My child was in there. Watching her protectively cradle her stomach, so fragile and vulnerable, my anger began to crack.

Whatever Aria had done, she was carrying my kid. And right now she looked so broken, so full of regret...

I took a deep breath, trying to get a grip on my emotions. "Aria, from now on, you're staying put and thinking long and hard about what you've done," my tone was stern but no longer blazing with fury. "You're not setting foot outside this house until I say so."

With that, I turned and walked out of the office, leaving Aria alone.

My feet carried me without thinking toward Sophia's old room. The moment I pushed open the door, I froze.

The room was completely empty.

The vanity was bare, the closet hung open with nothing inside. Her books, makeup, clothes... everything that belonged to her had vanished, as if she'd never lived here at all

But when I walked closer to the vanity, I spotted something—all the gifts I'd given her over the past four years. The pearl necklace from her birthday, the diamond bracelet from our anniversary, and that sapphire ring I thought she'd loved...

Every single gift was sitting there pristine, like they'd been carefully arranged. She'd taken everything of hers but left behind every damn thing I'd ever given her.

Not one. Not a single one.

Panic hit me like a freight train. My hands started shaking.

This wasn't some spur-of-the-moment tantrum. This was a calculated decision.

"No... no way," I muttered, frantically searching around, hoping to find a letter, a note, anything that might tell me where the hell she'd gone.

But there was nothing. Nothing except these rejected gifts she'd left behind.

She was really gone. Took everything of hers but didn't take a single memory of us.

My legs went weak, nearly buckled under me. I'd been telling myself she was just throwing a fit, telling myself she was an orphan with nowhere to go and would come crawling back soon enough. But now...

Now I realized Sophia was dead serious. She wasn't throwing a tantrum—she was really leaving me. For good.

And judging by how she'd left these gifts behind, she'd already made peace with never coming back.