Chapter 153\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I knew exactly who could help me start that process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I picked up the phone, pressing the familiar buttons, and waited. The line clicked once before Lance\u2019s voice, groggy but sharp, came through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNolan? What is it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time we talked,\u201d I said, keeping my voice steady despite the tension coiling in my chest. \u201cAbout everything. About our parents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was silence on the other end, heavy and hesitant. Then: \u201cEverything? You mean\u2026 the ambush?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d I admitted. \u201cI never told you the full truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance\u2019s tone sharpened instantly, a mix of disbelief and old irritation. \u201cYou never told me? You mean to tell me all these years I\u2019ve been-\u201c}\u00a0<\/p>\n
((\u00a0<\/p>\n
-believing what I wanted you to believe, yes,\u201d I interrupted, though my voice lacked the coldness it usually carried. \u201cI was trying to protect you. I thought\u2026 I thought shielding you from the truth was best.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBest?\u201d Lance\u2019s voice rose, and I winced at the echo of raw anger. You think that was best? You left me in the dark, thinking I understood what happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remained silent, letting the weight of my brother\u2019s words land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you do these things? Why do you have to be such a control freak?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI made choices then I couldn\u2019t undo. Choices that shaped the man I am now. And I\u2019ve failed since. With Mom and Dad. With Ellie. With everyone who trusted me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The line was quiet for a long moment, and I felt the weight of years pressing against me. Then Lance spoke again, voice trembling, almost a whisper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2026 damn it, Nolan. Tell me what you called to tell me.\u201d He waited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I swallowed hard, my throat tight. \u201cI don\u2019t expect forgiveness,\u201d I admitted. \u201cI just\u2026 needed you to know. You deserve to know. I\u00a0<\/p>\n
I lied when I told you that they both died before I found them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could hear Lance\u2019s voice catch through the phone. My stomach twisted. I didn\u2019t know if this was easier or harder over the phone. I deserved to be punched, and part of me wished he were here to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDad was\u00a0<\/p>\n
still alive. I found him\u2026 I spoke to him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was a long silence. I could hear Lance moving on the other end, perhaps pacing. \u201cWhat did he say to you?\u201d he asked, his\u00a0<\/p>\n
voice thick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me\u2026\u201d I sighed heavily. \u201cHe apologized. For the way he was with me growing up. He told me to be happy\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told you to be happy?\u201d Lance said with disbelief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 with Felicity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words landed heavily, Lance made a sound like an aborted laugh, then went silent. I thought that he\u2019d hung up for a moment before his voice came again, soft and uncertain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was he apologizing for, Nolan?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that you were too young to be aware of it all\u2026 they were always different with you. You weren\u2019t sent to the alpha camp. You weren\u2019t put through the predawn training. Dad used to beat me when I couldn\u2019t keep up with the warriors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut\u2026 Nolan, you were just a teenager when he died. How could he have expected you to keep pace with trained warriors?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 153\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I was the firstborn son, the heir. I was supposed to be better. Always. I was the one who was supposed to make Silver Fang a great power, to elevate the pack to the status they thought i deserved. Maybe he had some clarity in the end, maybe he was just losing blood and not thinking\u2026 but that\u2019s what he told me. Be happy with Felicity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then: \u201cIt\u2019s\u2026 a lot to process,\u201d Lance said slowly. \u201cI need time. But, thank you for telling me. I can\u2019t promise I\u2019ll forgive you. But at least now, I see why you were so unwilling to break up with that nutjob.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not asking for forgiveness,\u201d I said quietly. \u201cJust thought you deserved to know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another pause, then: \u201cIt\u2019s a start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c}\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hung up and leaned back in my chair. My chest felt heavy, but the act of confession had lifted some small part of the weight. I was still guilty. I was still fractured. But at least now he knew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even so, I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about Ellie. About the way she\u2019d looked when she left, holding the twins. About how she had fled from me, not in anger, not in defiance, but in fear and exhaustion. The thought gnawed at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I rested my head in my hands, feeling the old ache return, the same one that had haunted me since the forest that night, the one I had never managed to shake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was not the hero of this story. I was a man trapped between the past and the present, a man who had failed everyone I loved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet\u2026 even in that dark space, a faint, stubborn ember of resolve glimmered. I would fix this. Somehow. I didn\u2019t know how yet, but I would.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Ellie. For the twins. For myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because no matter how many mistakes I had made, no matter how far I had fallen, I could not let the world-or my own failures -steal her from me again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BIG SALE: 3500 bonus free fou you\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 153 Chapter 153\u00a0 And I knew exactly who could help me start that process.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unremembered-mate-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}