My Stepmother Sold Me to the Alpha Who Hates My Father's Name, and the Child He Wants Is the Proof That Clears It novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: No
I did not go down.
I stayed at my father's stone with the snow collecting on my knees, and I let her climb.
Her good grey dress was wet to the knee.
Her lacquered hair had come loose on one side.
She stopped three yards from me and held the lantern up, and her face under it was smiling.
It was a smile with nothing behind it.
"There you are," she said. "I've been so worried."
"You went away," I said. "You drove off with the pack, and you came back when you thought they were gone."
"I went to be kind to an old woman."
"You went to hear what she'd say."
"Caly," said Verna, patiently.
"You knew." I got to my feet. "You knew what my father carried, and you let me think I was the price of his guilt."
"I said nothing that wasn't true."
"You said *guilt*."
"He was guilty," said Verna. "He lied for fourteen years to a pack that trusted him. Call it what you like."
Her hand tightened on the cross.
It was the first time I had seen her touch it while telling the truth.
I understood, standing in the snow, that she had never once lied to me.
She had only chosen which truth to hand me.
"Mama!"
Dell came stumbling up the slope behind her with a flashlight and no hat.
He was drunk, and he had been crying.
"Mama, you said we'd go home," he said.
"This is home, Dell," said Verna, without looking round. "It's still our name on the note."
"It's not," I said.
She turned her head.
"The note was settled at the Reckoning," I said. "I struck out *in full settlement*. I wrote my terms on it in front of two packs."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Stepmother Sold Me to the Alpha Who Hates My Father's Name, and the Child He Wants Is the Proof That Clears It are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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