Chapter 182

Chapter 182: Chapter 182

Lena’s POV

Celeste shot me a glance. My face stayed blank.

If Anna ever found out the girl we knocked over in the street was Gemma, she’d absolutely lose it.

The world was full of weird coincidences, sure, but this one? This was straight-up ridiculous.

"Dominic, talk some sense into Gemma," Celeste said after the polite small talk, turning to him. "She should stay at the manor. There are rooms here, servants here, and we can take proper care of her. In her condition, living alone isn’t safe."

"Mother Celeste, I’ve been on my own for a long time. I’m used to it." Gemma shook her head lightly. "Really. I’m okay."

Mother Celeste.

The way that title slipped so naturally from Gemma’s lips felt warm, familiar, intimate. The kind of name you only gave someone who truly held a mother’s place in your heart.

I noticed the difference right away. Celeste had never been this warm with Eliza.

The way she treated those two sisters was completely different. Night and day, no contest.

Celeste still wouldn’t let it go. "You’re not alone anymore. For eight whole years, I didn’t know if you were dead or alive. Now that you’re back, I’m not letting you disappear again."

"You’ve always been too good to me." Gemma smiled, sincere and unguarded, nothing like Eliza’s polished, carefully packaged restraint.

"If only you weren’t this stubborn." Celeste’s tone softened, and her eyes turned bright. "You used to sit on the sofa right next to me. Now you won’t even let me get close."

"My skin patches smell awful," Gemma said with a laugh. "I’m sparing you."

"I don’t care about that at all."

Gemma’s gaze shifted to Dominic, then to me. "Being here and seeing all of you again is already enough. Dominic found an amazing mate."

She looked at me openly, with nothing hidden behind her eyes. "I always wanted him to be happy. Seeing this... honestly, it’s the happiest thing that’s happened since I came back."

I studied her face carefully, searching for even the smallest crack. Resentment. Jealousy. Some buried sadness clawing under the surface.

I found nothing.

Every word she said was real.

"You always think about other people." Celeste’s voice caught. "If you hadn’t disappeared back then, you’d be the one standing beside him."

"Don’t say that." Gemma lifted a hand, stopping her gently. "Things happen the way they’re meant to. Dominic was meant to find Lena, and they were meant to build a future together. I believe that."

Celeste let out a heavy sigh.

A staff member appeared at the doorway. "Luna Celeste, lunch is ready."

"Let’s eat."

Celeste got to her feet and pointed at Dominic. "Don’t just stand there. Help Gemma to the table."

Dominic stepped forward, but Gemma lifted a hand to stop him. "I’ve got it."

She grabbed the arms of her wheelchair, lowered herself into it with practiced ease, and rolled toward the dining room. She’d done this too many times to count. She didn’t need anyone carrying her.

"At least let him push you," I blurted out before I even thought about it.

Gemma wasn’t pretending. Not even a little. She genuinely didn’t want to become someone else’s burden.

"Lena, don’t make him waste his energy taking care of me." Gemma rolled her eyes and flashed a grin. "If you need proof, I can do a spin in this thing."

I laughed, but behind the smile, a dull ache spread through my chest.

Eight years.

She came back in a wheelchair, thin as a shadow, skin stretched tight over bone, medical patches stuck clearly over her collarbone.

Whatever had happened during those missing years had taken her legs and stripped her down until she was little more than skin and bone.

I didn’t want to picture the details.

But my mind still flashed to all those news stories about women who vanished for years and later turned up broken, scarred, or dead.

Gemma had survived.

But the marks on her body told the rest of the story.

Alpha Theodore wasn’t there. Celeste and Gemma sat on one side of the table, while Dominic and I sat across from them.

Celeste served Gemma first. She cut the meat into small pieces, spooned sauce over the vegetables, then poured her water. She cared for Gemma the way someone cared for a daughter they’d lost once and somehow gotten back.

No wonder she wanted me gone.

If I had lost a girl I loved that much and then found her again, I’d probably want to hand her the whole world too.

After lunch, Celeste had fresh fruit brought out for Gemma, then turned to Dominic. "Come to the study. I want a word."

The two of them disappeared down the hall. The door shut behind them.

Gemma and I were left alone in the sitting room.

She looked at me with that same steady, open expression. "Funny how we keep running into each other."

"Seriously." I almost laughed. "And... sorry again."

"Dominic invited me to dinner last night. I was going to come, but something came up."

"Next time," I said simply.

We didn’t force conversation after that. She wasn’t the kind of person who filled silence just because silence existed, and neither was I.

She didn’t explain her relationship with Celeste. She didn’t apologize for existing either. She just sat there in her wheelchair, calm and unbothered, facing everything head-on.

Looking at her, I couldn’t connect her to Eliza at all.

I’d always assumed Dominic’s type was polished women. Elegant. Sophisticated. The Eliza kind.

Turns out, I was dead wrong. ℯ

Gemma was the kind of girl who could make strong men soften without even trying.

Dominic’s POV

Celeste closed the study door and turned to face me.

"Gemma is back. What are you going to do?"

"Get her the best treatment possible. Help her recover."

"Can her condition even be treated?" Celeste frowned, and beneath her composure, pain flickered fast across her face.

I looked straight at her. My expression said everything.

Celeste slowly let out a breath. "Dominic, you owe her an answer."

"I’m bound."

"Then end it. You don’t love Lena, and she doesn’t love you. After I spoke with her, she agreed to step aside. I offered her a condition, and she accepted it. All you have to do is say the word."

"I’m not breaking the bond."

Celeste stared at me. "Why? Have you fallen for her?"

The question hit under my ribs like a needle.

My chest tightened hard, but I held the reaction down. "There’s nothing wrong between Lena and me. A mate bond isn’t something you throw away like trash."

"You spent the entire first year trying to get rid of her. What changed?"

"That was before."

Celeste drew in a deep breath and fixed me with a sharp, blazing stare. "Fine. Keep the bond. But if Lena gets pregnant within three months, I’ll drop this. If she doesn’t, then we’ll have this conversation again."

"Mother." My voice hardened. "And what exactly would that prove?"

"Everything. If she’s willing to carry your pup, then it means she truly belongs in this family. It means she’s made up her mind. If she won’t, then she doesn’t see a future with you, and this relationship will fall apart on its own sooner or later."

Then her tone changed in an instant, going cold and sharp. "I appreciate that she came to your side when the curse was at its worst. I do. But let’s be honest. If it weren’t for the money, the manor, and the status, do you really think she would have agreed to form a bond with you back then? You were half-dead. She was making a deal."

I knew.

I had always known.

Lena’s original motives had never been hard to read.

"You and Father were the ones who set the terms. Someone would’ve accepted. If it hadn’t been her, it would’ve been someone else. It was fair. There was nothing wrong with it."

I had never once considered ending the bond.

I didn’t want the words bond broken attached to our names. Not ever.

"Why are you being so stubborn?" Celeste was running out of patience. "You don’t love her, and she doesn’t love you! You won’t even ask her for a child! So what exactly are you clinging to?"

"It’s my decision."

Celeste stepped closer and grabbed my arm. "Gemma has called me Mother Celeste since she was fifteen. If you won’t make her your mate, then at least formally claim her in some way. Adopt her into the family. Make her your goddaughter, your ward, give her some title, any title, so I can take care of her properly."

My jaw locked.

"Or," Celeste said, lowering her voice, "you can think about what you once told me."

I said nothing.

"You told me you would never take anyone but Gemma as your mate. You said it to my face, in this very room. Do you remember?"

My fingers curled at my sides.

"You searched for her for an entire year. You turned this whole territory upside down. You couldn’t sleep, barely ate, barely drank. And when we finally stopped searching, you shut yourself away for months." Celeste tightened her hold on my hand. "Are you really saying that after all these years, you never once thought of her?"

I stayed silent.

"My boy." Her voice softened, roughened around the edges. "Listen to your heart. Finding someone you truly love is one of the rarest things in this world. If you loved Lena, I wouldn’t say a single bad word about her. But you don’t. And now you want to spend the rest of your life with a woman you do not love while the person you truly loved is in the next room?"

"Gemma came back and found you bonded to another woman. In the place that should have been hers, you brought in someone else. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

She held my gaze.

"Break your bond with Lena," she said softly. "Please."