Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 187 – There is something you have to see

Leon’s brow pulled together as he looked at her with that familiar mix of curiosity and quiet irritation he always seemed to carry whenever Seraphine became too intense, and even though his voice stayed calm, there was something heavier in his voice when he asked, "And why exactly would I refuse you that?"

A tired smile pressed against Seraphine’s lips, faint and fragile, but there was still determination behind it as she took the folder from his hands and headed toward the small office she had claimed as her own inside the hospital.

It had become the only place where she could breathe for a second without feeling like the walls were closing in on her.

Corvine followed right behind her without saying a word.

He already knew what she was about to do before she even sat down.

The moment she lowered herself into the chair, she opened the file and began sorting through the reports, while Corvine sat beside her and quietly helped. Together, they separated the files by age, narrowing them down to children between six and seven years old.

At first, it seemed simple enough. There were only names, ages, blood types, records, samples, and tiny fragments of lives folded into paper.

But the longer Seraphine looked through them, the harder it became to breathe.

Every file felt like it could belong to her daughter, every little detail became something to cling to.

A birthday, a blood type, a strand of hair collected for testing, a note from a nurse. Every single thing had the power to fill her chest with hope for a few seconds before tearing it apart all over again.

She looked through one report after another, fingers trembling more with every page she turned, and every time she found a child whose age lined up, her pulse would spike so hard it hurt.

Then came the blood results, the DNA. None of them matched her, and none of them matched Ravyn either.

single time, that tiny spark

this would be the child, maybe this would finally be the answer

pushed aside, and one by

in front of her grew smaller and smaller until there was only one folder left sitting on the desk

long moment before finally reaching for it. Her fingers felt numb, her chest

when she opened it and found another child who was not hers, something inside her quietly

hope she had been holding

room became unbearable, the office

before she could stop it, barely more than a broken sniff,

for her and pulled her into his arms. Seraphine did

wrapped around her, she folded against him completely, burying her

him like he was the only thing keeping her from

strong, to keep pretending

disappointment sitting inside her was too deep, too sharp, too

disappearing into his shirt as she clung

remember?" Corvine murmured softly, his voice low and steady beside her

tighter as he spoke, reminding her of

for this, told themselves there was a chance they would not find anything, built walls around their hearts for this exact

hurt now that it was real. "I know," she whispered, her voice cracking no matter how hard she tried to hold herself together. "I know we did, but

came out weak and broken, and

let herself lean on him completely because he was the only person who truly understood

from the beginning, knew every choice

guilt of not knowing whether that

among the ones dead?" Seraphine whispered after a while, her voice shaking so badly it almost did not sound like her at all. "What