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.

time, that tiny spark inside

this would be the child, maybe this would

the files were pushed aside, and one

and smaller until there was only

for a long moment before finally reaching for it. Her fingers

found another child who was not hers, something inside her

she had been holding onto

became unbearable, the office suddenly felt too

soft sound escaped her throat before she could stop it,

hesitation, he reached for her and pulled her into his arms.

her, she folded against him completely, burying her face in his chest as his warmth

a while, neither of them spoke. She just stood there, holding onto him like he was the only thing keeping her from falling

wanted so badly to stay strong, to keep pretending she could handle

sitting inside her was too deep,

disappearing into his shirt as she

remember?" Corvine murmured softly, his voice

held her tighter as he spoke, reminding her of

this, told themselves there was a chance they would not find anything, built

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

and broken, and after that, she stopped trying to hide

on him completely because he was the only person who truly understood what this

the beginning, knew every

to live with the guilt of not knowing whether that child had survived or disappeared

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