Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 282 – Sera, will you stop?

Marigold giggled, her little voice dropping into something almost theatrical, like she’d rehearsed this a hundred times and loved every single run of it.

"Daddy is busy, but daddy loves Marigold so much." Her fingers counted each line like she was ticking off something sacred. "Everything he’s doing is for Marigold. Marigold is the one who inherits everything daddy is preparing. Daddy is preparing Marigold to take care of everything in the future because he loves Marigold so much."

The words came out clean, polished, perfect. Not like a child reciting a bedtime prayer. Like someone who actually believed it deep in her bones.

Voren’s whole face glowed with warmth. That hard, unreadable mask he always wore cracked open, a laugh came out of him. Not a polished laugh. Not the kind he used in boardrooms or at galas when something mildly amusing was said.

This one was real. Loose. Warm in a way that caught Seraphine completely off guard, like walking into a room expecting cold air and finding a fireplace instead.

"Good." His voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. "And how does it end?"

Marigold bounced slightly on the bed, barely able to hold herself still. The giggles came first, rolling out of her before the words could even follow.

"Whenever daddy is not around, Marigold shouldn’t think that daddy doesn’t love her." Her tiny chin lifted, proud of herself. "She should understand that daddy is away because he’s preparing better things for her."

"Good."

Just that. One word, and the way he said it made it sound like the highest praise a person could ever receive.

Seraphine stood there absorbing all of it, and something cold crept slowly up the back of her neck.

inside that little girl’s mind, brick by careful brick,

of this hospital today and never came back, if he disappeared or died or simply

heir to the Ashkael empire, and everything attached to it. No one could walk up to that child and tell her different. The

unsettled her in

Marigold had stretched her small hand out toward Voren, and Voren had taken it without a word but then they did something

elaborate little shake, thumbs hooking, pinky fingers curling, a whole ridiculous sequence that clearly had its own rules and its

without a single trace of self-consciousness, like

made

and filings she’d seen with no next of kin listed anywhere. Nothing.

but standing here watching how he’d woven himself into this child’s understanding of the

Was he trying

the obvious choice? They were best friends. Or at least that was the word everyone used. Ravyn spoke about

precision of everything he’d just done, Seraphine wasn’t so sure that friendship

there, the smaller she felt. And then, without warning, she began to long

need to

sound. Her eyes

out urgent, almost a command. "You have to stop mommy. She

Something crossed his face just for a second, quick and unguarded, there and gone before it fully formed.