Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 294 - It was you?

"Man, Ravyn made the whole situation ten times worse. He said it was proof of what he’d always thought about you. That you were inconsistent and couldn’t be trusted. He claimed that was the reason he never really liked you in the first place."

Voren’s expression stayed mostly the same but something in his eyes got a little colder when he mentioned it.

"I told myself you probably needed some space. That I was crowding you too much, and maybe if I just stepped back and gave you room to breathe, things would eventually find their way back to normal. So I left again. And this time I stayed gone for years."

Seraphine stayed completely still on her back beside him on the bed, staring up at the ceiling right alongside him like they were both watching the same old movie playing out above them.

"When I came back," Voren continued. "It was even worse than before."

He let that hang there for a second before he kept going with the story.

"It was your eighteenth birthday." The corner of his mouth moved just a tiny bit.

"When we were kids, you always used to talk about becoming a doctor. Every single time someone asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, that was your answer every time. You never changed your mind about it." He glanced over at her sideways.

"So while I was out there building the future I planned for us, I pulled strings to secure a spot for you in the college you attended, though, you still had to go through some procedures but I had great faith in your abilities. Everything was lined up perfectly."

almost without him realizing

But you were standing on that hill." Seraphine closed her eyes

you were looking at Ravyn like he was the only person in the whole world who existed." Voren’s voice didn’t break at all. It just went very, very flat. "And you told him you loved him right there in front of

that felt

it simply, like someone who had already grieved it so completely

not to any of it." He kept staring at the ceiling. "But I still found a way to send you that admission letter. I made it anonymous because I feared you would reject it if it came directly from me, just as you

in the middle of her

Her voice came out small and a little unsteady. Her eyes stung and she blinked fast, trying hard to hold everything

believing it was some

turned it over in her mind, feeling quietly grateful about it, and somewhere in a private corner of herself she had even wondered if Ravyn had arranged it as a surprise

held onto that possibility like it meant something important about him. Like maybe he really saw her.

it had been

remember that day," she said, her voice a bit steadier now but her

looking at you and thinking something was completely different about you. The long hair was gone, your face looked harder, you barely smiled at all. You kept looking at me in this way I couldn’t

up in totally different directions. And then you were just gone. That was the last time I saw you until the day I