I took a taste of the chocolate and smiled. It was delicious—just the way I had imagined. This was my favorite, and I wondered how they had been able to find it. Taking another bite, I crossed my legs and stared at the gifts spread across my bed. I thought of their words, how they promised this had nothing to do with the full moon. A part of me wanted to believe them, but another part of me felt it was strange—so strange. These were men who had hated me for no reason, so why, all of a sudden, were they giving me gifts?
A knock landed on my door, and I straightened up, asking the person in.
The door pushed open, revealing the triplets' mother. She flashed me a warm smile before stepping in.
Respectfully, I stood to my feet and slightly lowered myself.
"You don't have to," she said in a friendly manner. "You are Luna… remember that." She sat on the couch opposite me.
I nodded and sank back onto the bed, wondering why she had come. She didn't speak immediately; instead, her eyes fell on the presents on the bed. A small smile curved over her lips.
"The Alphas got you these?" she asked.
I swallowed hard and nodded.
A bigger smile appeared on her face before she turned to look at me. "I knew they never stopped loving you," she said in a tone that sounded certain.
I furrowed my brow. They never stopped loving me? What was she even talking about? The triplets hated me. They hated me because I was tagged the daughter of a thief. When I needed them the most, they disappeared from my life and inflicted pain on me.
"Sorry, but I think you're wrong… the triplets never loved me," I said with a murmur. "If they loved me, they wouldn't have left me the moment I needed them. They wouldn't have cut ties with me because my father was tagged a thief, and I was demoted to an omega. If they had loved me, they wouldn't have gone after Anita—my best friend. Hell, if they had loved me, they wouldn't have fucked Anita right before me on our wedding night."
The warmth drained from her eyes, replaced by something more serious—like she had waited a long time to say this.
"I understand your anger, Olivia," she said gently. "But… are you sure you know everything that happened?"
I blinked, my heart skipping. "What are you talking about?"
She leaned forward slightly, her fingers lacing together. "I don't know what exactly happened between you and my sons. They never told me… and trust me, I asked. But what I do know is that whatever it was, it broke them."
I frowned, confused. "What do you mean broke them?"
"For weeks, Olivia." Her voice dropped. "Weeks. Each of them locked themselves in their rooms. No training, no meetings, no food unless I forced them to eat. They were—gone. Like their souls had left them. I've never seen anything like it. They wouldn't talk, not even to each other. All they did was sit in the darkness of their separate rooms."
A chill ran down my spine.
"Lennox smashed the mirror in his room," she continued, her voice trembling with the memory. "Levi nearly shifted out of control during one of his episodes. And Louis… Louis didn't speak a single word for ten days straight."
"But…" I shook my head, a lump forming in my throat. "I was the one hurting. My father was arrested. I was cast out and made to scrub floors. They… they stopped talking to me."
She looked at me with pain in her eyes. "I know what it looked like, Olivia. And I don't have all the answers. But the boys I raised—those boys loved you. I saw it in them."
I swallowed hard. "They didn't love me. If they did, why would they do all that? Why would they throw me away like garbage?"
"I don't know," she admitted, sounding confused. "But they refuse to tell me what you did."
"What I did?" My voice rose in disbelief. "I didn't do anything—"
"Then why, Olivia?" she asked, not accusingly, but with genuine confusion. "Why do they look like they're punishing themselves every day? Why do they train until they bleed, until they pass out? Why do they all carry this… pain?"
Nothing made sense anymore. I had spent all this time believing they had betrayed me… that they hated me. But now I was hearing a different story, one filled with pain I didn't know they had suffered.
"I don't understand," I whispered, my eyes stinging with tears.
"I'm not asking you to forgive them," she said kindly. "I just want you to see that maybe… maybe there's more to this story than you remember."
I looked away, unsure of what to feel.
Was there something I didn't know?
Or something I had forgotten?
My fingers gripped the edge of the bed as I struggled to steady my breathing. Her words stirred something inside me—a memory, blurry and distant, clawing at the edges of my mind. I shook my head, trying to grasp it.
"I…" I paused, blinking rapidly. "I remember the day my father was arrested. It was my fourteenth birthday." Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on ɴovelfire.net
Her gaze sharpened, clearly surprised.
"The triplets came to see me," I continued slowly, my voice dropping to a whisper. "Each of them brought a gift. Three little boxes, each wrapped differently. They smiled and told me not to open them yet. Lennox said, 'Open it tonight, after the party. We want it to be a surprise.'"
My chest ached at the memory—the way they had looked at me that day, like I meant the world to them. That day, I wanted to confess something to them, something I was scared of saying, but I decided to wait until I opened their gifts.
"I was so happy…" My throat tightened. "I remember putting the boxes on my table and rushing downstairs. I wanted to wait, just like they said. But that was the same day everything went to hell."
She remained silent, watching me intently.
"My father was accused of stealing from the Alpha. They dragged him in front of the entire pack. The triplets were there too. I looked at them—I looked at them— for comfort, but they wouldn't even meet my eyes."
Tears threatened the corners of my vision, but I blinked them away.
"I didn't think of the gifts until the next day," I murmured. "When I went back to my room… they were gone. The boxes. All of them. Just gone."
Her brows furrowed. "Gone? Did you ask anyone?"
"I tried to go to the triplets," I whispered. "I thought maybe… maybe they came to get the gifts themselves, or wanted to comfort me. But the guards stopped me at the gate. They said none of the triplets wanted to see me. That they gave orders to keep me out."
That moment came crashing back into my chest like a blade. The confusion. The pain. The shame.
"After that, everything changed. I was stripped of my title. People stopped talking to me. And the triplets… they were just gone from my life. Like I never mattered."
I looked up at her, eyes hollow. "But now I'm wondering… what if something happened with those gifts? What if something was inside them? Something that… set everything off?"
She leaned forward. "Do you think that's possible?"
"I don't know," I whispered, my head pounding. "I can't remember clearly. It's all… foggy. But I keep getting this gut feeling that I missed something. That something happened between the moment I left those boxes in my room and the moment my father was arrested."
Her face grew pale. "You think someone might have… tampered with the gifts?"
"I don't know." I hugged my knees to my chest. "But why did the gifts disappear?"
She was quiet for a long while, and then she said, "Olivia… maybe it's time to find out what really happened. For your sake. For theirs."
I nodded slowly, fear pooling in my stomach.
Whatever happened that day—whatever truth had been buried—it was time to dig it up.