Free Web NovelChapter 264: Chapter 264
Aria’s POV
Animal. At that word, my lips curled in a wicked smirk.
I stepped forward, brushing passed him like he meant nothing. I could smell his pulse spike with fear. I pushed him aside and sat in his seat.
My wolf purred.
Sophia trembled nearby, her voice a fragile whisper. “Y-You...”
I glanced at her, then dismissed her. She wasn’t worth a threat at the moment.
My gaze locked onto Margaret. “You. Go fetch my grandmother’s things.”
Her face twisted. She lunged for Kara, trying to pry her off Patrick.
Kara’s wolf flared, just a flash in her eyes and Margaret stumbled back, caught by their house staff.
“Aria!” Patrick sputtered, humiliated. “How could you bring such a person into the Darvin home? you shame us!”
A low growl built in my chest. Us? As if I was ever truly part of that word.
Kara bared her teeth at Patrick. “They’re lucky I’m only holding you.”
“Keep them still,” I said, rising. My voice echoed with power, like a howl rolling off a cliff. “I’ll get it myself.”
I turned toward the hallway, toward Grandma’s room.
But Sophia leapt in front of me, arms spread wide. “S-Sister, please. Apologize to Mom and Dad. Then they’ll give you Grandma’s things.”
I slapped her arm aside. I didn’t even slap it hard, I slapped it just enough to send a message. She gasped, pain flaring on her face.
Patrick’s roar rattled the windows. “Aria! This is trespassing! I’ll call the enforcers! You’ll go to jail!”
The word jail snagged on old trauma. I remembered the cold bars, the scent of bleach, silver chains I couldn’t break then. My wolf snarled, snapping the memory away.
I pulled a folded piece of paper from my pocket. The will. Grandmother’s.
“The will clearly states everything is mine. All of it. If you don’t hand it over...” I held it up, smirking, “I’ll tear this family apart in court.”
Patrick laughed. Even dangling and red-faced, he laughed. “You? With your scraps of education? You can’t win against me. You’re still a Darvin. Everything she owned belongs here.”
My claws itched beneath my nails.
“I have cut ties with all of you, you did the same” I reminded him quietly. The kind of quiet that wolves use before ripping out a throat. “You called me a bastard.”
I took a few steps closer, my eyes glowing faintly gold. “If I’m a bastard, and you’re my father... what does that make you? A savage? A mutt? Something lower than a wolf?”
He choked on his own rage. For a heartbeat, I thought he’d collapse. Kara loosened her hold in him but didn’t let go completely. Sophia scrambled to hold him up. Margaret’s mask cracked.
“Aria!” she screamed. “Ungrateful child! I should have left you on the streets! You are nothing compared to Sophia! Nothing! Now you want to kill your father? I’ll sue you for attempted murder!”
I stopped.
My fingers trembled. My wolf froze.
There it was. The truth, their truth.
They never loved, never wanted me. I was replaced the moment Sophia arrived.
I met Margaret’s eyes. And something in me fractured.
“Nothing compared to Sophia?” The words echoed in my skull like claws dragging down bone. My heartbeat thundered, my wolf pacing just under my skin.
I had excelled my whole damn life. Straight A’s, every report card was perfect. I was recruited by top law firms before I even graduated. I became a renowned lawyer in Asterfell before I turned twenty-four.
And yet—
All that effort, all that brilliance...
Never once earned me a smile...It never once earned me love.
Meanwhile Sophia scraped by with mediocrity, and they celebrated her like she hung the moon.
Was I really inferior to her?
Or was their blindness so absolute that I could never shine in a house that refused to see me?
My fists clenched so hard my claws threatened to break through. My wolf snarled inside me, a cold fury rippling through my veins. My whole body trembled. The temperature in the room dropped.
Then...
A warm hand closed around mine.
I flinched, startled.
I hadn’t realized Amelia had come in and was now beside me. Her presence cut through my rage like sunlight through storm clouds. Her scent grounded me.
She held up her credentials and glared at them. “I am a lawyer,” she said, her voice firm as steel, “and a judge.”
Authority radiated off her like alpha energy.
The room seemed to buckle around her. Margaret and Patrick paled, the weight of Amelia’s words sinking deep like fangs in their pride.
Rage lit Sophia’s eyes. She must blame Amelia for Lucious’s downfall. I could smell the bitterness wafting off her like rot.
Amelia’s voice rang out, clear and sharp: frёeωebɳovel.com
“The will states everything belongs to Aria. Refusal to hand it over is illegal possession of property.”
It wasn’t just words.It was a verdict. A howl of justice in a world that tried to muzzle me.
Kara tugged Patrick’s collar for emphasis, and he snarled, “Give her Grandmother’s belongings to her!”
He immediately instructed his wife to go and get it.
Margaret disappeared, then returned with a battered tin box.
My wolf stilled, my heartbeat slowed. There it was, Grandma’s belongings. She was the last person who ever loved me.
“Take it and get out of the Darvin family,” Margaret hissed. She shoved the box toward me. The weight of it jolted my arm. It was heavier than it looked.
I didn’t drop it. Instead, I held it like something sacred. Like my wolf would tear out anyone’s throat who tried to take it away.
“Kara,” I murmured.
She released Patrick, who was crumpled, coughing and pale.
I turned, holding their gazes like I might never get the chance again.
Maybe I wouldn’t.
“From today on,” I said, my voice ringing with finality, “I sever all ties with the Darvin family.”
