Free Web NovelChapter 73: Chapter 73 Calling her sister
_Author’s POV_
Celeste had been patient for a long time.
She had watched from close range as the Varkos family took everything Rowena gave and returned nothing. She had watched Rowena manage it with a composure that Celeste herself could not have maintained and would not have tried to. She had held her tongue at family gatherings and formal occasions and through conversations that made her want to overturn furniture. To be honest, she just hated anyone from the Varkos family.
She was done being patient.
Yes, she’d told Rowena it was just a brief visit, but to hell with brief. She would make them suffer in her own way. This was her chance. She made the trip to Moonreign Pack on a clear morning with guards.
The Varkos mansion was large and well-maintained on the outside, the kind of property that still projected authority even when the family living inside it was quietly drowning in debt. Celeste arrived without announcement and presented herself at the door with the energy of a woman who had not come for a pleasant visit and was not going to pretend otherwise.
She was shown into the main receiving room.
Maelis came first, moving carefully with the help of a cane, her expression shifting through several calculations when she saw who was sitting in her receiving room. Elira followed close behind. Virella appeared in the doorway and leaned against the frame with her arms crossed, already defensive before a single word had been exchanged.
Kaelen came last.
He walked in with unhurried confidence he thought he had. He looked at Celeste, and something moved across his face that was almost warm, which was the part that irritated her most.
Celeste was older than Rowena by a considerable margin and she had known Rowena since Rowena was small enough to fall asleep in her lap. She had watched this family treat her cousin like a resource to be drawn from and she had a very specific list of things she had come to say.
She started with the reason for her visit.
"Rowena is selecting a husband," she blurted out without a care in the world. "A banquet has been arranged. It will take place shortly and there are several families of distinguished standing who have already been invited to present their sons." She looked around the room calmly. "I came personally to inform you so that there would be no confusion later about whether you were told in advance."
The room reacted exactly as she had expected it to.
Maelis went pale first. Her hand tightened on the cane and she lowered herself into the nearest chair with the movements of someone whose legs had stopped being reliable. "She can’t," she said, and then stopped, because even she understood how absurd that sounded.
Elira said nothing but her face did a great deal.
Virella’s arms uncrossed and then crossed again more tightly.
Kaelen smiled.
That was the thing that Celeste had not fully anticipated. Not distress, or alarm. Just a smile. Small and certain, the smile of a man who had already decided he knew something the room didn’t.
"Sister," he said warmly, directing it at Celeste as if they still had a bond together. freёwebnovel.com
Celeste looked at him, disgust curling in her gut.
"I am not your sister," she spat. "Rowena is not your wife. The dissolution decree was finalized and registered and there is nothing ambiguous about her status. She owes this family nothing and she is free to do exactly as she chooses." She kept her voice level. "Do not call me sister again."
Kaelen’s smile didn’t waver. "She’s upset," he said, as if explaining Rowena’s behavior to the room. "She went through something difficult and this is her way of responding to it. She doesn’t actually want to marry someone else. She just wants to feel like she has options." He said it with the calmness of someone who had convinced himself so thoroughly of something that contradicting him felt like arguing with a wall. "When the dust settles she’ll come back to what she knows."
Celeste looked at him for a long moment. He genuinely have lost it.
"You genuinely believe that?” she asked, impressed by the fool’s audacity.
"I know Rowena," he said simply.
"With a due respect, please shut the hell up, Alpha Kaelen. You don’t know her, you haven’t even spent upto one year with her. What do you know? Just the version of Rowena that no longer exists?” Celeste asked in a mockery tone. "The woman who waited for you and maintained your household and funded your family’s operations while you were gone has been replaced by someone who dissolved your marriage through the Alpha King’s office and is now preparing to move forward with her life." She paused. "You had that woman. You left her on your wedding night and didn’t come back for three years. Whatever you think you know, you surrendered the right to act on it a long time ago."
Kaelen opened his mouth but she shut him up again without fear.
She continued.
"I want to be very clear about why I came here today," she said, and her voice sharpened in a way that made even Maelis look up from her chair. "I came to tell you about the banquet because I want it on record that you were informed. And I came to tell you directly, to your faces, that if anyone from this family attempts to interfere with that banquet, if anyone shows up uninvited, sends a message intended to disrupt it, contacts any of the invited families to undermine it, or takes any action designed to obstruct Rowena’s ability to move forward, the consequences will be significant and they will come quickly."
The room was very quiet.
"The Alpha King is aware of Rowena’s situation," Celeste said. "He has been aware of it for some time and he has taken a personal interest in her wellbeing and her rights. I would encourage you to think carefully about what it means to interfere with something he is watching." ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Maelis had gone from pale to gray.
Even Virella had stopped leaning against the doorframe.
"This family took everything Rowena brought into it," Celeste said, looking around the room one final time. "Her dowry, her labor, her time, her resources. She kept this family standing while it was falling apart and none of you have acknowledged that with anything resembling honesty or gratitude." She stood. "She doesn’t need your acknowledgment anymore. She just needs you to stay out of her way."
She picked up her bag.
"Don’t come to the banquet," she said simply. "Don’t send anyone to the banquet. Don’t contact her about the banquet." She looked at Kaelen last. "And don’t call me sister."
