8
The next morning, Shadow was abruptly awakened by the sound of her cellphone ringing. With tired eyes, she reluctantly glanced over at the device, shaking on the bedside table.
Despite wanting to keep up the appearance of a simple girl, Shadow still clung to her old, basic cellphone that only made calls and sent messages. She refused to be like her family members who were all obsessed with smartphones.
She hesitated for a moment before answering the call. “Dad,” she said, her voice groggy from sleep.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .
“Why did you come home yesterday? Who brought you back?” her father’s serious voice questioned.
Shadow felt disappointed. She had just gotten married, and her father was more concerned with who brought her home? Couldn’t he ask something more relevant?
Her father rarely called, let alone asked about her whereabouts. Something seemed off, and Shadow couldn’t help but suspect his true motive.
She truthfully replied, “Alpha Kilian’s cousin brought me home.”
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, and then her father spoke again. “When you have time, take your sister to the Lances house and introduce her to some suitable young people. She needs to make more friends.”
Shadow suddenly understood what her father was getting at.
After she had left Eden’s Castle yesterday, Alpha Dominic and Jessica must have met. And knowing Jessica’s nature, she probably saw an opportunity. Her father wanted her to set Jessica up with Alpha Dominic.
It was an incredible scheme by her father and sister.
Alpha Kilian was supposed to be engaged to Jessica, but Shadow ended up marrying him because of her mother’s intervention.
Now, they were planning to use her to secure a good husband for Jessica in the prestigious Lances family.
Everyone in the Moonlight Pack knew that, apart from Alpha Kilian, the rest of the men in the Lances family were exceptional and powerful.
Of course Jessica wanted to be connected with such a family. And her father would support her every step of the way.
Shadow felt a twinge of self-deprecation. Jessica was indeed her father’s biological daughter, but somehow Shadow felt like she wasn’t.
How could her father be so biased?
Suppressing the pain, Shadow tried to keep her voice calm. “I would like to take my sister to the Lances family, but I haven’t even seen Alpha Kilian yet.”
Her father’s anger flared when he heard that she hadn’t seen her husband. “You haven’t even met your husband? Haven’t you caused enough trouble for this family? And now you still have the audacity to come home?” He gritted his teeth. “Don’t think I don’t know what you did with that man!”
Though Shadow was used to hearing hurtful words, they still pierced her heart. She blinked back tears and with a trembling voice, she replied, “Maybe if you had sent my sister to the Lances family first, Alpha Kilian would have wanted to meet her. I’m just a fake, why would he want to meet me?”
Unbeknownst to her, Alpha Kilian had overheard their conversation as he walked out of the bathroom.
Shadow sat on the bed, her fingers gripping the phone tightly, her black hair cascading down like seaweed. Her tear-filled eyes stubbornly refused to let those tears fall. She looked how she always did, fragile and pitiful.
Alpha Kilian’s black eyes narrowed. He was starting to find his new wife more and more intriguing.
No one knew what was said on the phone, but Shadow’s face turned pale as she remained silent, still clutching onto the call.
Alpha Kilian approached her, took the phone from her hand, and ended the call.
He looked down at her and furrowed his eyebrows. Who still used such a outdated phone?
Then he spoke in an indifferent voice, “If you don’t want to hear those things, don’t give them the satisfaction of listening. ”
Shadow raised her tear-filled eyes to him in surprise. Even though his face was a blur to her, she sensed a strange comfort in his words.
Suddenly, she widened her eyes in realization. “Why am I in bed?”
She remembered giving up the bed for the injured man and sleeping on the sofa last night.
“You sleepwalked,” Alpha Kilian explained, lying down beside her. “You crawled up next to me on your own.”