My Convicted Wife is My Mate (Bella and Kane) novel Chapter 39

chapter 33
BELLA’S POV

I froze. So did Derek.

That voice made my whole body go still. For a heartbeat, I thought I had imagined it. But then I saw him, standing tall and calm in the doorway. He had on a gray suit that fitted him perfectly. His dark hair was styled neatly.

Damien.

My heart stumbled in my chest. The man I had once loved more than anything. The man who had destroyed me.

Derek’s fingers tightened cruelly in my hair, pulling my head back. Pain shot down my neck. I screamed but no one moved. No one helped. The few humans nearby glanced over, confused, then looked away again as if they hadn’t seen anything.

Derek smirked. “What a surprise,” he said. “Did you bring your fiancée here for dinner, Damien? Small world, huh? Your ex is here to dine with me too. Though, she doesn’t seem to know what’s good for her. She’s been… agitating me.”

I felt his fingers pull harder, forcing my chin up.

Damien’s eyes moved from Derek to me, but he didn’t react. His eyes were a cold

“Oh?” he said smoothly. “That so?”

My chest tightened. He didn’t even flinch at the sight of me. I searched his face for something - anger, guilt, anything - but there was nothing. He looked… bored.

And why shouldn’t he be? He had moved on. He had punished me, cast me out, and washed his hands of me years ago. He proved that when he slept with my sister. He proved that when he suggested that I take the fall for Kathy.

Derek’s grin widened. He touched the small scar near his brow, the one Damien had given him years back. “I’m thinking I owe her from our last meeting.”

That scar had been from the night Damien almost killed him. Derek had tried to corner me at a gala. Damien had found us. There had been blood, rage, broken bones. I had thought, in that moment, that Damien would always protect me.

How wrong I had been.

Derek jerked my hair again, forcing me to look straight at Damien.

And what did he see? The woman who had once run with him through the woods, laughing as our wolves chased the wind?

The lover who had planned his future with him, helped him gain power in his pack, whispered his dreams back to him when he had doubted himself? The one who had carried his child?

No. I saw it in his eyes. He didn’t see me at all. I was nothing to him. Not the woman who had loved him. Not the mate he had promised eternity to. To him, I was just a mistake.

My throat burned. Every breath felt heavy.

And then I saw her.

Gina stood just beside Damien with her hand linked through his arm. Her smile was sweet, but I knew what was behind it. It was filled with cruelty and venom. This was the same woman who had whispered lies about me, who had made sure my downfall was public and permanent. This was the woman who had a hand in killing my grandfather out of revenge for her sister’s death.

She was the reason I had gone to prison. The reason I had lost everything.

If it had been up to her, I’d still have been rotting in that cell.

The sight of them together - my old love and the woman who had ruined my life - felt like a blade twisting deep inside me.

“Let me go,” I said through clenched teeth.

Derek looked at Damien, as if he was waiting for permission like a dog waiting for scraps.

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