Chapter 157: Chapter 157: The End and the Vengeance
Selene’s POV~
The truth pressed down heavy in my chest. Because only I knew, more than the hate I showed him, more than the anger I carried, there was fear. I had buried my fear and love behind hatred. Because deep down, I knew. We were never meant to be.
Happiness was not written for me. Whoever I loved, whoever I got close to, was taken away. My mother had left me like that. Others too. Every bond I held turned into pain, loneliness, and betrayal.
I looked down at his face again. His hand was still holding mine tightly, even in sleep. His expression, though wet with tears, was peaceful. Like he was afraid of letting go.
A thought echoed in my mind. We can never be together in this life.
Because I could not forgive myself.
I remembered everything. What I had done to Luca. What I had done to Kael. What I had done to Aeron. And what I had done to him. I was the reason for their fall, the reason they lost their family, their world.
Five years ago, I had ruined them. And when they came back for revenge, I did not fight. I submitted. I never lifted a hand to protect my fake father. Because I knew I was guilty, that I deserved this.
This was the truth I had never spoken aloud. The guilt I carried every day.
I had been their downfall. And they had been my punishment.
We were equal now.
Yes, their cruelty had broken me. Yes, their hatred had cut me open. It had killed something inside me to see the man I once loved destroy me with his own hands. But still, I could not deny it. I was guilty. And so I allowed them their revenge.
But I was not weak... I let them take out their anger on me, but that was enough... after that I had already decided to leave this place forever.
I had given them their revenge. And now, I only wanted distance. I only wanted silence. I only wanted never to repeat that history again.
Even if love still existed somewhere between us, there could never be a future.
I looked at him, at his face stained with tears, and I sighed heavily. The sound felt like it came from the deepest part of me.
Because there was another thing that was keeping me away from them. Their love... it was not because they truly loved me. It was because fate had tied us together. Because of that word—mate.
And that was what hurt the most.
I remembered the way their eyes had looked when they captured me, when they chained me, when they broke me down into nothing but a lowly slave. There had been hatred in their eyes. I could still see it if I closed my eyes... the coldness, the cruelty. The way it froze my heart to the core.
That was the truth of their feelings. That was what they carried for me.
And now, when I had already decided to forgive them, when I had already chosen to bury everything and leave it all behind, they suddenly wanted me again. They wanted to forget everything, to act like it had never happened, only because I was their mate.
No. I could never accept it.
I did not want to be loved because of a bond written by fate. I did not want to be forgiven because of pity.
I never asked them to love me out of duty. I never asked them to erase the sins I had committed. Because I knew. I knew better than anyone else what I had done.
I did not deserve it.
After all... how could a man love the woman who had murdered his mother?
Yes, right! I was the murderer of their mother. I had killed her with my own hands.
The thought cut through me like a knife.
My chest ached, my breath caught. Their mother’s face came back to me, the memory of what had happened that night, and the screams that still echoed in my mind. The guilt crushed me again, heavy as it had always been.
How could they call me their mate and act as if nothing had happened? How could they let that one word erase the blood I had spilled?
I lowered my eyes to his hand still clinging to mine. My vision blurred, and I felt tears sting at the corner of my eyes.
So even as Lucian cried in his sleep, whispering words that sounded like devotion, all I could feel was pain. Pain that no matter what he said, no matter what they claimed, none of it could erase what I had done. None of it could erase the truth.
We could never be.
Not in this life.
I looked at him one last time. His hand clung to mine like a plea, as if holding on to me would make me stay. But instead of softening, my heart turned to stone.
Slowly, I pulled my hand free. He tried to hold on, his fingers tightening as if afraid I would slip away, but I did not soften this time. I tore my hand out of his grip, and for the first time, I felt no guilt.
I turned my back on him without any hesitation. Chanting the same words that love doesn’t matter, it becomes worthless one day.
All that lived in me now was one thing, and that was revenge.
Revenge for my mother, for everything they took from me, for everything I lost.
And when that revenge was done, when the blood was finally spilled and the weight in my chest lifted, I would leave this filthy world behind forever.
No one will stand in my path. I have seen too many horrors of this world that every breath here only suffocated me.
If I asked one question—just who was the one who is truly happy in the world—there would be no one.
So I had already made up my mind.
Love? Mates? Forgiveness? Those words were ashes to me.
I walked out without looking back. Without a shred of lingering feeling.
This was the end.
And the beginning of my vengeance.