Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever-Chapter 55 – leave and never come back

Seraphine stared at him with an expression so composed it almost felt amusing, as though she were daring him to crack first. "Who else do you think I should give it to," she asked evenly, her gaze steady and unblinking. "You?"

Ravyn felt bile rise sharply in his throat, the sour taste settling at the back of his tongue as he struggled to keep his composure.

He hated that she still had this effect on him, hated that a few carefully chosen words from her could make him feel cornered. Still, he forced himself to speak, his voice strained but firm as he laid out his condition.

"After you receive the money, I want every single trace of that video destroyed. I don’t want copies, backups, or anything that can ever resurface."

Seraphine’s lips curved upward slowly, her smile filled with disbelief and sharp amusement. "Oh," she said lightly, tilting her head, "that will cost you another five billion."

The words landed heavier than she had expected, not on him but on herself. She had originally planned to delete the video and erase everything connected to Daisy once the money exchanged hands, but that had been before her conversation with Humphrey.

Now, armed with new leverage and a clearer sense of how deep Ravyn’s fear truly ran, she found herself unwilling to show mercy. Ruthlessness, she had learned, was the only language men like him truly understood.

Ravyn looked as though he had completely lost his mind, his face pale and his eyes glassy, yet he couldn’t even bring himself to protest out loud.

For the first time since she had known him, Seraphine saw unfiltered fear in his eyes, raw and undeniable, and the fact that Voren was not standing beside him to shield him or clean up his mess made the moment all the more satisfying.

"You still can’t get over the fact that I could never love you, can you?" Ravyn blurted out, his voice tight and brittle.

Amusement flickered in Seraphine’s eyes, and then she laughed, the sound sharp and hysterical, echoing slightly in the room. "Ravyn," she said between breaths, "whatever love I had for you died a few months into our marriage."

She paused, studying him with a detached intensity, genuinely wondering how she had ever convinced herself that a spineless Alpha like him was worth her devotion in the first place.

Thankfully, that obsession had long since burned itself out. Ravyn stared at her as if she were speaking in a language he did not understand, confusion clouding his expression. "Then why," he asked slowly, "did you stay for seven whole years?"

"I’ll tell you why," Seraphine replied, her tone shifting, the humor draining from her face as seriousness took its place.

"A few months into the marriage, I realized we were completely incompatible, but I was already pregnant, so I stayed for Bryan. I wanted him to grow up believing he had a perfect family, so I kept reminding myself of my mother’s words, that seven meant perfection, that seven years was the mark of something complete."

She smiled, but the expression was laced with bitterness and old pain. "I told myself that if you served the divorce papers for the seventh time, then I would take Bryan and leave quietly, without a fight," she said, then added coldly, "but you just had to show me how ruthless you truly are. You killed my child and then forced me to raise your mistress’s child as my own."

Her voice dropped, turning icy and controlled. "You crossed a line, Ravyn, and until you wake my child from the ashes, I will never stop making your life a living hell."

So that was what it was really about. Ravyn felt a sharp twist of regret in his chest for ever mentioning the child at all. He should have lied, should have told her that the baby died hours after birth and that he had only given her Daisy’s child out of misplaced compassion.

He had been stupid, recklessly cruel, and now his own words had come back to destroy him.

Even now, he couldn’t afford to go back on his story, not when Corvine no longer worked for him and his control over the situation was already slipping. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"I’ll make sure you never have a reason to come after me again," he said desperately. "Daisy already agreed to drop the lawsuit over the destroyed research, so please, just waive the fucking five billion."

Seraphine laughed again, slower this time, her eyes sharp with contempt. "Your level of stupidity never fails to amaze me," she said calmly. "Daisy doesn’t want to face the law because she knows absolutely nothing about medicine, and she knows that would be exposed the moment she stepped into a courtroom."

Ravyn shook his head violently, refusing to accept it. "That’s impossible," he insisted. "You’re just jealous."

"Fine," Seraphine said flatly, clearly done entertaining him. "I’m done talking to idiots. Pay the money and let me get to work."

"And the other five billion," Ravyn pressed, his jaw tight.

Seraphine shot him a glare so sharp it felt like a physical blow. "That’s the price for deleting the video. If you don’t pay it, I’ll keep it until either you or Daisy pisses me off again, and when that happens, it goes straight to your shareholders."

Ravyn ground his teeth together so hard he could practically feel grit between them. "Sera," he said hoarsely, "the worst decision I ever made was agreeing to marry you."

"That makes two of us," Seraphine replied without hesitation, then paused as if a new thought had just occurred to her. "You know," she said slowly, "the night you forced yourself on me, you were never charged for it."

Something inside Ravyn snapped completely. "I never forced myself on you," he shouted. "You always wanted me. If anything, it was the other way around."

"How convenient," Seraphine sighed. "How does a drunk man remember anything clearly?" She waved a hand dismissively. "Don’t worry. I’ll find the evidence, and if I do, I’ll make sure to sue you in a werewolf court and make you pay in ways you can’t even begin to imagine."

The darkness in her eyes as she spoke made something twist painfully in Ravyn’s chest. Doubt crept in despite his resistance.

Could she be right? Had he really done that to her? No, Daisy had said she saw everything, and it was Seraphine who had initiated it. Still, the uncertainty refused to leave him.

"Fine," he said through clenched teeth. "And if I find proof that you drugged me and slept with me, I’ll press charges too."

"Good," Seraphine replied, a sense of relief washing through her. The idiot had walked straight into her trap once again. "Now, if you’re done pretending to be a hero for your mistress, either pay up and let me do my job, or leave and never come back."