Page 59 of The Monster's Daughter

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I am so, so sorry.”

He’s silent for a long time.

Then he says, “You should’ve told me.”

I nod. “I know.”

“But I’m here now,” he says. “And I’m not leaving.”

I can’t breathe for a second. Then I’m sobbing. Ugly, hiccuping sobs that rip straight from my gut. He moves around the table and pulls me into him, into that impossible warmth.

His claws dig into my back, grounding me.

“I should be furious,” he murmurs against my hair.

“I wouldn’t blame you.”

“But I’ve lost too much to let this go. I’m not letting her go. And I’m not lettingyougo.”

I cling to him like he’s the last piece holding me together.

CHAPTER 34

KAGE

The words hang in the air like blood on snow.

Natalie is mine.

She didn’t deny it. Couldn’t. I saw it break her. The way her shoulders caved in like she’d been holding the weight of the whole godsdamned universe on her back and finally gave up trying.

We sit at the table in the candlelight, the food cold and untouched, the silence louder than a battlefield. Bella’s crying quietly, not the dramatic kind—no wails, no shaking—just quiet, steady drops sliding down her cheeks like her body gave up on holding them in.

I don’t speak.

Not because I don’t have words. But because I don’t trust what they’ll sound like. I’m not angry. Not really. And that confuses me. Because I should be. Ishouldwant to scream, punch walls, tear something apart.

But all I feel is hollow.

And this sharp, gnawing ache in my chest like I’ve been opened up and something important’s finally starting to grow back.

She looks at me through wet lashes. “You want to know everything?”

I nod once.

So she tells me.

How she found out she was pregnant weeks after the last mission. How she tried to reach me and the Alliance stonewalled her. How the medics lied, said I’d been vaporized in the collapse. How they discharged her early and quietly, like they wanted to make her disappear before anyone asked too many questions.

How she gave birth alone.

How she hid Natalie’s genome marker. Falsified medical records. Moved cities three times in four years because she was afraid someone would notice. That someone from the Alliance—or worse—would take her.

“She’s… she’s all I had,” Bella says, voice cracking. “And every night I thought someone might knock on my door and take her. I couldn’t sleep. I stopped dreaming. I didn’t know how to keep her and breathe at the same time.”

My throat feels like it’s full of barbed wire.

“You shouldn’t have had to do this alone.”