Page 7 of Framed and Forgotten
I watched as he tore open the envelope, his movements slow and deliberate. The sound of the paper crinkling seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet plains. My heart raced as he unfolded the sheet inside, his gaze darting over the words with such intensity that I almost couldn’t breathe.
His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking at the corner of his mouth as his shoulders stiffened. The silence stretched between us, so thick I could taste it. Distraught, all I could do was analyze him. The sharp lines of his expression, the rigid stillness of his body, the flicker of disbelief in his eyes - everything in him was taut with the kind of tension that screamed the worst was true.
“What does it say?” I asked, desperate, though I already had a sinking feeling in my gut.
Koen didn’t answer at first. His hand trembled just slightly, and he stared at the paper with a focus so sharp it looked painful. After what seemed like an eternity, he turned it toward me to read. My heart pounded in my chest as I glanced down at the paper. The words were like a punch to my stomach:
100% positive.
5
____________________
A V R I L
The shock didn’tcome in waves. It didn’t hit me like a sudden tide of cold. No, it settled deep inside, a burning chill that spread through every inch of me. I knew it the moment Koen’s expression had frozen, but seeing it written there, in black and white, felt like the ground beneath me had cracked open.
I stumbled back, as if getting away from the piece of paper would change what was written on it. My breath caught, and I struggled to find air to the point where I became dizzy. I couldn’t look away from the words jumping out at me, searing themselves into my brain. Still, denial grabbed a hold of me, and I refused to believe.
When I finally broke the silence, my voice was but a quavering whisper. “No,” I murmured, incredulous. Shaking my head, I spoke louder, as though I could drown out the truth roaring in my ears. “It’s impossible! It can’t…” The words faltered, my thoughts too tangled to form a coherent sentence.
Koen’s grip tightened on the sheet in his hand, the edges crumpling beneath his fingers. Sensing my unraveling, he lowered the paper, pulling it away from my view. But it was toolate. The results were already imprinted in my mind no matter how desperately I wanted to burn them.
“Avril,” my mate called, his voice calm as he approached me cautiously..
Despair clawed at me, and I backed up as I yelled, “This has to be one of her tricks! She must have tampered with the samples!”
“Avril-” He tried again, only to be cut off.
With every step he took toward me, I backed away. “That’s the only explanation!” I fiercely defended. “Even if you- I mean, how could- Why would she-” I stumbled over my words, unable to finish a single thought.
“Avril!” Koen hollered, his voice cutting through my haze and snapping me out of my trance. At last, I stopped moving, allowing him to close the distance between us. For a moment, he stood there mutely, absolutely distraught. Then, skepticism crept into his features, and his face fell. “It’s the truth,” he said, his voice firm but subdued. “If the technicians had suspected anything wrong with the samples or found any inconsistencies, they would have told me.”
I blinked a few times, assimilating his argument, while my subconsciousness still fought to come up with explanations. “What if it’s a false positive?”
“Avril, you helped me pick out a reputable testing center.” His voice was heavy, a tired, defeated sigh slipping through his lips, as though he had already given up and debunking my theories was an exhausting task. “The chances of lab errors are incredibly slim. I could request another test, but…” He trailed off, his chin dropping in quiet resignation. “I doubt the result would be any different.”
“Koen, if we accept that this is true - that Elias is your son…” I implored, distress threatening to get a hold of me again.
Before I could finish, his gaze lifted, locking onto mine as he cradled my head gently between his hands. “We’ll figure it out, Avril,” he murmured, his voice carrying a subtle strength that belied the chaos he must have been feeling inside. He held my gaze, grounding me with his calm, even as his own emotions churned beneath the surface. Then, as if willing me to believe him, he repeated with greater conviction, “We’ll figure it out.”
“We must be strong for mate,”Kea reminded me, setting aside the uncertainty she felt upon discovering that our fated partner had fathered another female’s pup.
I swallowed, ashamed of my reaction. Koen needed me now, more than I needed him. This was his burden, and me freaking out must have only made it feel heavier.
Inhaling a deep breath to suck in a semblance of calm, I nodded at him. “Okay. We’ll do it together.”
As soon as we climbed into the SUV, the grin on Rhea’s face faded. I was sure she had planned to greet us with some remark about how we had wasted our breath worrying about the paternity test and how she already knew what the results would be. Our faces must have betrayed that she was, in fact, wrong.
Without a word, my Delta started the car. Whether she was suffocated by the heavy atmosphere or simply staying true to her character by not snooping, she didn’t ask a single question on our way back. We all rode in turbulent silence until we returned to Azure Smoke.
I thanked Rhea before excusing her, and my mate and I headed to my office. Too weak to stand, afraid my legs would failme, I took a seat. Koen did the same. For the first few minutes, neither of us spoke, stuck inside our own minds as we tried to process the recent discovery.
In the end, Koen was the first to voice his thoughts. “I should call Nerine.”
“Why?” I snapped before I could hold my tongue as jealousy got the best of me.
“Elias is my son,” he deadpanned, trying to get used to the news. “And she is his mother. I have to discuss the situation with her.”
