Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother (Seraphina and Damien) novel Chapter 235

235 Chapter 235

Damien’s Perspective

The house felt off, like a hollow shell of what it once was.

Despite the children’s constant movement and their laughter bouncing faintly through the corridors, an undeniable emptiness lingered. A void that no noise could fill.

Sera was gone.

I stood motionless by the kitchen window, my gaze lost in the nothingness outside. My coffee had long since gone cold—probably an hour ago. I couldn’t even recall the last time I truly tasted a meal instead of just going through the motions of chewing and swallowing without thought.

Two weeks. Fourteen days since she packed her bags and left.

It felt like an eternity.

“Dad?” Adrian’s voice sliced through the silence, pulling me back to the present. “Can you sign this permission slip?”

I turned slowly to face him. There he was, standing quietly in the doorway, clutching a sheet of paper. His expression was carefully guarded, as if he’d learned to mask his feelings since Sera walked out.

“What’s this for?” I asked, reaching out to take the paper.

“Field trip. Science museum,” he said simply.

I skimmed the form, signed it at the bottom, and handed it back.

“Thanks,” he muttered, starting to leave.

“Adrian?”

He paused but didn’t look back.

“You doing okay, buddy?”

“I’m fine,” came the automatic reply, flat and rehearsed—the same answer he gave every time I tried to reach him. The same wall he’d put up between us since Mom left.

“If you ever want to talk—”

“I said I’m fine.” His voice hardened. “Can I go now?”

I nodded silently as he disappeared upstairs.

The kitchen seemed even more desolate after he left.

My phone lay on the counter, dark and lifeless, almost taunting me.

I had tried everything—calling Sera, texting, leaving voicemails—nothing.

She had blocked me.

The kids still saw her regularly. Twice a week she picked them up from school, took them to her apartment for sleepovers, and made sure they knew she hadn’t abandoned them again.

But me? I was completely cut off. No messages, no calls, no sign.

I’d tried approaching her during pickup times, but she passed me by like I was invisible air.

I even showed up at her apartment, but she refused to answer the door.

I attempted to send messages through the kids, but Adrian flat-out refused. “It’s not my job to be a messenger,” he said, sharp and wise beyond his years.

Lily burst into the kitchen, her backpack bouncing against her shoulders as she ran in.

“Daddy! Can we have pancakes for breakfast tomorrow?”

“Of course, baby girl.”

“With chocolate chips?”

“If that’s what you want.”

Her face lit up with a radiant smile, but then it faltered just a bit. “Will Mama be here for breakfast?”

My chest tightened painfully. “Not tomorrow, sweetheart. But you’ll see her after school, remember?”

“Oh. Right.” She fiddled nervously with her backpack straps. “I wish she could have breakfast with us, like before.”

“I know, baby. Me too.”

She gave me a quick hug, then darted off to join Adrian upstairs.

And just like that, I was alone again.

The silence pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating.

I grabbed my phone and scrolled through old messages from Sera—texts from when things were still good. Little notes, funny observations, “I love you”s scattered throughout the day.

The last message was from two weeks ago.

**Me: Can we talk?**

Delivered. Read. No reply.

I typed another message. Deleted it. Typed again. Deleted once more.

What was the point? She wouldn’t read it. Wouldn’t respond. Wouldn’t give me even the smallest chance to explain something I barely understood myself.

Work had become a nightmare.

I couldn’t focus. Every choice was second-guessed. Leading the pack felt impossible when my mind was constantly somewhere else, lost in memories and regrets.

Lucas pulled me aside yesterday, blunt as ever. “You’re a mess, Damien. Get it together.”

He was right.

I refused everything. What was the point?

Claire tried too. She showed up with casseroles and worried questions.

I appreciated the effort, but food tasted like ash and questions had no answers.

Lily asked about Sera constantly.

“When is Mama coming home?” “Why can’t Mama live with us?” “Does Mama still love us?”

Each question stabbed me like a knife.

Adrian stopped asking. He retreated into himself, spending hours locked in his room reading, barely speaking at dinner.

I was failing them. Failing as a father, as a husband, as a man.

One late afternoon, the doorbell rang.

I dragged myself to answer it, expecting Claire again with more food I wouldn’t touch.

But when I opened the door, it wasn’t Claire.

It was Emma.

My breath caught in my throat. She looked awful—dark circles under her eyes, pale, drawn, like she’d been battling sickness for weeks.

“Emma.” My voice was strangled. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Can I come in?” Her voice was small, uncertain.

I stepped aside, letting her slip past me into the living room.

We stood there awkwardly, unsure where to begin.

“I need to talk to you,” she said at last.

“About that night?”

She nodded, her hands twisting nervously.

“I need to know what happened,” I said. “Everything. I need to understand so I can fix this with Sera. So I can—”

“Damien.” She cut me off, her voice trembling. “There’s something I need to tell you first.”

Her tone made my stomach drop.

“What?”

She looked up at me, tears welling in her eyes, her whole body shaking.

“Damien, I’m pregnant.”