Chapter 3

3.

Seraphina was deeply favored by Alaric, but she was also incredibly insecure.

There was a five-year age gap between them. She was older, and she felt the pressure of time every single day. She knew beauty was the only thing keeping his love alive.

She was terrified of aging. She dressed in the finest silks every day and refused to let anyone see her without her mask of perfection. Anyone who saw her look "unseemly" had their eyes gouged out.

She forbade Alaric from taking concubines or seeing other women.

But a woman's status in the Pack depended on her children. To secure her position, she needed a son. Yet, her first child was a daughter―Macy.

During dinner one night, I was busy setting the table. Suddenly, the sound of chopsticks slamming against the wood echoed through the room.

"Macy! Did I not teach you to eat by yourself? Why are you letting your father feed you?"

Seraphina's face was dark.

Alaric, who was busy peeling shrimp for his daughter, stopped and looked at his wife.

"Seraphina, why are you getting angry at a child? It's just a shrimp."

Alaric placed the shrimp in Macy's bowl.

Macy started to eat, her little eyes wide with fear.

Seraphina's expression turned cold. She reached out and swiped the bowl off the table. It shattered on the floor.

"I told you to do it yourself! Why don't you listen to your mother?"

The bowl took a pot of hot soup down with it. The scalding liquid splashed all over Macy's arm.

The little girl immediately burst into tears of pain.

Alaric rushed to check on his daughter.

The child's skin was red and blistering.

"Seraphina, what is wrong with you! Macy is just a little girl! Why are you so harsh?"

Alaric looked genuinely heartbroken.

"Your daughter is burned, and instead of caring, you're just screaming. I'm truly disappointed in you."

With that, Alaric picked Macy up and stormed out to find a doctor.

Seraphina sat there in shock for a long moment. Then, she let out a primal scream and flipped the entire table over.

"That little brat! She's just like her father, always making me look bad!"

Suddenly, she turned and slapped me hard across the face.

"Why didn't you stop me? Are you blind?"

I kept my head down and said nothing.

When she was this angry, silence was the only way to avoid more violence.

But her anger didn't come from guilt over hurting her child. She was angry because her daughter was stealing Alaric's attention.

What a monstrous mother. She didn't even notice that when she pushed the bowl, the porcelain had sliced the girl's wrist.

Alaric didn't visit Seraphina for several days. Once she calmed down, she picked out some gifts to apologize to Macy.

Macy was happy to see me, but she shrunk away from her mother.

Seraphina didn't have the patience to stay long. She muttered a few words and left.

That night, she prepared Alaric's favorite snacks to apologize to him.

Alaric wasn't truly the type to stay mad at her forever. No one wanted to believe a mother didn't love her own child.

But I knew the truth. Seraphina only loved herself.