Chapter 3

4.

Supprossing the storm in my heart, I forced a look of mild surprise onto my face.

"I think you two have the wrong person. I'm a married woman. Please don't insult my reputation."

My little girl chimed in from my arms, her voice high and protective.

"Mommy is my mommy! She's Daddy's wife!"

Caleb's face turned a bruised shade of purple. "Kaelie, stop talking nonsense. I don't like these games."

Leo rushed forward and grabbed the hem of my daughter's dress.

"Get away from her! She's not your mom. She's mine!"

My daughter had only recently learned how to take human form and had never even been off our mountain. Leo's aggression terrified her, and she burst into tears.

Without a second thought, I shoved Leo away.

He wasn't expecting me to strike back. He lost his balance and tumbled to the dirt.

His eyes immediately filled with fat tears. "Mom? How could you push me?"

Those eyes, so much like Caleb's, were full of hurt and disbelief.

He clearly couldn't wrap his head around the fact that I would treat him this way.

After all, I used to love him more than life itself.

He was a half-blood, and his early years were physically agonizing. His dual heritage caused his blood to boil and his magic to turn unstable.

To save him, I broke into the tomb of an ancient demon king just to find a cure.

That entity hated my kind. Even as a ghost, it was more than I could handle. In the end, it literally flayed the skin from my back.

The only way to stabilize Leo's blood was for me to surrender my mana core to him.

Without my fur and skin, I was a gory mess. I didn't want to terrify him, so I hid away.

After giving him my core, I stayed in seclusion for a year, barely clinging to my human shape.

When I finally emerged, Leo had fully integrated my core. He was no longer in pain.

I thought he would have missed me terribly after a year. But when I found him, he was cuddling up to Evelyn.

"Auntie Evelyn, please let me call you Mom," he pleaded.

Caleb just stood there, watching them with a warm, approving smile.

Evelyn saw me and let out a little giggle, covering her mouth.

"Oh, Leo, I can't do that. You have your own mother. Kaelie would be so angry if she heard you."

Leo huffed. "She's not a real mom. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have suffered from this cursed blood in the first place. She gave me a stupid marble and then disappeared for a year. If it wasn't for you taking care of me, I would have died from the pain."

Even Caleb blamed me.

"She wasn't there when Leo needed her most. You had to clean up her mess, Evelyn. She has no right to be angry with you."

Despite all of that, I had continued to care for Leo with everything I had. If he so much as sneezed, I would worry myself sick.

That was why he couldn't believe I was being so cold now.