Chapter 0458

The glass of wine I had just sipped nearly went down the wrong way. This again?

I coughed, blinking in disbelief as I set the glass down, my fingers gripping the stem too tightly. “Marcus, you must be joking,” I said, forcing my tone to remain even. “She has your son’s eyes, for Goddess’ sake.”

Marcus set down his fork with exaggerated precision, his eyes sharp as they fixed on me once more.

“Oh, I know. But it just seems rather… convenient, that’s all,” he said, his voice maddeningly calm. “A child appearing at just the right moment, securing your position as Luna and ensuring the future of Nightcrest. Why, if I didn’t know better, I’d wonder how it all happened so… perfectly.”

“Alpha,” Noah corrected, setting aside his steak knife. “And Silvercrest. And it wasn’t ‘perfect’; we dealt with a whole mess to get to this point.”

Marcus’s lips curled into a tiny smirk. “Right. My apologies.”

I was about to tell him to stuff his apologies, but Noah’s hand slid under the table to find mine, his fingers wrapping around mine with a silent warning. Stay composed, his touch seemed to say. He just wants to piss us off.

He was right. So I bit my tongue and remained silent.

Marcus sighed and picked up his glass of wine. “For what it’s worth, I don’t genuinely think she is not my granddaughter,” he said after taking a sip, “but you should expect that some people may believe otherwise. Desperate times often call for desperate measures, or so they say.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He shrugged, waving his hand dismissively. “Again, I don’t think this. But I have heard some rumors that the baby doesn’t belong to either of you.”

“She wasn’t born by surrogate, if that’s what you’re asking. Nor was she adopted,” I said. “I’d show you my stretch marks to prove it, but I don’t think that would be appropriate for a family dinner.”

“No, no, I would never ask such a thing.” Marcus tilted his head slightly, his eyes gleaming with something cold and unfeeling. He paused, his tongue darting out briefly to wet his lips.

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone went to extreme lengths to secure their position, though,” he said, as though the idea were perfectly reasonable. “After all, Hannah, you did have difficulty conceiving for many years.”

A wave of heat surged up my neck. “I was poisoned,” I said, wondering for a moment if maybe he simply didn’t know what had happened. “For years, someone was slipping contraceptives into my food. That’s why I couldn’t conceive.”

Noah nodded. “It’s true. We have evidence. Her cousin, Alvin, was trying to keep her from having an heir. Although we’re not entirely sure why, just yet. But thankfully, he’s behind bars now.”

For the briefest moment, I saw something shift in Marcus’s eyes. Surprise? Fear? It flashed by so quickly, I couldn’t be sure.

But then his expression returned to its familiar, unreadable mask.

“Poisoned,” he said slowly, his voice taking on a strange, distant tone. “I see. How… unfortunate.”

I felt my shoulders relax a little.

But Noah wasn’t finished. “An apology would be apt, considering that thinly veiled accusation of yours,” he growled. “Unless you intend to cut tonight’s dinner short.”

Marcus went stiff, his knuckles turning white around his glass. Cold eyes flicked to me, a hint of amusement in their depths, but I pulled my shoulders back and lifted my chin.

Finally, Marcus seemed to think better of whatever jab he had prepared and instead grabbed the wine bottle. He rose and circled the table slowly, painstakingly, and refilled my glass.

“My sincerest apologies, Alpha Hannah,” he all but purred down at me as the red liquid swirled into the glass. “I assure you, it won’t happen again.”

Chapter 0459