Chapter 515: Brother-in-law

"Get out," came his quiet voice, sensing her presence, though he made no effort to hide the fact that he was crying. Viola noted, almost involuntarily, the sharp difference between him and her husband. Where Alex wept openly, without shame, her husband had simply shut down entirely.

Viola blinked several times, gathering the courage to face this without breaking down herself, and walked further into the room, sinking to her knees to look over the picture frames scattered around him. Her chest tightened painfully at one image in particular, the three of them together, Nick included, all smiling at the training grounds where they’d once helped her grow stronger.

Seeing Nick only brought back bitter anger and regret over ever knowing him. Looking at him only made her see a heartless, psychotic monster, who had taken one of the greatest things in her life, so she looked away from the frame.

"Zoe always talked about you," Viola began quietly, every breath she took carrying the faint scent of the deceased woman still lingering in the room. "You were her favorite brother, and... she never once forgot you, Alex."

Her words only made him cry harder, his face falling into his hands, his broad shoulders shaking so violently that something in Viola ached at the sight of it.

"B-but I f-failed her..." Came his broken words.

Viola looked away from him, toward the wall behind, her fingers curling into fists. "When I think about it... I feel like I failed her too. But if we all keep holding on to the blame, we’ll only bury ourselves deeper in what-ifs, instead of finding any way to actually heal." She said softly.

Alex didn’t answer, only kept crying, and she stayed exactly where she was, not moving an inch, letting him have that, because there was nothing wrong in it. Viola lost track of how long she sat there, waiting, until his sobs finally quieted into the sniffling of a blocked nose, and his red-rimmed eyes lifted to meet hers, holding a glare sharp enough that it might have frightened her, had she not just watched him break down in front of her moments earlier.

Men liked to hide the fact that they were even capable of crying, especially werewolf men, especially in front of a woman, and Viola offered him a handkerchief, but he ignored it entirely and went back to packing his sister’s belongings.

"I’m taking these with me," he said, voice thick and stuffy. "I’m taking everything of hers out of here before he destroys it all, because that’s what he’s good at, hiding his own grief not treasuring anything. He’s a moron." He gritted out. "He got rid of our parents belongings from his apartment and burned a lot of things. He’s such a coward and an idiot who forgets the dead person the moment they die."

Viola cleared her throat, unsure how to respond to her husband being insulted right in front of her. She began helping him pack the things anyway, knowing he wasn’t entirely wrong, Sebastian didn’t keep memories of the dead the way most people did. He tucked them away where he’d never have to look at them, or destroyed them outright, the same way he was destroying everything in that bathroom right now.

"He grieves differently, Alex, but just because he handles it that way doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel it nor care deeply like others, and—"

Alex glared at her, heat flashing behind his silver eyes. "I’m not strangling you the way he did my wife only because you happen to be my friend’s sister. That’s the only reason you’re getting a pass right now. But don’t push me."

He turned back to continue what he was doing as he added, "You know your way to the door. Please."

He began quickly putting things together, as though he couldn’t wait to pack up and leave the building, and Viola sighed as she watched him.

"I hope Ivy at least told you how stubborn I am, because I am not leaving until you listen to me."

"I didn’t even know she had a sister. Don’t flatter yourself, she never talks about you." He muttered with a snort.

"Then you’re about to find out. Not until you listen to me, I’m not leaving this room, and by the time I’m done, I hope you understand you won’t be going back to live alone. You’re staying here with us. Your brother needs you." She said, and he shot her another glare that made Viola believe if looks could kill, Alex would have buried her by now.

"Just who do you think you are? I have nothing to do with you, or my brother. And from today onward, I don’t have a brother." He declared, yanking the photo frame of his sister out of her hand and dropping it into the box.

"I’m not only your Luna, I’m your sister-in-law, and because I care about my husband, I’m here to tell you that everything Sebastian ever did, he did believing it was for your own good. Natalie—"

"Don’t you dare say her name!" He warned, and Viola only smiled. "I will say it, and I’ll say plenty more about her that you won’t like, Alex. Natalie was nothing but a lying bitch behind your back, sleeping with her own stepbrother the entire time. Sebastian caught them together, and the baby she was carrying, I’m sorry, but it was never yours. And—"

"He fed you lies to cover up the fact that he killed her, sacrificed her to escape the curse, and you actually believe—"

"I don’t say things without evidence, which I gathered a while ago, knowing a day like this would eventually come."

Saying that, Viola pulled out a photograph and dropped it in front of him. She’d found it by coincidence in Sebastian’s penthouse when she was looking for her charger, which had accidentally fallen between the bedframe. She was certain it had escaped being destroyed because it had been stuck there.

It had been tucked into the corner between the nightstand and the bed, and it was exactly the kind of proof she knew would speak louder than anything she could say to the man who had once loved her. So Viola had kept it without touching it.

Alex looked down at it, and his eyes trembled at what he saw. It was Natalie, sitting on her stepbrother’s lap, her arm wrapped around his neck, their lips locked together, both of them barely clothed in their underwear.

Viola reached out and turned the photo over. "Natalie must not have known this one was taken. He sent it to her, along with this."

On the back, written in pen, were the words: *You always say you miss us when we’re not together, so here’s a little something to look back on. Make sure you hide it well, don’t let him find it.* Beside the words was a crudely drawn image, unmistakably a penis.

Alex closed his eyes. "Her stepbrother fancied himself an artist..." He let out a laugh that broke almost instantly into tears, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling as he blinked repeatedly, trying to control his emotions and the stabbing pain in his heart that travelled all the way down to his stomach, making him suddenly feel sick.

Not once had Alex suspected her. Not once had he thought she was sleeping with her stepbrother behind his back or doubted that the baby had been his when he discovered she had died pregnant.

"So she lied to me..." he muttered shakily. "I was never disloyal. I was faithful the whole time. She lied to me..."