Mated To The Crippled Alpha-Chapter 359: Hope to Tear You Apart

Now, the only people in the Morrigans family who still mattered to me were Grandma and Whitney.

The others meant nothing.

If they died in front of me right now, I would not feel a thing.

I had already cut them out of my life.

Before my death and after it, I was always the villain in their story.

That never changed.

At first, when they appeared here, I thought they might ask me for help.

Instead, they blamed me for everything.

Vivian was completely convinced that I was the one responsible for what had happened to them.

When Whitney untied the ropes binding her hands, Vivian suddenly lunged forward.

Her hand grabbed a fruit knife from the nearby table.

"What did we ever do to deserve this?" she screamed, staggering toward me. "Is this still not enough for you? I’ll kill you, you monster!"

I didn’t move.

Not even a step.

Her arms and legs had been tied for too long. The moment she tried to run, her body gave out. She collapsed forward before she could reach me, and the knife slipped from her hand, clattering loudly against the floor.

Whitney gasped and rushed forward.

"Mom! What are you doing?"

She quickly helped Vivian up from the ground.

Vivian looked dazed, struggling to keep her balance.

Whitney suddenly dropped to her knees in front of her.

Tears filled her eyes.

"Mom," she cried softly, her voice shaking. "It’s me... Camilla."

She grabbed Vivian’s hands tightly.

"Don’t you recognize me?"

When I was nothing but a wandering spirit, I had already accepted one painful truth.

My parents had never loved me.

Back then, I couldn’t cry anymore. Spirits don’t cry. But my heart had already shed more tears than it could carry. Every disappointment, every rejection, every cold word from them had already drained whatever pain was left in me.

So when they stood in front of me now and spoke harshly again, it didn’t shake me at all.

I looked calmly at their shocked faces and said, "We met in Snowville not long ago, didn’t we?"

The room fell silent.

Vivian’s lips trembled, and Malcom stared at me like he had just seen a ghost.

"Are you really Elena?" Vivian whispered. "This... this can’t be possible. How could something like this happen?"

I didn’t answer right away.

Instead, I picked up the knife lying nearby and slowly walked toward them. My footsteps were steady, calm, almost indifferent. But the closer I got, the more nervous Malcom became.

When I stopped in front of him, he finally snapped out of his daze. Fear tightened his face.

"What... what are you going to do?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.

I bent down quietly.

With one clean movement, I sliced through the rope binding his wrists.

The rope fell away.

Then I stepped back.

"I understand why you’re afraid of me," I said calmly. "After all, in your hearts, it would have been much easier if I had died. You would have been remembered as the grieving family. The good parents. The caring brother."

I looked at each of them slowly.

"But unfortunately for you," I continued, "not only did I survive... I also remember your ugly faces very clearly."

Whitney looked between us, completely confused.

"Elena... what are you talking about?" she asked softly.

Her voice carried worry, not anger.

I reached out, helped her stand up from the floor, and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Sweetheart," I said softly, "if you think this reunion will be warm and happy, like a family finally coming back together... then I’m afraid you’re wrong."

I paused for a moment.

"I’m not part of the Morrigans anymore."

Vivian suddenly staggered toward me, her eyes filling with tears. The look on her face changed, becoming soft and almost desperate.

"Elena... is it really you?" she said, her voice shaking. "I was wrong... I was wrong before..."

She reached out as if she wanted to touch my face.

I took a step back.

"Mrs. Morrigan," I said calmly, "please understand something. I’m Riley now. And my mother is Lena."

Her hand froze in the air.

Vivian’s face crumpled with pain.

"Elena... are you still holding a grudge against us?" she asked weakly. "We were tricked too. Can’t you forgive us?"

Whitney tried to step between us, her voice trembling. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Elena... we’re family. You can’t just—"

"I can accept you," I said gently, cutting her off. "But not them."

The room went quiet again.

Then Malcom’s patience finally snapped.

"That’s enough!" he barked angrily. "If you were reborn, why didn’t you come back to us? No wonder every time we met, something felt wrong!"

His eyes burned with anger.

"You knew that fake Camilla was suspicious! Why didn’t you warn us? Nolan and Jake died because of you!"

His voice grew harsher.

"Are you blaming us because we didn’t notice your depression? You hid everything so well! How were we supposed to know?"

That was exactly why I never wanted this reunion.

Even though I thought my heart had already turned to stone, hearing those words still left a sting in my chest.

Nothing had changed.

With or without Wisteria, Malcom was still the same person. In his eyes, I was still the criminal, the problem that needed to be blamed.

I used to try to explain myself.

I used to beg them to understand.

But now I knew the truth about them.

I wasn’t the one who was wrong.

So why should I keep explaining?

A cold smile appeared on my lips.

"You should be grateful," I said slowly. "You should be grateful that I didn’t let your entire family drive down that road and die alongside Nolan."

"You wicked girl!" Vivian shouted in shock. "How can you say something so cruel?"

Malcom suddenly raised his hand.

For a moment, it looked exactly like the past. Just like the times when Wisteria would whisper poison into his ears and he would turn his anger on me.

But this time, the slap never came.

A hand caught his wrist in midair.

Lewis.

He stood there like a wall between us, his tall figure blocking Malcom completely. The air around him felt colder, heavier, filled with quiet authority.

His voice was icy.

"If she’s cruel," Lewis said slowly, "then she should bury you herself."

His grip tightened slightly.

"You have no right to hit her."

The Morrigans family stared at him in confusion. They clearly didn’t understand why Lewis was here... or why he was standing on his own two feet now.

Only Whitney looked truly puzzled. She still didn’t understand why the people she loved had suddenly become my enemies.

She had been locked away for most of the past years, cut off from the world. No phone. No internet. No outside news. She only knew fragments of the truth.

She had no idea what my life had really been like inside the Morrigans residence.

And I had never told her.

I didn’t want to destroy the image of family she still carried in her heart.

But I also never expected the Morrigans to appear here today.

Life had a strange sense of humor.

The difference now was that I was no longer alone.