Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce!-Chapter 202

Aria’s POV

The door burst open before I could finish my sentence.

Lina’s small dark head appeared first, her eyes going wide when she spotted me. Behind her, Lilith moved with more caution, but her jaw was tight in that way that meant she’d been holding herself together and was about two seconds away from cracking.

"Mommy!" Lina launched herself forward like a tiny missile.

Kael caught her mid-run with one arm, his other hand still linked with mine.

"Easy, tiger." His voice was warm but firm. "Your mom’s still healing, remember?"

Lina pouted. "But I want to hug her!"

"I know you do." Kael swung her up so she was sitting on his hip, her dark hair tumbling down his shoulder. "And you will. But we have to be gentle with Mommy right now because—" He glanced at me, and something in his expression shifted. Warmed. "Because she’s carrying something very precious."

Lilith had stopped at the foot of the bed. She was watching me the way she always did—like she was cataloging every micro-expression, every breath, every sign that I was truly okay or whether I was just pretending. That particular Lilith-stillness that made her seem twice her age.

"You’re really hurt," she said. It wasn’t a question.

"Not as much as I was." I reached out with my free hand, the one Kael wasn’t holding. "Come here."

She came. Slowly. Carefully. Like she was afraid the bed might break if she put her weight on it wrong. She climbed up beside me with the precision of someone who’d learned how to move quietly a long time ago.

Lina, however, had no such concerns.

"Mommy, Mommy, guess what?" She was already squirming, her small hands reaching for my face. "Kael said I can’t sit on you because your leg is broken and also—" She paused dramatically. Her eyes went very wide. "You have a BABY in your tummy!"

I glanced at Kael.

He was trying not to smile.

"That’s right," I said carefully. "How do you feel about that?"

"I feel AMAZING!" Lina threw her hands up in the air, nearly whacking Kael in the face in the process. He caught her wrists gently, guided them back down. "Because I’m finally not the baby anymore! Lilith’s always saying how she’s older and bigger and stronger, and now I’m going to have someone who’s YOUNGER than me!"

Lilith’s mouth twitched. That particular expression that meant she was trying not to laugh at her sister’s logic.

"That’s one way to look at it," I said.

"Mommy, is it a boy or a girl?" Lina was already bouncing slightly, her energy absolutely boundless. "Can we name it? I want to name it something cool. Like—like Lightning! Or Thunder! Or maybe Princess Lightning Thunder!"

"We’ll talk about names," Kael said diplomatically.

Lilith was quieter. She’d climbed fully onto the bed now, settling herself against my side with extreme care. Her small hand found mine and squeezed it once. Very gently. Like she was checking that I was solid. That I was really here.

I squeezed back.

For a moment, the three of us—four, if you counted Kael standing there with one arm still around Lina and his free hand never leaving contact with me—just existed in that space. The machines beeped softly. Outside the window, afternoon light was starting to turn golden again.

Lilith’s head came to rest against my shoulder.

"Don’t leave again," she said. Very quietly. Like she was asking for something she wasn’t sure she had the right to ask for.

My throat tightened.

"I won’t," I said. And I meant it with every fiber of my being. "I promise."

She nodded against my shoulder. Didn’t say anything else. But her small hand stayed wrapped around mine, and the tension that had been holding her body rigid started to ease, just slightly.

The door opened again.

Sophie stood in the doorway, still in her clothes from days ago—a wrinkled blouse and jeans, her blonde hair thrown into a haphazard ponytail. Her eyes were red. Her makeup was smudged. She looked like she hadn’t slept.

The moment she saw me, her face crumpled.

"Oh my God," she said. And then, louder: "Oh my God, Aria—"

She crossed the room in three quick strides and stopped just short of the bed, her hands hovering like she wanted to touch me but was afraid I’d break. Her whole body was shaking.

"You’re okay," she said. Like she was trying to convince herself. "You’re actually okay. Oh my God, when they said you were unconscious, I thought—I didn’t know if—" Her voice broke. "I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry."

"Sophie, hey—" I reached out with my free hand. "It’s not your fault."

"It IS." She grabbed my hand and held it against her chest, her whole face going blotchy red. "I went off with Cassius like some lovesick idiot, and I didn’t check on you, and then Serena just—she just took the girls and I wasn’t even there to stop her—" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"You couldn’t have stopped her," I said firmly. "She had fake documentation. She looked enough like me that—" I shook my head. "This isn’t on you."

"But—"

"It’s not," Kael said. His voice was calm. Certain. Not unkind, just absolute. "You stayed with Lilith and Lina when it mattered most. That’s all anyone can ask."

Sophie’s lips trembled. She looked at him, then back at me, and then she started crying—actual, full-body sobs that made Lina reach out instinctively and pat her shoulder with her small hand.

"Don’t cry," Lina said, with the absolute certainty of a four-year-old offering comfort. "Mommy’s okay now. And guess what? She has a baby in her belly!"

She looked up at me.

Then back at her phone.

Then back at me.

"You’re PREGNANT?" she said, her voice going up three octaves. "Again?! How is this even possible?!"