Leo’s POV

​What was I supposed to say to them?

​How could I look my own brothers in the eye and tell them the truth? How could I tell them that I knew she was alive for over two years? Every single month, my phone would ring with a message from a hidden number. Just a few words: I’m fine, Leo. I’m doing well. It was a small, special message meant only for me.

​But it was worse than that. So much worse. I did not just keep a secret. I hurt them in the worst way possible. Twice over the last two years, I went and found her. Twice, I held her in the dark, inhaled her scent, and forgot about everything else. I slept with her behind their backs while they were crying and hurting for five long years.

​If Liam and Leonard found out that I had touched her, and that I had hidden her from them, they would not just be angry. They would destroy me.

​"Leo!" Liam’s voice pulled me out of my dark thoughts. His heavy hand came down on my shoulder. His grip was tight, and his dark eyes bored into mine, demanding an answer. "Are you okay? Talk to me."

​I swallowed the guilt rising in my throat. I tried to force my face into a calm expression, even though my heart was beating incredibly fast.

​"Yes..." I lied. My voice sounded tight and strange, even to me. I stepped back, moving away from his hand so I could pretend to study the painting. "I’m fine. It’s just... it’s hard for me to process it all."

​Before Liam could question my strained voice, the large double doors of the living room swung open.

​Mother walked in. She looked elegant and neat as always, but her face turned completely white the second she saw the painting on the coffee table. She froze in her tracks, looking from the artwork to the angry energy radiating off the three of us.

​Liam noticed the look on her face right away. He knew she recognized it. Shifting his stance like a wild animal ready to fight, he turned to face her, his eyes full of pure fury.

​"So you knew," Liam said. His voice was so low and menacing that the glass lights above us began to rattle. "You knew she was alive this whole time?"

​Mother closed her eyes for a second and let out a long, tired sigh. When she opened them, she did not even try to lie. "I am sorry," she said quietly.

​"No, you are not fucking sorry, Mother!" Leonard yelled. His phone slipped from his hand and clattered against the floor as he stormed toward her. His fangs were bared, and his chest heaved with deep sadness and rage. "You watched us lose our minds! You watched us suffer for five years! How could you do this?!"

​"I did it for the three of you... to prevent the prophecy!" Mother snapped back. She tried to project strength to defend herself, even though her hands were shaking. "We told her to fake her death so you three could finally move on and find other girls!"

​The revelation felt like a bomb going off in the room. Liam punched the wall hard, shattering the drywall into pieces.

​"But I tried to fix it," Mother begged. Her voice cracked as she looked at our furious faces. "Two years ago, when I saw how heartbroken you still were, I decided to reveal the truth. I begged her to come back. But she said no, Leonard! She told me that if I told you guys she was alive, she would run away to a place where no one could ever find her. She did not want to come back to all this pressure."

​I stood totally still by the fireplace. My stomach turned to ice. Two years ago. That was the exact time I had found Scarlett.

​"Where is she, Mother?" Liam commanded. He stepped right up to her, using his suffocating Alpha aura to make it hard for anyone to breathe. "Give us a location. Now."

​"I don’t know," Mother whispered, trembling under his terrifying pressure. She shook her head, and tears finally welled in her eyes. "If you want to know where she is... you should ask Alpha Ethan."

​Liam scoffed, a dark and angry sound escaping his chest. "Of course that bastard would know," he growled.

​He pulled out his phone right away, his fingers flying across the screen as he called Alpha Ethan. He held the phone to his ear, his face tight, but after a few seconds, he slammed it down on the table. Ethan did not pick up.

​Just then, there was a soft knock on the door. A young maid stepped into the living room, looking completely terrified by the heavy Alpha energy filling the air. She was shaking so much she could barely hold herself up.

​"Alpha..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "Someone is on the landline phone. They want to speak to you."

​"We don’t want to speak to anyone right now!" Leonard yelled, his voice roaring through the room. "Tell them to call back later!"

​The maid swallowed hard, her face turning pale. "But... she... she said..." She took a deep breath, trying to force the words out. "She said she is Scarlett."

​The name hit the room like a bolt of lightning.

​Liam rushed past her into the hallway so fast he was almost a blur. He grabbed the heavy telephone receiver and pressed it to his ear. Leonard and I were right behind him, our hearts pounding against our ribs.

​"Put it on speaker," Leonard demanded, his hands shaking as he pushed his way closer. "Liam, put it on speaker now!"

​Liam hit the button, his hand trembling as he set the receiver down on the small hallway table. The static from the phone line filled the tense silence between us.

​"Scar?" Liam called out, his voice cracking with a mix of fear and absolute hope. "Scar, is that you?"

​The line went completely silent for a long, heavy moment. Nobody in the hallway breathed. My chest felt so tight I thought I might faint.

​Then, her voice came through the speaker. It was softer than I remembered, older, but it was unmistakably her.

​"I heard you purchased my work," Scarlett said quietly. "It seems my message was received."