Page 90 of Alpha's Impostor Bride

No. I won’t believe it. I can’t.

“It has always only been you, Leanna,” Harriet says quietly. “Cedric was fading fast after you left. When he returned after each day on the battlefield, he was a little bit more broken, a little bit more disappointed that he hadn’t died.”

My heart aches, and I sink my teeth into my lower lip, wishing this feeling away. “No.” I get to my feet. “Enough. If you just came here to tell me all this—He mated Vivian, didn’t he? She’s his queen. They are—”

“He never mated her.” Harriet’s words are stark and have me going still.

“You’re lying,” I say hoarsely. “She’s the queen. I may have turned my back on the Northern Kingdom, but I know what happened after I left. She became queen. The false queen was removed, and—”

“The elders tried to force Cedric to take part in a mating ceremony with Vivian after they opposed his decision to kill her. They might have been able to ensure her survival, but Cedric wasn’t going to give her what she wanted. He and I left that morning, before the mating ceremony. She was humiliated. The elders tried to compel his return, but he refused. He goes back once a year, and every time, Vivian tries her best to seduce him so that she can at least carry his heir and legitimize her position. But he won’t touch her. He threw her out of his room naked once. He has made his stance clear to the elders. They can have her as their queen, but she is not his mate.”

“Harriet—”

The older woman gets to her feet. “She’s nothing but a placeholder for you. She’s not the one mated to Cedric in any way or form, not even a legal ceremony. You are the one who is his legal mate. He has always refused to give her your place.”

Why?

Why would Cedric do that? Why is he here now? Why is Harriet here telling me all this?

I don’t want to know! I don’t want to know any of it.

The tears aren’t stopping, and I don’t know what to do.

Harriet’s arms wrap around me. “I’m sorry, child. I know you’ve spent all these years angry at him.”

The sobs erupt, and I sink into her embrace, helpless.

I hate him.

I still hate him. I have to. Because I don’t know how else to feel.

My heart feels like it’s ripping apart. I don’t want to cry like this. I don’t want to be like this.

But it hurts so much.

I don’t understand what these tears are for, or why my heart feels like it’s breaking. But Harriet’s hold on me is warm and feels safe, and close to a decade of my grief and suffering is coming out.

I sob till there’s nothing left in me. She doesn’t let go, still hugging me close.

“It’s not fair,” I finally mumble hoarsely into her chest. “It’s not fair.”

“I know,” she agrees, not asking me what I mean. “It’s really not.”

“I hate him.”

“I understand.” She strokes my hair, and my lips tremble.

“He was so mean to me, Harriet. He said such awful things. And I had to listen because I knew he’d kill me if I defended myself. But he was my fated mate. He wasn’t supposed to be cruel to me.”

“He was wrong, and he knows it.”

“I hate him for how he made me feel.”

Her lips press on the top of my head, and I grip her tighter.

“He said I was a substitute, that my name didn’t matter, that I didn’t matter. And now, now he’s acting as if I do matter. Why now? Why didn’t he say anything then? Why did he tell Bella I was nothing more than a tool?!”

I pull away from her, my eyes wet and throbbing, and she sighs, wiping away my tears. “Because he was a fool who was still in denial. Losing you made him realize his own heart. He has suffered too, Leanna. You both have. Don’t you think it’s time the two of you talked?”

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