All Chapters of Dumped By The Alpha, I Married His Stepbrother: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"Lock the door."Corinne moved fast, sliding the deadbolt on the records room before the footsteps outside reached us, and I watched Lucien position himself between me and the entrance without a word.The footsteps stopped just outside.A knock followed, unhurried, two soft raps against the frame."Mr. De Villiers," a voice called through the door. Male. Calm. Unfamiliar. "I know you're in there. I'm not here to cause trouble.""Who are you," Lucien said, his voice hard."My name is Marcus Doyle. I used to work security for the Kingsley household. Before the accident that killed Elena's parents."My whole body went still."I don't know that name," Lucien said, buying time, one hand resting lightly against the doorframe."You wouldn't. I disappeared from pack records the same week her parents died. If you check, you'll find no trace I ever existed there at all. That was intentional."Corinne looked at me, then at Lucien, waiting for a signal neither of us gave yet."What do you want,"

"Tell me," I said again, my voice cracking on the second word. "When did it start."Lucien's jaw worked, like he was choosing between several answers and hating all of them equally."Sit down first," he said."No." I stayed exactly where I was, gripping the doorframe. "I've spent three days sitting down while everyone around me decides how much truth I can handle. I want the whole thing standing up, right now."Marcus glanced between us, then quietly stepped back toward the window, giving the illusion of privacy without actually leaving the room.Lucien exhaled slowly. "The earring belonged to my mother first. Before it ever belonged to yours.""That's not possible. My mother told me her mother gave it to her.""Your mother wasn't lying to you," Lucien said. "She likely never knew where it originally came from either. My mother gave that pair away years before you were born, to a friend she trusted with almost

"Meeting with Caleb."The words landed heavy, and for a moment none of us spoke."Are you certain," Lucien said. "Certain enough to act on it.""Two separate contacts, two separate nights," Marcus said. "Both described the same thing. Damien slipping out of the household after midnight, meeting Caleb somewhere off the estate grounds, returning before dawn like nothing happened.""Then he's not simply watching Victoria from a distance," I said slowly. "He's working directly with the man who married her.""Or Caleb suspects something about him and is keeping him close to control the risk," Lucien said. "Either version is possible. We don't know which yet."Marcus shook his head. "There's a third possibility neither of you has considered.""What," I asked."That Damien isn't watching Victoria out of fatherly obligation at all," Marcus said. "That the story Alaric gave us, a man desperate to see the daughter he was never allowed to claim, was only ever half true. Maybe he found his way in

"Yours."? The word barely left my mouth before the room seemed to tilt around me."Not Victoria's father," I whispered. "Mine."Damien's expression held something raw, grief layered over decades of silence. "I loved your mother before either of us ever married anyone else. Before Alaric destroyed everything between our families and forced us apart.""That's not possible." My voice shook despite every effort to hold it steady. "My father raised me. I have his eyes in every photograph from my childhood, his laugh, his-""You have your mother's eyes," Damien said quietly. "The man who raised you loved you enough to never once let you doubt it. That doesn't make the blood between us any less true."Across the room, Caleb's laughter rang out at something an elder had said, and the sound of it snapped me back to the danger still surrounding us."We can't do this here," I whispered."I know." Damien's jaw tightened. "There's a service corridor behind the east archway. Five minutes. Both of y

"What does that mean."? Victoria's voice cracked beside me, her eyes fixed on Caleb with a fear I hadn't seen from her before, not even the night he'd slapped her in front of the entire hall."What does he already know," she said, louder this time, turning toward her husband. "Caleb. What is Damien supposed to know."Caleb's jaw tightened, his composure slipping for just a fraction of a second before he smoothed it back into place. "Nothing that concerns you tonight.""It's clearly something that concerns you enough to be shouting about it in front of every guest we invited.""Victoria." His voice dropped into a warning she recognized instantly, and I watched her flinch, the way a person flinches from a sound they've learned to fear through repetition.Lucien's hand found the small of my back again, steering me subtly away from the center of the commotion, toward the edge of the crowd where we could watch without being watched ourselves."He ran," Lucien murmured, low enough only I co