Hannah gasped, her hand flying to her face. Her eyes filled with tears, fake tears. I could tell. I could always tell.
“You don’t touch her things! You don’t touch anything that belongs to my daughter!” I shouted, trembling from head to toe.
Before she could respond, the door slammed open. Alpha Jeremiah burst inside, his eyes wild. “What the hell is going on here?”
Hannah immediately ran toward him, sobbing. “She—she hit me, Alpha! I was just trying to help her clean and—”
“Help me?” I laughed bitterly, my tears blurring everything. “You shattered Annie’s urn! You did it on purpose!”
Jeremiah’s gaze darted between us, then to the ashes on the floor. His jaw tightened. “You hit her?”
“She—”
He cut me off, stepping forward. “Answer me, Zera! Did you hit her?”
“She deserved it!” I spat, my voice shaking. “She broke Annie’s urn, Alpha! She’s pretending it was an accident, but I saw her smirk before she dropped it!”
Hannah whimpered, hiding her face against his chest. “I swear, I didn’t mean to. I was just trying to help. She scares me, Alpha. She’s not… she’s not herself anymore.”
Jeremiah’s arm immediately went around her, shielding her from me. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Zera?!” he roared.
My heart stopped. He looked at me with disgust, as if I were the enemy, not the woman who shared his bed, not the mother of his dead daughter.
“You’re pathetic,” he growled. “Jealous because your best friend’s pregnant and you’re not. Bitter because she’s happy and you’re not. You’re using Annie’s death as an excuse to attack her.”
My lips parted, disbelief flooding me. “You think I’m jealous?” I whispered. “Of her?”
“Annie’s dead, Zera!” he snapped. “She’s gone! And you can’t keep blaming everyone else because you weren’t a good enough mother to protect her! Don’t use her urn to gain my damn sympathy. It’s just mere ashes now.”
That broke me.
My knees went weak. The air in the room seemed to vanish. “Don’t,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “Don’t you dare put that on me. You—”
“How fucking dare you to blame me?!” I cried, louder this time, tears streaming down my face.
“Enough!” Jeremiah shouted, his voice echoing through the room like thunder.