---- Chapter 8 After two months of separation, my once cherished daughter looked thinner, more fragile than I remembered. Her wide eyes welled with tears as she clung to my waist. But I gently pulled her away, crouching to meet her gaze. "Isn't Lily your mother now?" Yelena's lips trembled. She shook her head. "Mom, I was wrong... I don't want Aunt Lily. I only want you to be my mom. She gave me gifts, but... she never cooked for me. She never told me bedtime stories." I interrupted her softly, "Yelena, don't remember I seldom had time to cook for you? I was too busy working." Theld her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Do you remember lying to me? Telling me you and your dad only ate one bread for dinner?" She flinched. "T survived on one bread a day. What did you really ---- eat, Yelena?" Her small body shivered as the truth sank in. She turned suddenly and began kicking her father in anger. "It's all your fault! You made me lie to Mom. Now she doesn't want me anymore!" Yeats didn't stop her. He stood there, unmoving, holding the divorce agreement in his hands as Yelena pummeled his legs. I walked to the elevator and turned once. "Alpha Yeats," I said coldly, "Sign the agreement within two working days. I'll send someone to collect it." "And prepare yourself. You'll soon be removed as Alpha of CrimsonMoon. You always wanted to be ordinary. Consider this your chance-perhaps as an omega, or at best, a warrior." In the following days, I buried myself in work. I reviewed CrimsonMoon's structure, planned its dismantling, and oversaw its merging into nearby packs to stabilize Lupus Celestial's political balance. ---- Yeats was evicted from the Alpha Villa. His fall from grace was widely discussed online. One day, while we were analyzing pack territory, my Beta brought up Lily. "She's infamous now," he said. "Her father-one of CrimsonMoon's respected elders-disowned her after learning what she did to you. Her status plummeted, and her fans turned against her." "She embezzled funds from Yeats' accounts and fled. No one knows where she is." Iblinked. "She had access to his accounts?" "Tt's said Yeats trusted her completely. She knew all his passwords." Isat there for a moment, stunned. Then, I laughed bitterly. Fourteen years. He chased me for two. We dated for two. Bonded for ten.