The Alpha Faked Depression to Win My Love Chapter 05

The Alpha Faked Depression to Win My Love Chapter 05

LYRA 

The three o’clock sun was not as fierce as noon, but it still burned through the cafe windows. 

I stirred my latte and took a small sip. 

All I could think about were the scattered lines 

Rowan had written about Sabrina. 

The bell above the cafe door chimed. 

High heels crossed the floor and stopped in front 

of me. 

Sabrina wore a blue and white sundress. 

It was the first time I had truly looked at her face. 

Her features were small and sweet. 

The violence in her eyes did not belong with them. 

I lowered my gaze. 

She still disgusted me. 

Sabrina sat down and placed her designer bag on 

the table. 

“What about Rowan?” 

I did not waste time. 

“You liked him.” 

“And he was your fated mate.” 

Her hand froze on the menu. 

Her pink purple nails dug into its corner. 

For one instant, pain flashed through her eyes. 

Then she buried it. 

“Who told you that? Why would I ever like 

someone that poor?” 

She tried to laugh, but her mouth looked stiff. 

“Your name appears many times in Rowan’s diary.” 

“He wrote that you confessed to him twenty seven times.” 

I set down my spoon and looked directly at her. 

The smell of roasted coffee beans filled the quiet cafe. 

The owner was still working in the kitchen. 

Sabrina’s pupils tightened. 

Her lips parted, but no denial came. 

She propped her forehead against her right hand 

and looked away. 

Her silence snapped the last thread of my patience. 

I lifted the framed painting beside me and set it on 

the table. 

Wilted sunflowers filled the canvas. 

Rowan’s last painting. 

“Then why did you steal his work?” 

“Why did you take his place in that competition?” 

“Do you know how important it was to him? He 

had loved singing and painting since he was a 

child.” 

Ten days after Rowan was accused of copying his 

own painting, The Lost Sunflower, he killed 

himself. 

The person who had stolen it from him was 

Sabrina. 

“Even after he died, you kept tormenting his 

family.” 

“Sabrina, is this what you call love?” 

Hatred rose in her eyes as she stared at the 

painting. 

Then the word love seemed to tear something 

open inside her. 

Her chest heaved. 

She seized her cup and smashed it against the 

floor. 

“What do you know?” 

She sprang to her feet, screaming at me through 

red eyes. 

“You were his sister, but what did you ever 

understand about him?” 

“What gives you the right to question how much I 

loved him?” 

“Yes. He was my fated mate. The first time I caught his scent, my wolf knew him.” 

“But he was an Omega who could barely afford 

tuition. He always thought I was an Alpha taking 

pity on him. No matter what I did, he refused to 

accept me.” 

“I gave him everything I could.” 

“He liked Midnight Echo, so I fought to buy him ten copies of their album.” 

“I didn’t know what brand of sneakers he liked, sol bought them all.” 

“He loved those stupid shooting games. They made me dizzy just looking at them, but I learned from the beginning so I could have something to talk to him about.” 

“Money. My heart. Everything.” 

“I put it all at his feet.” 

“He rejected me twenty seven times, and I told 

myself it didn’t matter. I thought if I held on a little 

longer, one day he would believe me.” 

Sabrina collapsed back into the chair. 

Her voice had gone hoarse. 

Tears poured down her face as she looked at me 

in despair. 

Her confession did not soften me. 

It only made the truth more impossible to 

understand. 

“Then why?” 

“Why did you steal his painting?” 

“Do you know Rowan killed himself ten days after 

the competition?” 

“Do you know how deep he cut his wrists? Do you 

know how determined he was to die?” 

“Tell me, Sabrina. Aren’t you one of the people who 

killed him?” 

I could no longer draw a full breath. 

The scene that haunted every nightmare returned 

to me. 

Sabrina’s lips moved, but she gave no answer. 

Only confusion remained in her eyes. 

Her whole body trembled as she pulled a cigarette, 

from her bag. 

An employee stopped her before she could light it. 

So she crushed it slowly between her fingers. 

“That weekend, he performed at a major 

commercial event I recommended.” 

“When he came back, he was a different person.” 

“I asked him how the show had gone. Rowan 

looked like he wanted to kill me.” 

“He said I was the most disgusting person he had 

ever known.” 

“He called me an animal. A whore.” 

“Even now, when I close my eyes, I can see him 

pointing at me while he said those things.” 

“You have no idea how desperate I was. It felt like I 

couldn’t breathe.” 

“I didn’t know what had happened.” 

“My father only told me celebrity agents would be 

at the event, that it was an incredible opportunity. 

That was why I secretly told Rowan about it.” 

“But after it ended, he pushed me away as if he 

had sentenced me to death.” 

“I had my pride too.” 

“It was bad enough that he would not accept his 

fated mate. Why did he have to humiliate me like 

that?” 

“Afterward, I stopped loving him. I even wanted 

to…” 

She choked before she could finish. 

She wanted revenge. 

We both knew it. 

Love that could not possess often rotted into 

hatred. 

Sabrina had grown up with the world at her feet. 

There had never been anything she could not 

have. 

If Rowan would not be hers, she had decided to 

destroy him. 

On the day he died, the mate bond they had never 

completed snapped with him. 

Sabrina believed he had chosen death rather than 

accept her. 

Her hatred had not ended with his life. 

It had spread to me. 

Taking away my Omega scholarship. 

Sending Kieran to deceive me. 

Those things were only the continuation of it. 

“How did you know about Rowan and me?” 

She wiped at her face. 

“You were the person he treasured most, weren’t 

you?” 

“He told you every good thing and hid every bad 

one because he never wanted you to worry.” 

“Honestly, I envied you.” 

“I envied how much he cared about you.” 

The ice in my cup had nearly melted. 

Latte spilled slowly over the rim. 

I rubbed the calluses on my fingers and 

remembered Rowan’s delicate handwriting. 

“I read the diary he left behind.” 

Sabrina stared down at the table. 

“Did he always hate me?” 

“Or did he ever… like me? Even a little?” 

“I cannot answer for him.” 

The light vanished from her face. 

Even the hatred disappeared. 

There had been a commercial performance in 

Rowan’s diary at exactly the same point his entries. 

about Sabrina turned vicious. 

After that, the diary changed completely. 

Page after page held only four words. 

MARCUS MUST DIE. 

The pen had cut through the paper. 

Each stroke looked as if Rowan had wanted to 

tear the man apart with his own hands. 

But he had written nothing else. 

No reason. 

No detail. 

I looked up at the hollow eyed woman across from 

1. me. 

“One last question.” 

“Marcus Voss is your father, isn’t he?” 

“The Alpha on Blackthorn Academy’s board?” 

Sabrina blinked at the sudden change of subject. 

Then she nodded. 

“Yes. He’s my father.”