Chapter 653: What Remains When Everything Breaks
Orion didn’t look away from her.
He simply nodded once, slowly, as if the words had already settled inside him before she even finished speaking.
Sophia stared at him, her chest tightening painfully as she tried to understand why he wasn’t reacting the way she expected.
"...Did you hear ?" she asked again, her voice breaking slightly as the tears continued to fall. "I said Victoria is my mother... the sa Victoria who destroyed your pack... the sa Victoria who forced all of you into Nirvana... the leader of the Enclave... that Victoria is my mother."
Her voice cracked at the end, like saying it again might finally force a different reaction from him.
But Orion only exhaled slowly and nodded again, his gaze steady on her.
"I heard you," he said simply.
Sophia’s breath caught.
For a mont she just stared at him, searching his face for anger, for shock, for anything that matched what she felt inside her chest.
He should be screaming at her. He should be walking away from her, cursing her... anything at all. That was what she expected from him, but there was nothing at all.
"...that’s all?" she asked quietly, her voice trembling. "That’s all you’re going to say?"
Orion didn’t even hesitate.
"Yes."
The answer was calm, too calm for what she had just confessed, and it made sothing inside her crack further.
"Victoria is not you," he continued, his voice steady but firm as he looked at her properly now. "You are not the sa people, and I know exactly who your mother is."
Sophia shook her head slightly, disbelief mixing with frustration and pain.
"W...what?" she asked.
Orion’s gaze softened just a little, but his answer ca without hesitation.
"I rember too, shorty," he said quietly. "I rember when we were kids... I rember everything."
That made her go completely still.
Her lips parted slightly, but no words ca out at first, like her mind couldn’t catch up with what he was saying.
"...Is that enough for you?" she finally asked, her voice breaking again. "Is that really enough?"
Orion stepped closer then, his hands lifting to hold her face gently but firmly so she couldn’t look away.
"It’s enough," he said, voice lower now but certain in a way that left no room for doubt. "Victoria doesn’t get to change how I see you."
Sophia’s breath shuddered.
"Because you’re not her," he continued. "You’re Sophia. You’ve always been Sophia. The sa Sophia who is annoying when she wants to be, curious about most things, clumsy in the worst monts, determined when it matters, and selfless even when you don’t need to be."
His grip tightened slightly.
"That’s the person I fell in love with," he said quietly. "And nothing about who your mother is changes that."
The tears in Sophia’s eyes only ca harder.
Her throat tightened painfully as she looked at him, like she couldn’t hold herself together anymore.
"I watched your father die," she whispered.
Orion’s expression shifted imdiately, but his hands stayed steady on her face.
"It wasn’t you who killed him," he said firmly.
Sophia shook her head again, struggling to breathe.
"You don’t understand—"
"I do," he interrupted softly. "And I also know my father."
Her breath caught again.
Orion’s voice lowered slightly, becoming quieter but heavier.
"He was the kind of man who would’ve protected you without hesitation," he said. "Even if it cost him everything. He wouldn’t have stood aside and watched you die."
That broke sothing in her.
Because she rembered.
She rembered him.
Alaric standing in front of her even when he was weak, even when his body could barely hold itself together anymore.
She rembered his voice, rough but warm, telling her she was loved.
She rembered how, even in front of Victoria, he didn’t step away.
He had begged too, and not for himself, but for her. And she wasn’t the one who had been dying. A man who was obviously proud, begging her mother to spare her before he died.
A sob tore out of her chest before she could stop it.
"He did," she whispered brokenly. "He did protect ..."
Her hands shook as she said it. She still rembered the last look he had given her and how he had been insistent she was loved even right when he was dying, like she mattered to him. She had not done anything to deserve it, but he loved her nonetheless.
And she felt safer with him in those few monts than she had ever felt with Victoria.
Her voice broke completely.
"I forgot him," she said, shaking her head as fresh tears poured down her face. "I forgot him... I forgot everything... I forgot you... I forgot all of it..."
Her breath turned uneven, panic mixing with grief as it overwheld her.
"I’m sorry," she sobbed. "I’m sorry I forgot..."
Orion didn’t let her fall apart alone.
He pulled her back into his arms imdiately, holding her tightly against him as she broke completely.
"I’m sorry," she kept saying, over and over again, like she couldn’t stop herself. "I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry..."
Her voice cracked further each ti, until it barely sounded like words anymore.
"I’m sorry I was born," she whispered brokenly.
That made Orion freeze for a second.
Then his arms tightened around her even more.
"No," he said firmly, closer now, grounding her as she trembled in his hold. "Don’t say that."
But she couldn’t hear him because the apologies kept coming, spilling out of her like sothing she had held in for too long.
"I’m sorry... I’m sorry..."
Orion lowered his head slightly, his voice softer now but still steady.
"You don’t have to apologise," he said. "Not for any of this."
But Sophia only shook her head against him, sobbing harder.
"I’m sorry..."
He held her tighter.
Letting her cry.
Letting it all break loose.
"Cry," he said quietly. "Just cry. You don’t need to apologise for being in pain."
His hand moved slowly over her back, steadying her as her body shook.
"You don’t need to apologise for surviving things you shouldn’t have had to survive," he added softly. "And you don’t need to apologise for sothing that was never within your control. Let everything out, shorty. The pain you’ve held in... but know it’s not your fault."
That only made her cry harder.
Like sothing inside her had finally cracked open completely.
Her breath hitched painfully as she clung to him, the sobs shaking her entire body now, raw and uncontrollable, as everything she had buried ca rushing out at once.
And Orion didn’t let go, not even once.
He just held her while she broke.
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