The fire and the truth

Alexander’s POV

I still feel… lost.

Isabel’s words haven’t stopped replaying in my head.

They’re mine.

Scarlett. Sterling. My children.

My flesh and blood.

The truth hits harder each time I let it settle. All this time—I’ve been in the dark. Watching them from a distance, thinking they belonged to someone else. To Roy. And she let me believe that. She looked me in the eye and let me think they weren’t mine. She must have hated me a lot to shut me out like that. And maybe… maybe she had every reason to.

God, the way I treated her during our marriage.

But still. Still.

I—I don’t know.

Frustration swells in my chest like a fire I can’t put out.

Should I do what she asked—turn a blind eye? Stay away?

But how can I?

How can she tell me not to go near my own children after dropping that truth on me?

Even without knowing, I’d always felt something—something magnetic about those kids. It was more than coincidence.