CHAPTER 326: CHAPTER 326 WHEN LOVE BECOMES A CURSE

Liora continued. "Seeing that you have managed to awaken your powers, we decided to suppress your powers again and wipe off your memories. I created a new memory for, one we would have had together if you weren’t sent away." She paused, wiping the tears off her face with the back of her sleeve.

"Your uncle and I arranged the marriage with you and Rhydian, Rhydian comes from the same family as Sylven, and we believed he would treat you right. I just wanted you to be happy, but who knew you would run away. I felt so angry when I saw the mark on your neck, you were marked by a werewolf, and no daughter of mine will get mated to one." Her eyes grew fierce.

I chuckled at her words. "No daughter of yours?" My laugh grew louder, sadistic, and raw with emotion. I hated the fact that I felt what the real Ember’s emotions were. "Did you even research what the prophecy meant by seed?"

Zeir cleared his throat. "Of course, we know, you would end up dying, giving your life to birth the tree. Everything your mother and I did was for your best interest, when I realized we could no longer suppress your power, I let you go, giving you a pendant that will drain and save your powers. We knew we needed to strip you of the powers, then we would find someone suitable to take your role." His voice grew angrier.

"Not only did Alpha Damon’s heart get shattered by the witches, but our only hope to perfect our plan. But you gave half of yours to him, do you know what you did?! All our efforts have gone down the drain, we can’t take your powers now, it has bonded with your soul. Now we can only wait for the inevitable." He added, his eyes softening as they glanced at Liora.

"You are all wrong." I turned to Liora. "You thought you did everything to save your daughter from her cruel fate. But you made her life more miserable. She begged for food, wore old and worn-out clothes, was bullied, assaulted, and harassed by both her family and strangers alike."

I had wanted to keep this from them, but they needed to know the cost of their decisions.

"What do you mean?" Liora’s lips wobbled.

"Being weak is a death sentence to a werewolf. Her father, Alpha Caelen watched without batting an eye as his daughter was maltreated. He hated her so much that he wouldn’t speak to her, she didn’t even know what parental love felt like. Her stepfamily made her life a living hell. And you claimed it was for her own good." I couldn’t stop the tears running down my cheeks.

Liora’s breath hitched, her eyes widened with disbelief. "No, no, Caelen promised me he would take care of you. There is no way you could go through that..." she sobbed.

"You claimed you loved your daughter but you never once checked up on her or even assigned people to watch over her." My voice dropped to a whisper.

She continued crying, but I continued without caring how she would handle the information I was about to share.

"Alpha Caelen decided to sell her as a breeder to the other Alphas..."

"He wouldn’t dare!" Zein roared in anger.

But I chuckled bitterly, what was the point of struggling when the head was already cut off? "He dared, your daughter and your niece tried to run away from home, but got cold, beaten, and thrown to the dungeon..."

My throat tightened. "... she died in the dungeon, hungry, cold, and alone. Liora, your daughter is dead. You never met her before she passed away. You could have loved her, cherished her for the little time she got to live, but you chose the cruelty. You thought you were protecting her, and that you were doing it for love... but you destroyed her life and made her miserable."

Liora froze for a moment before bursting into a laughter of disbelief, tears pouring down her cheeks as she crawled closer to me. She gently held my cheeks. "I know I was wrong Aeris, and I know you want to hurt me. But you are going too far, you are right in front of me, how could you be dead?"

Her expression was like that of a person about to lose the last string she was holding onto sanity.

"Ember is dead," I muttered slowly so the words would sink into her brain.

"What the prophecy meant was, your daughter is a Chosen, but not the seed. The seed needs the magic of the Chosen, and your daughter’s body was a vessel for the seed. She won’t die to give life to the Sacred tree directly but she would die so the seed could take over her body."

I paused, staring at her wide eyes that were dripping with tears. "So all you did was useless, because her body was only the vessel, you can’t strip her powers or suppress her magic to prevent her from dying."

My lips quivered, guilty at the thought of taking her life. "They are both different, yet you got the wrong idea. I’m Jasmine, and I’m the seed of the Sacred Tree, I took over your daughter’s body the moment she died in the dungeon."

Silence stretched across the room, deafening to the ear. The tension of the weight of my words hung over the air, making it suffocating to breathe.

Seconds turned into minutes. Different emotions flickered through her eyes as realisation struck her like lightning.

"No... no... no." Her hands trembled as she withdrew them from my face, her eyes widened in horror, because of misinformation, she had been separated from her daughter, and didn’t get to meet her before she died.

"No!!!" Her heart-wrenching wail tore through the room.

Her wails snapped Zeir out of his daze, he rushed forward and pulled Liora into a tight hug. Tears trickled down his face.