Chapter 166

Chapter 166: Chapter 166

Lysander’s pov

I don’t know how long I sat down there, lost in thoughts.

The paper towel was damp, shredded into wet gray clumps between my fingers. I was still huddled on the cold tile floor of the examination room, the heavy blanket Dr. Evelyn had given me wrapped tightly around my shivering shoulders.

The sterile smell of floor cleaner and antiseptic burned the back of my throat, but it couldn’t drown out the suffocating, silent roar in my mind.

Positive.

It was positive. The timeline was burned onto the back of my eyelids. I was losing my head here, my heart was beating twice as fast.

The heavy door of the examination room swung open with a sharp, frantic rattle, startling me.

"Lysander!"

My head snapped up. Standing in the doorway, her coat soaked from the downpour, her dark hair plastered to her face, was my mother.

She looked wild, her eyes wide with a terrifying, raw panic that cut straight through the cold fog in my brain.

Her eyes darted to me, her eyes welling up with tears as she surveyed my state. Her gaze on me made tears well up in my eyes too.

Before I could even speak her name, she dropped her bag onto the floor and rushed across the room.

She dropped to her knees, her arms throwing themselves around me, pulling my wet, shuddering frame hard against her chest. The warmth of her, the familiar scent of wild lavender and rain, broke whatever tiny thread was holding my sanity together.

I burst out crying.

A loud, broken sob tore from my lungs, so violent it shook my entire body. I buried my face into her shoulder, my fingers clutching at the wet fabric of her coat with a desperate, terrified grip.

"Oh, my baby... my sweet boy," Elena gasped, her hands moving frantically all over my face, my hair, my cheeks, framing my jaw as she pulled back just enough to look at me.

Her thumbs wiped away the endless stream of tears, her hands trembling as she touched the raw, inflamed skin along my neck where the iron collar had sat. "What happened? Look at me, Lysander! Why are you in a hospital? What did they do to you?!"

I couldn’t answer her. I couldn’t form the words to explain Drake’s icy red eyes, Darius’s dark study, or the nightmare blooming deep inside my core. I just sobbed bitterly, my forehead dropping onto her shoulder, my voice a pathetic, broken whimper.

God, I needed her here. Calling her was the best decision I have ever made.

"I want to go with you," I choked out, my fingers digging into her arms. "Mom... please. Take me home. I just want to go with you."

Elena didn’t ask another question. She didn’t press for details, nor did she call for the nurses. She just nodded frantically, her own eyes bright with tears as she pressed a hard, desperate kiss to the side of my head.

"Okay," she whispered, her voice fierce and unyielding. "Okay, baby. We’re going. Right now."

She helped me up off the cold floor, her arm wrapped firmly around my waist to support my weak, trembling legs. We walked out of the clinic together, bypassing the front desk, and stepped straight back out into the freezing mountain rain.

The drive to her apartment passed in complete, suffocating silence. The only sound inside the car was the rhythmic thump of the windshield wipers cutting through the downpour and my own ragged, uninterrupted sobbing.

Elena kept one hand firmly on the steering wheel, her other hand reached across the center console, holding my numb, bloody fingers in a tight, protective grip.

When we finally reached her small, quiet apartment on the edge of the city, she ushered me inside, locking the door behind us with a sharp clack.

She didn’t let me sit in the dark. She led me straight to the soft velvet sofa in her living room, wrapping me in a dry fleece throw. She hurried into the kitchen, the sound of the kettle heating up filling the small space, and returned minutes later with a steaming mug of chamomile tea.

She set it on the low table, sitting down beside me on the cushion, and began gently patting my back in a slow, rhythmic motion, just like she used to do when I was a child having nightmares.

My eyes traveled around the apartment, barely having time to register anything or the decorations she had done.

The warmth of the apartment, the quiet safety of her presence, and the soft, steady pat of her hand on my back finally broke the dam.

I buried my face in my hands, my shoulders shaking violently as fresh tears spilled over my knuckles.

"I’m pregnant," I wept, the words coming out as a strangled, raspy confession against my palms.

The patting hand on my back stopped dead.

For three long, agonizing minutes, the room went completely still. Elena didn’t move. She didn’t breathe. I sat there, shivering under the blanket, waiting for the sky to fall.

Then, out of nowhere, a sharp, sudden burst of laughter exploded from her chest.

I froze. I pulled my hands away from my wet face, my dark eyes wide, scowling at her through my tears. She was leaning back against the sofa cushions, her hand covering her mouth, a breathless, incredulous chuckle shaking her shoulders.

"Mom!" I rasped out, my voice laced with anger and utter humiliation. "Don’t laugh! Stop it!"

"Lysander, sweetie—"

"I’m serious!" I yelled, my chest heaving as I sat up straight, clutching the fleece blanket around my neck. "I am not joking! I’m telling you the truth!"

Her laughter died instantly. The amused sparkle in her eyes vanished, replaced by a sudden, sharp confusion as she took in the absolute, unhinged agony on my face. She realized I wasn’t making a sick joke.

Smack!

Before I could react, she reached out and smacked the side of my head with her open palm.

"Ow!" I winced, pulling back and rubbing my ear.

"Have you lost your mind?!" She scolded, her voice rising in a sharp, frantic pitch as she stared at me like I had grown a second head. "How can a man get pregnant, Lysander?! What kind of ridiculous nonsense are you talking about?!"

"I can!" I yelled back, my voice cracking desperately as I held my hand over my lower abdomen. "My biology is different! I’m a hybrid, Mom! It’s rare, but it happens when pureblood essence is involved! I’m telling you, the blood test at the clinic was positive! Don’t panic!"

Elena stared at me, her hands hovering in the air, her jaw slightly slack. She blinked once, twice, trying to process the impossible words coming out of her son’s mouth.

"A hybrid..." she muttered, her eyes darting across my pale, exhausted face, searching for any sign of a delusion. She took a deep, shaky breath, her hands coming down to rest on her knees. "Okay... okay. I don’t... I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how that is biologically possible."

She paused, taking a slow breath, forcing her tense shoulders to drop as she tried to look on the bright side. A small, tentative smile tried to form on her lips. "But... if it’s true... if you’re carrying a life, Lysander... shouldn’t you be happy? Drake must be over the moon. He adores you. He’s going to build a mountain for this child."

I stared at her, my heart sinking into a cold, dark abyss. I slowly shook my head, tears pouring down my cheeks again, hot and relentless.

"No," I whispered, my voice breaking completely. "I don’t know who the father is."

Elena’s tentative smile vanished. Her eyebrows pulled together in deep, profound confusion.

"What do you mean you don’t know who the father is?" she asked, her voice dropping into a quiet, dangerous register. "How is that even possible? You’re married to Drake."

I covered my face again, my shoulders shaking violently as a loud, pitiful sob tore from my throat. The shame, the terror, and the absolute destruction of the last month crashed over me all over again.

"Because I slept with Darius too," I sobbed out, the confession tasting like cold ash in my mouth.

Elena stiffened instantly. Her posture went rigid as a board, her face turning pale as she stared at me.

"Yeah," she started rambling, her voice suddenly fast, erratic, and sharp as her own buried trauma flared up. "Yeah, I know... I know what kind of monster he is, Lysander! That’s the whole reason I divorced that bastard! That’s why I left him!"

She cut herself off abruptly. Her eyes snapped up, locking onto my face with a terrifying, razor-sharp intensity.

"Wait," Elena said, her voice dropping into a deadly, horrifying quiet. She leaned in close, calculating the timeline in her head, her hand coming out to grip my wrist with iron strength. "You’re not that far along. Lysander... explain to me how this isn’t Drake’s child."

I looked into my mother’s eyes, my vision blurred by tears, my chest heaving with a final, broken breath.

"Because I slept with Darius."