My Alpha Boss Gave Me Triplets – Episode 18
“They belong to someone else.” Evie’s lie remained between them, too large to call back. She kept her chin raised, although every instinct urged her to place both hands over the triplets and shield them from the hurt darkening Leopold’s face.
He stared at her as if the bond itself had betrayed him. The curse mark, the shared pain, and the scent he had recognized in her blood had all pointed toward one truth. He had begun to accept fatherhood before Evie ever confirmed the pregnancy, imagining obligations he never expected to carry. Her claim forced him to consider a different explanation—one in which she had accepted his protection while carrying another man’s children. The jealousy that followed was primitive, immediate, and humiliating.
“Who?” he asked.
Evie had not prepared a name. Any invented man could be investigated, and Leopold possessed enough power to find every detail of a real person’s life. She thought of using a stranger, a former coworker, or someone beyond pack territory, but each possibility created new lies that could harm an innocent person. “That is none of your business.” The refusal sounded more convincing than any false name she might choose.
The answer cut deeper than a name might have. Leopold remembered her request that he leave her alone and the month they spent apart. He wondered whether she had gone to someone else after rejecting him, even though the timing contradicted the conclusion anger wanted him to believe.
“You let me bring you into my home,” he said. “You allowed my doctor and my guards to protect you while hiding another man’s children.” Leopold heard himself measuring safety as though it were a favor that required payment in honesty. He knew Evie had accepted the mansion only after nearly dying, but hurt reshaped the facts into betrayal. If she trusted an unnamed father more than she trusted her mate, then the bond had given Leopold nothing he could rely on.
“I never asked to come here.” Evie heard the injustice in his accusation and used it to strengthen the lie. “You decided where I would live, when I could leave, and who would watch me. I accepted because I had nearly died.”
Leopold closed his hand around the edge of the table. Part of him knew she was right. He had called control protection because commands were easier than asking what she needed, especially when fear made patience feel dangerous. He had moved her into the mansion without discussing terms, then expected the gesture to create trust on demand. But jealousy and humiliation overwhelmed the recognition before it could soften him. The thought of another man possessing a connection to Evie that Leopold could never claim made restraint almost impossible.
“Then there is no reason for you to stay.” The words came out colder than he intended. “Pack protection is not a refuge for another man’s family.”
Evie went still. She had expected suspicion, perhaps another demand for proof. She had not expected the lie to cost her the only secure place available while Francesca’s attack remained fresh. The mansion had felt like a gilded prison until Leopold ordered her out; now every guarded door represented safety she had sacrificed. She wondered whether protecting the truth had exposed the babies to something worse.
“You want me to leave now?” she asked. “Doctor Lara said I should rest.”
“You made it clear that your condition has nothing to do with me.” Leopold’s pride refused to retreat, even as the bond transmitted a wave of fear from her. That fear should have stopped him. Instead, he convinced himself it belonged to the unknown father or to the consequences of her deception. “Max will arrange transportation. Pack staff will return your belongings.” Once the formal order left his mouth, servants and guards would execute it without questioning whether he truly wanted her gone.
Evie swallowed the plea rising in her throat. Begging would invite questions she could not answer without surrendering the truth. She had chosen the lie to protect the triplets from Leopold; now she had to accept what that protection demanded.
“Fine.” She turned toward the stairs, determined to pack before the shock in her knees became visible. “I never wanted to be your responsibility.”
The statement followed Leopold after she disappeared upstairs. He told himself eviction was the logical answer. If the children belonged to someone else, the father should protect them. Yet the idea of Evie leaving made the curse mark burn beneath his clothes.
A violent wave of nausea struck before he reached his office. Leopold caught the wall, breathing through a sensation identical to the sickness he had felt a month earlier. It did not come from his body; it traveled through the bond from Evie.
Upstairs, Evie knelt beside an open suitcase as the same nausea rolled through her. One hand braced against the bed while the other protected her abdomen. The triplets reacted inside the bond even while she insisted they belonged to someone else.
Leopold stared toward the staircase. A mate bond could transmit Evie’s pain, but it could not explain why her pregnancy symptoms felt connected to his blood—or why the scent in the restroom had carried the Stonehearth mark. Her story had changed nothing except the distance between them.
He should have withdrawn the order. Instead, hurt kept him motionless while servants prepared to remove her belongings. The nausea passed, leaving one conclusion behind: either the curse itself was lying to him, or Evie was.