Bound By Blood.

ch.37~ She's changed.

"As much as I used to enjoy your attitude, as well as your impulsiveness,

this isn't a fucking game. 

They won't show mercy, especially not for you.

I can't protect you."

Recovered Translated Correspondents between Death Eater Mattheo Riddle, to Order Member Alexandra Brooks, 2003.

The Riddle Manor, 2003.

Mattheo.

I stared at my office, in the disarray it was in for a while after I trashed it. 

The papers, lying there. 

The glass, shattered. 

She was fucking alive. 

For five years, I mourned her. 

I accepted her death, I secretly fucking hated Enzo, because I thought he was the one who took her from me that night. 

She was alive.

She was hiding... from me.

My hands clenched into fists as I leaned against the desk, allowing myself a moment of disbelief. 

In the back of my mind, old fears began to stir, the darkness whispering treacherous thoughts. 

I cant protect her. 

Not now.

In her death, I had found a odd sense of comfort. 

No more worrying about her safety amid the chaos. 

No more fear of losing her to the cruelties of the world I was entangled in. 

The danger I navigated daily—the enemies, the power struggles, my father—had held no stakes for her, because she was gone.

But now? 

Now she was here, throwing herself right into the middle of it all.

My anger twisted inside me.

How could she be so careless?

After everything we had been through, how could she put herself back in danger again?

She was away... she was safe. 

I let out a sharp breath, feeling the edge of sanity fray. 

The weight of responsibility suddenly felt like a noose around my neck. 

With her "reappearance," the constant anxiety over her safety was already claiming space in my mind, threatening to distract me from my plans. 

I didn't have time for this—not for her, not for the what-ifs and constant worrying. 

I couldn't afford any weaknesses, especially when I was so close to claiming what was rightfully mine.

I don't want to care. 

I shouldn't. 

She fucking died on me, and hid. 

But the truth echoed hollow in my chest. 

Realistically, I knew it was too late.

Every mission I took, every step toward dominance, would now be shadowed by thoughts of her.