Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

≑ Chapter Twenty-Seven

          To WEIRDMIND (@LA_sakura22), you girl is one of the reasons I'm still writing. Thank you! <3 

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C H A P T E R    T W E N T Y - S E V E N

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PHOEBE

His eyes never left the papers on his hands.

His eyes never even glanced, never even looked up, at the sound of the door opening as I entered his study.

Those eyes- curtained by strands of midnight hair- just droned lazily on the papers, never even bothering looking up and flashing me his usual hello.

I looked ahead, where he was standing- his hips leaning against the edge of the table- his fingers moving in the most subtle way as he scribbled something on the paper.

He must be too absorbed to what he was doing, he didn't even notice me. Or is it?

If I was Callie... if I was his real mate, then would it had been a different story?

Would he have dropped those papers, looked at me and smile?

Would he be the one to open the front door and greet me?

If I was Callie, would he even let me leave his side?

I swallowed, my thought burning my insides as I realized I was starting to sound so desperate and pathetic. I was starting to feel something I never imagined I would feel.

I pity myself.

Keenan was not my mate. He was not the one destined to be with me. He was not the half of my being.

But he is my one.

Learning from Tim that Keenan found his mate, it broke my already smashed heart. The moment I fell in love with him -in those two years as I fell deeply into him- I didn't know that it was the beginning of a lengthening crack in my heart. It had left me miserable, knowing one day, he would find someone he can call 'his' and leave me. But I still loved him nevertheless, hoping that someday, something good will come, something that will make him realize that he doesn't need anyone other than me.

But I was mistaken. That wish was close to impossible as it dawned me, he had found her. Keenan was not waiting for his mate. He had already found her before I even met him.

He just lead the foolish me into this relationship which for him might just be a detour, but for me- my everything.

It is so painful.

It was so painful realizing that after all the emotions, the time and the sacrifices that were invested, in the end, it would be me who will be left crying.

It would be me who will be left cleaning the mess of the breakup, picking up the shards of a shattered heart and drying the tears of a failed love. And what was more painful was knowing that I was the one who willingly plunged into the depths of this impossible love.

The soft sound of metal creaking as the door once again opened called my attention. His Beta was there, more papers on his hand.

"Keenan, the elders-"

He stopped for a moment when he spotted me beside the door frame. His eyebrows curled for a bit, probably confused why I was standing at the corner of the room and not beside his Alpha.