Alpha's Secret Bride

Scarlet slowly set her glass on the table. She searched his face.

"What happened?"

Gregory looked at her, the device still in his hand.

"Eira is dead."

Scarlet froze.

"What?"

"They found her inside her car this moonrise." He swallowed. "The officers believe she took her own life."

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Only a few hours ago, Eira had stormed into the driveway with her arms folded, demanding to know if he and Scarlet were seeing each other. Now she is gone.

Gregory picked up his car keys from the table.

"I need to go there."

Scarlet grabbed her bag.

"I’m coming with you."

He met her eyes for a moment, then gave a quiet nod.

---

Nearly an hour later, Gregory pulled into the company divisional headquarters.

The building, usually alive with conversations and business, had fallen unusually quiet. Employees stood in small groups along the corridors, speaking in low voices. Sentinel officers and forensic investigators moved from one duty chamber to another, stopping now and then to question staff members or examine the scene.

The moment Gregory walked in with Scarlet beside him, the murmurs died away. Heads turned toward them, and the hallway fell silent.

Ethan made his way over at once. His tie was loose, and dark circles sat beneath his eyes.

"Sir."

Gregory gave a single nod.

"What do we know?"

Ethan glanced at the investigators before speaking more quietly.

"The sentinel officers have been interviewing everyone who interacted with Miss Eira yesterday and this moonrise. They’re trying to put together a timeline of everything that happened."

Gregory folded his arms.

"Did anyone notice anything unusual?"

He nodded.

"Yes, sir."

He looked toward a young woman standing a few feet away.

"This is Olivia," Ethan said. "She worked closely with Miss Eira."

Olivia clasped her hands together and swallowed before she spoke.

"When she came to this moonrise, something was wrong. Her eyes were red and swollen, like she’d been crying for hours. She hardly said a word during the moonrise meeting. Every time she thought no one was looking, she’d pick up her device and stare at the screen."

Another employee stepped forward.

"I asked if she was okay, but she just smiled and said she was tired."

Ethan gave a small nod.

"She was like that all the moonrise."

He fell silent for a moment before speaking again.

"But after lunch... she wasn’t the same."

Gregory’s brows drew together.

"What do you mean?"

Olivia looked down for a second, then back at Gregory.

"It was like a wolf flipped a switch. She started smiling at everyone. She even ordered lunch for the whole department, including people she barely talked to. Then she went around apologizing to two coworkers she’d argued with the week before. She thanked everyone for supporting her since she started working here."

Another woman brushed away her tears with the back of her hand.

"She even hugged me before she left the duty chamber," she said softly. "Then she told me to take better care of myself and stop working so hard."

No one spoke after that.

The chamber fell silent. A few employees lowered their heads. Others stared at the floor, replaying the last time they had seen Eira.

Ethan let out a slow breath.

"At the time, we thought she’d finally found some peace." He shook his head. "None of us imagined..." The rest of the sentence never came.

Scarlet stood quietly, her fingers curling against her palm.

She had heard people say that people who decide to end their lives often seem calm at the end, as if they had already accepted what they were about to do. Looking at the grief on every face around her, she prayed that wasn’t what had happened.

A few moments later, one of the detectives walked over to Gregory.

"Mr. Darkmore?"

Gregory turned to him.

"Yes."

"We’ve finished searching Miss Eira’s duty chamber."

Gregory held the detective’s gaze.

"Did you find anything?"

The detective held up a clear evidence bag. Inside was a neatly folded envelope.

"We found it hidden beneath several files in the bottom drawer of her desk."

Gregory’s eyes stayed on the envelope.

"A note?"

"It appears so."

The detective opened the bag, carefully unfolded the paper, and looked across the duty chamber. Only a few of Eira’s family members were present.

"We’re still verifying everything, but I think everyone here should hear what she wrote."

The chamber went quiet. The whispered conversations stopped, and every pair of eyes turned toward the detective.

He cleared his throat and began to read.

"If you’re reading this, then I’ve already made my choice. Please don’t blame Mr. Darkmore. He never promised to love me. He never gave me false hope. Everything I felt was mine alone."

A few family members dropped their eyes. One quietly wiped away a tear.

The detective looked back at the page and continued reading.

"I knew he cared about another woman, but I kept lying to myself. I told myself that if I stayed by his side long enough, one day he’d look at me the way I looked at him. I was wrong. Love can’t be forced, and no amount of waiting can make a man love you when their heart already belongs to another person."

Scarlet lowered her eyes. That was the truth. It had happened between her and Brandon.

Gregory didn’t move. The expression on his face gave nothing away.

"When I saw him smiling with another woman, I knew I’d already lost. The future I dreamed about was never real. It only existed in my heart. I don’t have the strength to keep pretending anymore."

The detective turned to the last page.

"My only request is that no one investigates Mr. Darkmore because of my decision. He is innocent. He never hurt me. I just couldn’t let go of a man who was never mine."

The chamber fell silent.

The detective folded the letter with care. Then he reached into another evidence bag, took out a small velvet box, and set it on the conference table.

"We found this too."

Gregory’s eyes settled on the box.

"What is it?"

"An engagement ring."

A detective set the box on the table and lifted the lid.

Inside lay a simple diamond ring, untouched, exactly as it had been the day it was bought.

"We tracked the purchase," he said. "She bought it almost three weeks ago."

Confused looks spread around the chamber.

One of her family members stared at the ring.

"Why would she buy an engagement ring?"

The detective glanced down at her notes before looking back up.

"The jeweler remembered her. She laughed and said that if the man she loved ever chose her, she didn’t want to waste time shopping for a ring."

No one smiled.

The chamber fell silent.

Gregory couldn’t take his eyes off the ring resting inside the box. He had always known Eira loved him, but until that moment, he had never understood how completely those feelings had taken over her life.

The silence lingered.

One question settled over everyone in the chamber.

Had she truly wanted to die...

Or had she reached a point where she couldn’t see any other way to keep living?

A few hours later, Gregory and Scarlet returned to the estate. They walked back to the same place where they had been before Eira’s death had pulled them away.

A few gardeners knelt among the flowerbeds, trimming bushes and pulling weeds. Every so often, one of them glanced toward Gregory and Scarlet before lowering their head and returning to the roses.

Two housekeepers walked past with stacks of freshly folded linens in their arms. Their steps slowed as they glanced toward the garden.

"So it’s true," one whispered.

"I had a feeling," the other said. "The moment Mr. Gregory took her upstairs, I knew something had changed."

"To his bedchamber, of all places." The first lowered her voice even more. "He’s never invited an employee in there."

"And look at them now." She nodded toward the garden. "They’re spending the moonfall together."

A small smile crossed the first housekeeper’s face. She didn’t say another word. They traded knowing looks before continuing down the path.

By dinnertime, the whispers had traveled through every corner of the estate.

Servants murmured to one another in the hallways. Gardeners exchanged quiet comments as they finished their work. Even the security staff had heard the rumors.

Everyone had come to the same conclusion.

Something had changed between Mr Darkmore and Scarlet.

Eira’s mother arrived at the mansion shortly after dinner with two assistants to collect the rest of Eira’s belongings. Most of her things had already been packed into neatly labeled boxes by the staff, but a few personal items still remained in her chamber. They were small things she had left behind without realizing she would never return for them.

Gregory was in his study when a servant informed him of her arrival. He set aside the book he had been reading and walked downstairs.

He found her standing near the foot of the staircase. Her eyes wandered across the mansion, lingering on the familiar walls as though each corner held a memory of her daughter.

"I didn’t expect you to come yourself," Gregory said as he approached.

She turned and offered him a faint smile.

"I felt I needed to," she replied. "There are some things a mother has to do with her own hands."

Her gaze drifted to the boxes waiting by the entrance.

"I couldn’t let anyone else pack away the last pieces of my daughter’s life."

Gregory looked at the boxes without saying a word.

Everything Eira had laughed over, cried over, dreamed about, and fought for now fit inside a handful of cardboard boxes.

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