Chapter 23: Shattered

**Runze’s POV**

*"You seduced me quite thoroughly that night. Isn’t that right?"*

Every eye in the room swings to me.

I’m still on my knees, blood crusted on my lip, ribs screaming, hands pressed against the floor to keep myself upright. Bael just claimed it, claimed the child publicly in front of everyone, and then he said I seduced him.

Like I planned this, like I targeted him deliberately.

This isn’t real, this can’t be real.

The air feels too thin and I can’t get enough of it into my lungs.

"Runze?"

Feifei’s voice, so small it barely registers.

No no no, I can’t look at her, I can’t breathe. The room is spinning and every breath sends pain through my ribs.

"Runze, look at me."

I force my eyes up and immediately wish I hadn’t.

Feifei is standing there with tears already streaming down her face, and the look in her eyes is pure devastation. Like her entire world just collapsed.

Because of me.

"Tell me it’s not true." Her voice breaks on every word. "Please, please tell me he’s lying."

My throat closes completely.

This is happening too fast, I can’t process it, I can’t think.

"Runze!" Desperation cracks through her voice. "Say something!"

"I didn’t know," the words choke out of me. "Feifei, I swear I didn’t know he was your..."

"LIAR!"

Mother moves so fast I don’t see it coming.

Bael’s hand shoots out and catches her wrist mid-air before she can reach me.

"Enough."

One word, quiet but absolute.

Mother thrashes against his grip but he doesn’t let go, just holds her there until she stops fighting, when he releases her she’s shaking, face twisted with rage and something else.

Fear.

I can see it in her eyes now, not just anger at me, but terror of what this means.

"Runze." Feifei again, voice cracking. "Runze, why..."

A sob cuts her off, then another, her whole body starts trembling and I watch her fall apart in real time.

This is my fault, all of it is my fault.

"Why would you..." She can’t finish, just presses her hands over her mouth as the sobs tear out of her.

"I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know who he was when it happened..."

"Stop!" The word comes out as a scream. "Just stop!"

She backs away from me, shaking her head violently like she’s trying to deny reality itself.

"Feifei, please..."

"How could you?" It’s barely words anymore, just sound and grief. "You’re my brother, you’re supposed to... I trusted you! I loved you and you..."

She doubles over like she’s been punched, arms wrapped around her middle, and the sounds coming out of her aren’t crying anymore. They’re something worse, something broken and animal.

I did this to her.

I destroyed my sister.

"Feifei..." I try to move toward her but my body won’t cooperate and my hands are shaking so badly I can barely keep myself upright.

"Don’t!" She stumbles backward when I shift. "Don’t touch me! Don’t... I can’t..."

She collapses onto the sofa, curling into herself, and the sobs are so violent her whole body convulses with each one.

My chest feels like it’s caving in and I can’t breathe past the weight of watching her break.

This is happening, this is really happening.

"Your own sister."

Mother’s voice cuts through, quiet and deadly in a way her screaming never was.

I look up at her through blurred vision.

She’s staring at me like she doesn’t recognize me, like I’m something that crawled out from under a rock, and her hands are trembling at her sides.

"Your own sister and you destroyed her." Not yelling anymore, and somehow that’s worse. "You destroyed her."

"I didn’t mean..." My voice cracks.

"You never mean to!" Her voice breaks on the words. "The fights, the arrests, all the shame you brought on this family, you never mean any of it but it still happens!"

She takes a step toward me and I flinch.

"Do you know what people will say?" Her voice rises again, shaking. "Do you have any idea what this will do to us? Everyone will know! The entire city will know what you did!"

Her face is pale, eyes wild with panic.

"They’ll say we raised you wrong, they’ll say we couldn’t control our own son, they’ll say..." She can’t finish, just presses her hand over her mouth.

The social fallout is hitting her now and I can see it in her eyes. The gossip, the whispers, the way people will look at our family.

All because of me.

"I gave birth to you," she says, hands shaking harder. "I raised you. And this is what you do? This is how you repay everything?"

My stomach twists violently but I force it down.

"Look at her." Mother gestures at Feifei still sobbing on the sofa. "Look what you’ve done."

I don’t need to look because I can hear it. The broken sounds, the hitching breaths, the way she’s crying like something inside her died.

My sister.

Falling apart.

Because I got drunk and seduced her fiance.

The nausea builds higher and I swallow hard, trying to force it down.

"Li Runze."

Father’s voice, cold as winter wind.

He’s by the window with his arms crossed, staring at nothing, refusing to look at me.

"Why?"

Just one word. Not why did you seduce him, just why. Why exist, why ruin everything, why were you born.

"I was drunk, I didn’t..."

"You’re always drunk." He still won’t turn around, won’t look at me. "Always making excuses."

"Father, I’m sorry..."

His jaw clenches so hard I can see the muscle jump even from here. "I can’t look at you. Don’t speak to me."

The dismissal cuts deeper than any of Mother’s blows.

He turns his back completely, shoulders rigid and silent, and that’s somehow worse than anything else. At least when Mother hits me she acknowledges I exist.

Father won’t even do that.

The room tilts dangerously and I press my palms harder against the floor, trying to stay upright. Everything is happening too fast and I can’t process it, can’t think past the weight of what I’ve done.

Feifei is still sobbing and the sound fills every corner of the room, raw and endless and broken.

My fault.

All of it.

"Enough."

Grandmother Wuchen’s voice cuts through like a blade.

Everyone stops.

She steps forward into the room and somehow the air changes, gets colder and sharper. She’s been standing there this entire time just watching with those sharp calculating eyes, taking everything in.

Now she looks at Feifei sobbing on the sofa, at Mother shaking with rage and fear, at Father with his back turned, at me kneeling on the floor barely holding myself together.

I can see her mind working behind her eyes. Processing, calculating, and weighing options.

Her gaze finds me first and the disgust there is naked and undisguised.

"You seduced my grandson."

Not a question, just a statement of fact.

I can’t answer, can’t move, my hands won’t stop shaking.

She turns to Bael next and something shifts in her expression.

"You let yourself be seduced by your bride’s brother." The disappointment in her voice could cut glass. "Careless."

"Grandmother..."

"I don’t want to hear it." She cuts him off with a gesture. "What’s done is done. Now we handle the consequences."

She looks around the room again, still thinking, still calculating. I can see her weighing everything in her mind like pieces on a chess board.

Then she moves to one of the chairs and sits, smoothing her dress with deliberate calm.

"There is a child involved," she says, voice perfectly composed. "A Wuchen child. That changes everything."

"Mrs. Wuchen..." Mother starts, voice shaking.

"The wedding will proceed two months from now as planned." Grandmother Wuchen’s tone allows absolutely no argument. "However, there will be a change in the bride."

No.

The word screams through my head but won’t come out.

"Bael will marry Li Runze instead of Li Feifei."

The words detonate worse than everything that came before.

No one moves, even Mother goes still for a second.

Then Feifei makes a sound like something vital just broke inside her chest.

This can’t be happening, this cannot be happening.

But I don’t get to choose anything now.

"You can’t be serious!" Mother’s voice cracks with shock. "After what he did, you can’t possibly..."

"There is a child," Grandmother Wuchen repeats calmly. "A Wuchen heir. That child will be legitimate and born in wedlock."

"But Feifei..." Mother gestures desperately at my sister still crying.

"Will be compensated generously for the broken engagement." Grandmother Wuchen’s eyes are steel. "And the business partnership will continue. Your family needs our capital and connections. That hasn’t changed."

She lets that settle over the room like snow.

"The only thing that’s changed is which omega marries into our family."

Mother’s face has gone completely white. "You can’t expect us to just..."

"The child is due in seven and a half months," Grandmother Wuchen continues like Mother didn’t speak. "The wedding will take place in two months, giving adequate time before the birth."

Her gaze swings to me and I feel it like a physical weight.

"Furthermore, that child is a Wuchen. My great-grandchild. If any harm comes to it before the marriage, through violence or stress or any other means, your family will answer to me personally."

She looks at Mother pointedly.

"No more beatings, the child’s safety is not negotiable, do you understand?"

Mother opens her mouth but nothing comes out. She just stands there, face pale and hands shaking.

The silence that follows is broken only by Feifei’s crying, quieter now but still broken and exhausted.

I can’t process this, can’t make it make sense in my head, everything is moving too fast and I can’t keep up.

Father still won’t look at me.

Mother is staring like I’m something diseased.

Feifei won’t stop crying.

And Bael...

My eyes find him across the room.

He’s watching me with that same calm expression, like all of this chaos doesn’t touch him at all. Like this is exactly where he wanted to end up.

There’s no hesitation in him, no regret.

The realization hits me like cold water.

He could have told them everything, could have told them about the engagement party, about the bathroom, about how he cornered me and kissed me first, could have told them about the heat at his estate, about all of it.

But he didn’t.

He just threw me under the bus and claimed I seduced him, made it sound like I planned the whole thing, like I targeted him deliberately.

And now he’s standing there looking completely unbothered while my family falls apart around me.

While my sister sobs like her heart is breaking.

While I kneel here taking all the blame.

He did this on purpose.

My stomach lurches violently.

The nausea that’s been building suddenly crests like a wave and I taste bile at the back of my throat.

I try to swallow it down but it’s too strong, too overwhelming.

Bael is still watching me with those calm calculating eyes, and something about that expression, about how completely fine he is with destroying my life, makes everything inside me rebel.

I lurch forward, trying to get to my feet, but my legs won’t hold me.

The nausea hits full force and my stomach heaves.

I barely turn my head before I’m vomiting onto the floor.

Nothing comes up but bile and water because I haven’t eaten in days, but my body convulses with the force of it anyway. Each heave sends pain through my ribs and I can’t stop, can’t breathe.

Someone makes a disgusted sound. Mother probably.

I’m still retching, still heaving up nothing, when my vision starts to blur at the edges.

The room spins violently and I can’t tell which way is up anymore.

Everything goes black at the edges, closing in like a tunnel.

The last thing I hear before I pass out completely is Feifei crying.