Chapter 3 I'm Not Your Mother

• One short sentence made something in my head cracked softly.
• But I didn’t say anything.
• I simply clenched my hand tighter.
• When they walked closer, Ann acted like she’d just noticed me.
• She paused for a beat, then smiled warmly. “Julie? What are you doing here?”
• She turned to William and said quietly, “I told you a long time ago. She needs psychological counseling.”
• William didn’t respond, only frowned.
• Rocco secretly took a step behind Ann.
• I smiled.
• “Don’t worry. I’m not here for you.”
• Ann’s smile deepened. “Don’t misunderstand. I’m just worried about you. After all, patients need their family’s understanding the most.”
• “Patients?” I repeated softly.
• When the word slid out of my throat, it carried almost no emotion.
• Suddenly the doctor called after her, “Don’t forget your lab report!”
• Ann looked back and smiled. “Thank you, I know.”
• Then she turned around and put on a gentle, helpless expression. “Julie, you don’t need to sulk. If you want William, you can just come home. He’s not that heartless to you. You just got out of the Moon Fang Keep. It won’t sound good if word gets out.”
• The Moon Fang Keep.
• Just hearing those words made my body shiver.
• But Rocco’s eyes lit up for a second, for an instant, it almost looked like… hope?
• He probably thought I came to find them? To make up?
• Then remembering how I’d refused to go back, he quickly pouted again, his voice sharp with childishness. “Mom, you’re so fake! You obviously can’t live without me and Dad, but you still pretend you won’t come home!”
• I couldn't help but snort. Honestly, I only hate them.
• William’s face cooled too. “I thought you had a spine this time. Turns out you couldn’t even hold two days before you ran to the hospital to corner me? Julie, you’re always like this.”
• His voice carried that familiar, commanding Alpha’s dominance, the kind of pressure that used to squeeze my breathing tight.
• But now… after Moon Fang Keep, I would never kneel under that pressure again.
• “What makes you think I came to the hospital just to see you?” I looked at them coldly.
• Before the argument could continue, the doctor walked over.
• “Julie, your medication.”
• The bag rustled lightly in my hand. The doctor’s gaze swept over the scars on my collarbone and wrists, deep bite marks ground into me by the prison’s silver chains, the sign of a wolf being tamed.
• He frowned. “Step aside. Don’t block my patient.”
• I lifted my eyes coldly. “I’m at the hospital for medicine, of course. As for you, shouldn’t you go get your brains checked?”
• William’s expression stiffened.
• He hadn’t expected me to talk like that now.
• I turned to leave, but a small hand suddenly caught mine.
• “In a few days…it’s my graduation ceremony.”
• Rocco bit his lip, his voice so low it was almost inaudible. “No matter how angry you are, you should come back, because you’re my… mom.”
• The word “mom” came out so softly it nearly shattered.
• My breathing stopped for a second.
• Then I pulled my hand free.
• My voice was light and cold. “I’m not your mom.”
• His hand froze in midair and started to shake.
• As I stepped away, Ann’s voice suddenly rose.
• “Julie, I understand you went to prison and you’re embarrassed to come home. But you can’t run from a mother’s responsibility. You didn’t take care of the child for three years, and now you’re going to keep pretending you don’t know him?”
• She said it loudly on purpose.
• People’s eyes immediately focused on me.
• “Prison… didn’t take care of the child…”
• Those ugly whispers surrounded me, and for a moment it felt like I was back in front of Moon Fang Keep’s freezing stone walls.
• The medicine bag was light. But the pain I carried out of that prison was heavier than an entire snow mountain. The way my soul tore apart when my mania hit; the moment my baby’s scent vanished inside my body; silver chains biting into bone; nights so cold they stabbed straight through my heart…
• My third child left me on a night like that.
• I thought the outside world would be a little easier.
• Instead, what I came back to was Rocco’s indifference, William’s irritation, Ann taking my place, their mixed scent was chocking me.
• I looked at Rocco first.
• “He’s nine,” I said. “Who he wants to call Mom is his choice. And I, I also have the right not to be his mother. Blood alone doesn’t make family. It’s what we’ve done for each other that does.”
• Besides, whether he was even my child remained a question. Such a cold soul.
• William’s hand suddenly clamped around my wrist.
• He seemed to freeze for a beat, probably shocked by how scorching hot my skin was.
• “You have a fever,” he said in a low voice.
• I smiled. I caught the scent of an Alpha, dominant, suffocating, used to giving orders.
• Rocco puffed his cheeks too, his voice trembling between tears and stubbornness. “If Ann hadn’t told me to understand you, I wouldn’t even want you to be my mom! And you’re still treating her like this… and refusing to come to my graduation!”
• His tone carried a fear of my strangeness.
• He could tell I’d changed.
• Didn't they bring this change upon me themselves?
• In that prison, silver chains bit into my bones every day, forcing me to suppress my madness.
• And they thought those three years were just “punishment.”
• To them, my suffering probably didn’t even equal one of Ann’s grievances.
• For once, I didn't let my body do that old, automatic thing—dropping my gaze, making myself small. Instead, I shoved his hand off my wrist.
• But the fever made my vision go black in waves. I could barely stand. William reached out a hand to me.