Chapter 64

*BRIANNE’S POV*

The room went deadly silent. My father stood there, his chest heaving, his face twisted with anger and regret. My mother gasped from across the table, but she didn’t move, her hands frozen mid-air as she stared at us in horror.

For a moment, everything seemed to stop. My cheek burned, throbbing with the force of the slap, but the pain in my chest…what was happening inside me was so much worse. My father had never hit me before. Never. And now, everything had shattered in an instant.

I took a shaking step back, my vision blurring with tears, but something else caught my father’s eye. His gaze dropped to the side of my neck, and his expression shifted from anger to something far worse. His face paled, his eyes widening as he saw it

The mating mark.

His lips parted, his face contorting in disbelief. “you…” He started, his voice barely audible. “You’re…mated to him?”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. The shock of everything that had just happened was still settling in, and my