A hand came up, firm and unyielding, catching Magnus’s forearm just above the wrist. Not a restraining grip meant to soothe, but a command. Leif’s posture never shifted. His gaze stayed forward, Boss composure absolute, but the pressure of his fingers said everything his expression didnot.
Not here. Not now.
Magnus’s breath flared once, sharp and furious. For a heartbeat, Alaric thought he might ignore it. Then Magnus stilled, fury banked but not extinguished, eyes burning toward Vidar with a promise that would not be forgotten.
Leif didn’t release him immediately. He held Magnus in place for an extra beat, ensuring obedience before letting go. Only then did Leif turn his head slightly, just enough for Alaric to see the shrewdness there.
Containment first. Reckoning later.
A public claim created a public obligation. If they rejected the claim without proof, the story would escape the churchand become a rumor. If they demanded proof, they conceded the possibility.
Either way, Vidar had inserted himself into the Severinname.
Astrid’s gaze cut to Alaric, waiting. She wouldn’t move without the family’s center.Alaric didn’t give her emotion. He gave her logic.”A DNA test,” he said quietly.The words weren’t a question. Not a concession. Acontainment.
His sisters shifted. Freya exhaled sharply, eyes bright with anger. Katarina looked away as if the room had suddenly become too small. Elisefinally spoke, her voice flat. “Do it. Prove it. Or leave.”
Vidar’s eyes flicked toward her, something cold and fleeting passing beneath the grief.Then he nodded, almost pleased. “I’ll do it.”
There it was again. That faint ease. That almost smug readiness beneath the mask.A different kind of anger began to gather under Alaric’s ribs. Not hot. Not explosive. Controlled. The kind that promised consequences.
Sera didn’t look at Vidar. She looked at Alaric.He could sense the question in her gaze without her speaking it.How bad isthis?
His answer was simple, contained behind his eyes.Bad.
His sisters began to organize. Astrid, already reaching for her phone, cold and efficient. The others speaking in quick, clipped phrases, deciding logistics, pulling the family back toward structure.
Alaric watched Vidar as they moved. The man stayed in place as if he belonged there now, as if blood and a claim had granted him immediate access.
Alaric understood then with perfect clarity that this had been planned.
Not improvised. Not reactive. This moment had been chosen, positioned carefully within the architecture of grief and obligation, where resistance would look like disrespect and silence would look like acquiescence. It was efficient. Calculated. And deeply personal.
He kept his face neutral.
Inside, he made a promise.
Vidar had mistaken grief for weakness.
Alaric Severin had buried men forless.
Chapter 16
LILY DANTE STOPPED SERAin a quiet corridor and changed the course of everything.
It wasn’t a gentle approach.
Lily didn’t drift in with sympathy and softness. She moved like she always did, decisive and keyed-in, as if grief was simply another environment to navigate. Her expression was tight, focused. The kind of focus Sera would have recognized from a long night of debugging, when you’d been staring at a problem for so long that every blink feels like a betrayal.
“I need five minutes,” Lily said.Sera checked the hall. People were still shifting. The family was still rearranging itself around Vidar’s claim. Alaric was near the front, surrounded, already being pulled into the machine.”Now,” she added.
Sera followed her without argument, because something in Lily’s tone warned thatthis was not a comforting conversation. They stepped into a narrow side corridor tucked behind the main sanctuary, its stone walls bare except for a small alcove holding votive candles and a single carved cross worn smooth by generations of hands. The air was cooler here. Quieter. The muffled voices from the hall sounded distant, as if the church itself wanted to separate public grief from private truths.
Lily turned, arms folded. “I have proof.”
Sera’s chest tightened instantly.It wasn’t relief.Relief would have been easy.This was heavier.”Proof of what?” she asked, even though she alreadyknew.
“Of your innocence,” Lily said. “Of the deletion path. Of the coercion. Of the way it was done, who was involved, and more importantly, who wasn’t.”
