First

The shock fills Leila’s eyes and her thuds but the next thing she feels is an immense pain that almost makes her run mad when Carmela punches her bump, making her yelp even more pain, tears spilling out of her eyes, agony striking her heart and strength leaving her body as her eyes flutter open and close.

Carmela takes out a vial and holds Leila’s mouth open, emptying the content inside it before she drops Leila to the floor and stands up, dusting her hands and wiping them on her skirt, a sinister smile on her lips.

“Now you can die in peace or despair, I don’t really care,” Carmela shrugs and chuckles. “I should have been his mate, not you but it doesn’t m er now, he’s mine and I’m keeping him.”

The disbelief remains staunch in Leila’s eyes that she can barely keep open as

she stares at Carmela.

Different emotions coursing through her heart.

Tatum is her fated mate? But how would Carmela know that when neither her

nor Tatum knows it?

“You know I’ve always liked Tatum Leila, why did you try to stand in our way?” Carmela spits out in fury.

Leila drags herself into a seating position, her mouth agape in shock, her body trembling weakly in pain, anger parading through her.

“Stand in your way? How can I be in your way when he is my mate?”

Leila closes her eyes on purpose to try and mindlink Tatum in hope that he would not block her, a chance for him to hear the truth from the horse’s mouth, to see how evil Carmela is and what she has done but this time, Tatum doesn’t need to block her, the mindlink refuses to open, like she has lost that ability.

“Oh shut up and stop acting innocent,” Carmela snaps. “Why did you think I became friends with you? Did you really think it’s because we share the same birthday? You fool, it’s because the only time I get to spend time with Tatum is when we go to his house together.

“No matter what I did to gain his attention, he never looked at me like he looked at you, his eyes never held that joy it does when he sees you, he buys you gifts and gets me nothing, he gives you hugs and kisses but finds it hard to event hold my hand Even when I make dad take me to his house so I can spend some time alone with him, all he talks about and bores me to death with are

stories about you.

“And when dad told me he discovered what the phoenix mark looks like, at chance for me to finally get my dream, for our family to cement its name in the history books forever, I took it. I endured the pain of such a huge tattoo branded on me as a child,” Carmela bares the tattoo of the phoenix on her to Leila, a mean scowl on her face.

“I thought I would die from it but I had hoped it would change everything, that once Tatum finds out I’m his mate, the affection in his eyes would be directed towards me but nothing changed. Even when I isolated you, made it hard for you to be seen with us, Tatum would lie to me and give me excuses that he had other things to do but every time, he was only sneaking out to spend time with you. It was like the more time he spent with me, the more time he wanted to spend with you. Do you have any idea how that felt?”

Carmela’s confession feels like ice being dumped on Leila. She remembers clearly how Tatum would always remark that Carmela is boring and pompous and he prefers to spend time with her but his mom would always insist he spends time with Carmela instead.

away

She never knew he was sneaking to see her, she never even knew Carmela loved Tatum when they were young, every girl had a crush on him growing up, she never imagined such desperacy from Carmela at such a young age but it is well obvious to her now.

“I’ll admit I was s**d and got carried away into thinking we were friends. You should be dead by now, I remember the night father inflicted this tattoo on me. and suspected you could be Tatum’s mate because of how much he dotes on you, yet as he wanted to kill you, I begged him not to, sliced my own f**king wrist open to save you because somehow I hoped it wouldn’t be you. I didn’t want your life to be wasted, so imagine my anger when the night I have been waiting for my whole life finally came and you turned out to be his mate.”Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.