Fell for My Father’s Best Friend

I had fallen in love with my father’s friend—the man I was supposed to call “uncle,” Kael Viremont.

For a while, I thought he loved me too.

We even had this silly little promise—that if I turned twenty-seven and still want to be with him, then we could be together, publicly.

Five days before my twenty-seventh birthday, I overheard him saying he’d never liked me. That he was going to marry his childhood sweetheart.

And as if that wasn’t cruel enough, he was planning to use the wedding to cut me off for good.

So I did the one thing I should’ve done a long time ago—accepted that he and I would never belong to the same world… and disappeared from his life for good.

Seraphina’s POV

Today—like any other day—I stopped by to drag Kael out for dinner, only to overhear his confession. That he’d never liked me, he’d always thought of me as a burden, and that he planned to use a fake wedding with his childhood sweetheart to break my heart.

“You’re marrying Vivienne? And the wedding’s in five days?” one of them said, incredulous.

Kael’s voice came clearly through the door. “Yeah. She already had her dress fitting.”

I froze. My fingers clenched tighter around my bag.

Another man’s voice, “Wait, what about Lucien’s daughter? Seraphina? Weren’t you two… a thing? I mean, we were all just waiting for you to go public.”

My breath caught when I heard my own name.

There was a pause. A long, slow pause.

Then Kael chuckled.

“What about her?” he said. “I never planned on making her my girlfriend. Let’s be real. Lucien would kill me, and she’s not my type. Not like Vivienne.”

Not his type. Not… attracted.

Ouch, Kael.

The other man pressed further. “But if you ended up with Seraphina, Lucien would be forced to back you. He adores that girl. Marrying her? Taking over the Dusks? You’d be the most powerful man in New York.”

Kael laughed again, unbothered. “Yeah, but I don’t love her. I’ve been in love with Vivienne for as long as I can remember.”

And just like that, my chest cracked open.

He kept going. “The wedding won’t be official this time. I know Seraphina’s into me—I’m just using the whole thing to cut her off. Hopefully, it’ll also push Vivienne to see me differently. She only sees me as a friend right now, but after the wedding… who knows? Maybe Vivienne will finally see me the way I see her. After all these years… it could finally work out.”

Two birds. One stone.

I laughed—quiet, bitter, shaky. God, how naïve had I been? To think Kael and I could be together?

I could feel the blood drain from my face, my fingers going numb, my knees locking into place.

I turned, backing away from the door one step at a time.

Kael’s voice faded, but his words didn’t. They echoed—sharp, relentless.

“Don’t love her…”

“Not my type.”

“Cut her off