Chapter 54 - Telling Madeline

Now what was happening?

What were Xavier and Emilio referring to? Who was his daughter? 

"The prophecy, has it really come true?" Emilio asked. 

His leg bounced up and down as Emilio dug his nails into his skin. There was no hint of malice in his eyes. All there was left was confusion and disbelief. 

He didn't have a daughter.

He was never a father to anyone.

And now there was Xavier telling him Madeline was his daughter?

What kind of nonsense was this?

This wasn't the answer he came for. This wasn't the explanation he'd accounted for. 

"She can't be Cornelia's daughter. Cornelia's dead," Emilio's voice trembled.

"How…" 

"The Delcour bloodline was ended. I felt it. She can't…"

For once, the great Emilio Quince was reduced to nothing but stammers and stutters. 

He couldn't process the news. Xavier had confirmed it, and he couldn't be tricking him, could he? 

"And you're sure she's your soulmate?" Emilio asked.

Xavier raised up his pinky. 

"Can she see through the—"

Xavier nodded. 

For once, Xavier was beginning to take pity in Emilio. Not to say he didn't enjoy it. A huge part of him took pleasure in seeing Emilio like this. He wasn't a tyrant at that moment, he was a man that just discovered he was a father. 

'Remember what he did. There's no reason to ever pity the man,' Xavier reminded himself. 

He too was swept up in emotion. It had been confirmed. 

His soulmate, Madeline Delcour was the daughter of the ex-alpha. Emilio, his nemesis, was her father.

It explained a whole lot of things. 

How Madeline came to be was still unclear, but how she was able to see through the veil and pass the barrier.

How she could enter and leave the cave and managed to survive. How she could create barriers. How she was his soulmate. 

She wasn't human.

No, not human was false.

Indeed, Madeline possessed human blood, but she came from a long line of powerful witches. 

Yes, witches. 

It was all so confusing. There's so much to unpack and so little time. 

Xavier placed a file on the office table that contained the identities of Madeline's adoptive parents. 

With shaky hands, Emilio opened the file to see what he'd expected. 

He banged his hands on the table, nearly cracking it into two. 

"She can't be my daughter."

"That woman is not my daughter," he said to himself, trying to convince himself to no avail. 

It was true. Everything but a couple small details added up. 

One of those small details were… when Madeline was supposed to have been conceived, Emilio was still trapped in the cave he was doomed to spend the rest of eternity in, and Cornelia was traveling across Alaric. 

Unless her memory was wiped. Unless she wasn't actually in her 20s. Unless… her entire life was a lie. 

Xavier chose not to tell her since he wasn't truly sure. It was a theory. Once he discovered who her adoptive parents were, he was even more sure but there was always that small part of him that doubted it. 

What if she was human?

What if it was simply him in denial and refusing to have a mortal as his soulmate?

Was he that cruel?

No. He wasn't. 

Emilio looked up at Xavier, his face showing he was regretting his decision to return to Eudora in search of answers. 

'I shouldn't have ever come here. I should've just stayed at the cave and never left in the first place. Is this why he trapped me there?' "Why are you looking at me like that? What, do you want a hug?" Xavier asked. 

"I'm not hugging you," he crossed his arms and looked the other direction, deliberating how he'd tell Madeline of this. Or would Emilio be tasked with that?

Frankly, he couldn't care less how Emilio was feeling. Or at least, he didn't want to. 

"I never asked you to, Xavi."

"I just…"

"What if you're tricking me and she isn't actually my daughter? What if this is some ploy and I'm actually childless and there isn't an ancestor to the Quince and Delcour bloodline?" 

"You really think I'd trick you right now?" 

"I could have killed you," Xavier crossed his arms.

Yes, Emilio being Madeline's father was a part of the reason why he hadn't killed the ex-alpha yet, among other reasons. 

However, Madeline didn't know that. 

Hell, all she knew was that Emilio was here at Eudora, discussing important matters with Xavier. 

"Madeline said she created a barrier," Xavier began, staring at Emilio.

There was no more evil left in him. Even Xavier could sense it. 

If what Xavier was saying was true, then that girl was dangerous.

Dangerous? She doesn't seem dangerous, one would argue. 

She's harmless! 

Or was she?

Emilio hunched his back and covered his face with both his hands. 

He was filthy and probably starved. And yet none of that were his current concerns. 

What his concern was whether or not Madeline was actually his daughter, and whether or not the prophecy had come true. 

What prophecy was he speaking of? 

What prophecy predicted that Madeline and Xavier would come to be soulmates? What sort of prophecy would have predicted an alpha would bear a child that would go on to be--

"So she really is my daughter," Emilio said, his eyes filling with despair and misery. 

Miserable, Emilio reasoned, "I should return to my cave now huh."

There was nothing else he could say. He never wanted to fight in the first place, there was no fight in him. 

"So what, planning on telling her?" Xavier asked.

"Why are you treating me so kindly?" Emilio asked his old friend turned enemy. 

"I tried killing you."

"And I locked you in a cave for centuries."

"So you're saying you don't want to kill me anymore?" Emilio asked, sounding hopeful. 

Xavier rolled up his sleeves, "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"You still haven't considered one thing."

"And what is that one thing?"

Xavier answered, "Telling Madeline."