The Broken Mother Became the Alpha’s Mate

Chapter 7 My Daughter Is Missing

Sophia’s POV

I braced myself against the cold wall and dragged my lead-heavy legs toward my hospital room.

When I pushed the door open, Ethan was standing by my bed. The second he saw me, his face changed.

“Sophia!” He rushed over. “The lab is gone.” His voice was unbearably heavy. “The typhoon that hit yesterday triggered a fault-line quake under the sea. The underwater base collapsed. The ocean rushed in.”

“Olivia’s cryo chamber... was swept out of the base and dropped into an unknown deep-sea trench.”

Trench?

Unknown?

My mind went blank.

It felt like the floor vanished under my feet.

“Then go get it!” I screamed, grabbing his arm so hard my fingers hurt. “Ethan, bring her chamber back!”

“The rescue teams have been trying since this morning, but it’s too difficult.” Ethan shut his eyes in pain. “Several chambers were carried outside the base perimeter by the current. One of them was...”

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

My whole world shattered.

“...No.” The sound that came out of me didn’t even sound human. “No... no...”

Pain ripped through every nerve in my body.

In my dream, there was nothing but storm winds, thunder, and black seawater rushing in from all directions.

I stood at the edge of a cliff, screaming my daughter’s name, but all I could hear was her faint crying from the bottom of a bottomless sea.

“Mommy... save me... it’s so cold...”

I wanted to jump after her.

I wanted to save her.

But my body was locked in place. I couldn’t move.

All I could do was listen to my daughter crying for me over and over again.

When I woke up, the room was silent.

I stared at the ceiling, tears sliding from the corners of my eyes.

I couldn’t think.

After a long time, I turned toward Ethan.

“If they never find it...” I asked softly. “What happens to Olivia?”

Ethan lowered his head.

“In the best-case scenario, the chamber stays at the bottom of the sea and keeps a weak circulation loop running.”

He paused before forcing out the rest.

“In the worst-case scenario... the pressure crushes it. Olivia dies from lack of oxygen and freezing within minutes.”

My stomach twisted violently.

Would she be swallowed by deep-sea creatures?

Or worse—

Would she wake up inside that chamber and die choking in darkness?

“But!” Ethan cut in quickly. “I called my old research mentor. He said Olivia’s chamber was custom-made. It’s stronger. It won’t thaw that fast. As long as we can find it...”

I answered at once.

“If we find the chamber, Olivia can still be saved. Right?”

“Yes.” Ethan nodded hard. “If we find her within two weeks.”

A spark came back to life inside my dead world.

As long as there was even the smallest chance to save my daughter, I would do anything.

“What do we need to do to bring Olivia back?” I asked immediately.

Ethan hesitated. “The retrieval is beyond normal difficulty. To locate it, we need money.”

He looked straight at me.

“A lot of money.”

“How much?”

“My mentor estimates at least twenty million dollars if we want the search completed within two weeks.”

Twenty million?!

I bit down on my tongue to keep from collapsing.

I had lived in Derek’s house for years. I had no career, no savings big enough to matter. That number was enough to crush me.

But every time I shut my eyes, I could almost feel Olivia’s freezing little fingers clawing blindly through the dark.

My mind started racing.

Sell the house.

It was the only thought I had.

That downtown townhouse was bought right after Derek and I became mates. I had emptied nearly everything I had to pay the down payment. If I sold it, I could get at least four million.

That would be Olivia’s first lifeline.

Ten minutes later, I was at the real estate office.

“I need it listed immediately. I don’t care about the market price. I just need the fastest cash sale possible,” I told the agent in a cracked voice.

She tapped at her keyboard.

Then stopped.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Sophia.” She slid the records copy back to me. “We checked. The property is not registered under your name.”

I froze.

Cold shot straight up my spine.

“No... that’s impossible.” My smile felt stiff and fake. “I was there when we bought it. My name was on it. Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?”

She checked again.

“I checked twice. There’s no mistake. If you want to handle the sale, you’ll need the original deed.”

The second I left the office, I took a cab home and tore through Derek’s study like a madwoman.

Nothing.

Nowhere.

The deed was gone.

Why?

Then I thought of Ava.

Derek’s greedy mother.

She must have found out Olivia was critically ill and sneaked into the study while I was away, just to stop me—the “crazy woman”—from touching her precious son’s assets.

A bitter laugh scraped out of my throat.

By the time I climbed into the cab headed for Ava’s estate, my vision was already swaying from fever.

I couldn’t feel the weakness from pneumonia anymore.

My whole body was running on raw rage.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I stood at the grand oak doors and pounded on them with both fists.

The door flew open.

Ava stood there, looking at me with open contempt.

“Have you lost your mind, Sophia? Banging on my door like some Rogue—”

I didn’t let her finish.

I drove my shoulder into her chest. She cried out and staggered backward, and I stormed into the foyer.

“Where’s the deed?” I snarled.

“What are you doing? Get out!” Ava screeched, trying to shove me.

“Wrong answer.”

I grabbed the collar of her silk blouse. The fabric ripped under my grip. I forced her backward until her spine slammed into the dining table.

My hand swept over the tabletop and closed around a sharp fruit knife.

I pressed the cold blade against her cheek.

“I don’t have time for games,” I whispered. “Give me the deed.”

Ava broke.

Terror washed her makeup into streaks. She was so afraid she couldn’t get a word out.

I looked at her with disgust.

This was Shadow Pack’s Luna.

No wonder other Packs looked down on Shadow Pack.

Then a tiny red light flashed in the corner of my vision.

A security camera.

Derek’s estate was full of them.

Good.

Then let him watch.

I turned away, set the knife down, and grabbed Ava by the hair.

Ignoring her screams and kicks, I dragged her into the laundry room and lifted the plastic bucket beside the sink, the one filled with filthy mop water.

“When you locked my five-year-old sick daughter out on that balcony,” I said, breathing hard, “did you ever think this day would come?”

Then I dumped the whole bucket over her head.

Filthy freezing water drenched her from scalp to shoes. It ran into her mouth and made her cough violently.

Before she could recover, I yanked her up by her soaked collar and dragged her toward the huge viewing terrace. I slid the glass door open, and late-autumn wind slashed inside like knives.

I threw her onto the freezing tile and stepped back into the house.

“Sophia! How dare you do this to me?!” she screamed, shivering as she crawled toward the door. “I’m your Luna!”

My face didn’t move.

I slid the heavy soundproof glass door shut.

Click.

Then I locked it.

“You’re not fit to be my Luna,” I said coldly. “And you underestimated what a mother will do for her child.”

I looked at her through the glass.

“Now it’s time for you to pay.”