Adeline POV
The school gates were already crowded when I arrived. There were parents waiting in clusters, chatting, laughing, comparing lunchboxes and children’s drawings. I stood apart, like I always did, holding a paper bag of snacks my twins insisted I bring every time. They said it made me look “like a normal mom.”
Whatever that meant. I spotted them first—Elijah waving his half-tied shoe like a trophy, and Caleb pretending not to know him. It should’ve been an ordinary pickup. But then my gaze caught a familiar figure by the far gate, and everything inside me froze.
Vincent.
He stood there in his usual dark coat, arms folded, watching a teacher adjust Myra’s backpack. Even from this distance, his presence choked me. The Alpha King was surrounded by kids and crayons. It was ridicul
