Xue Ning didn't return after the family dinner.
She disappeared sometime between dessert and the first firework display, slipping away through the back gates. No one noticed—except Xue Zhen.
He followed her. Not out of worry. Not yet. But something inside him refused to let her leave without knowing why.
He found her inside a club—loud, neon-lit, full of omegas in designer heels and rebellious pheromones. Xue Ning stood near the bar, surrounded by a group of omega girls who greeted her like an old friend. Her eyes were rimmed red. Her dress too formal for the setting, like she'd come straight from a family war zone and landed in glitter.
Then he saw the alpha.
A tall, lean man with the kind of smirk that begged to be punched. Xue Zhen recognized him vaguely—her supposed boyfriend. One of those second-rate alphas who clung to the coattails of more powerful names. And yet, he was the one glaring down at Xue Ning now, demanding, arms flailing, his voice lost beneath the bass.
Xue Ning didn't yell back. She didn't even flinch. She simply... bowed her head.
And then—just like that—
"We're done."
It was spoken so quietly even her friends almost missed it. The alpha scoffed, spat a curse, and stormed out like a child denied candy.
The omegas gasped. One offered tissues. Another pulled Xue Ning into a side hug. And Xue Zhen stood there, stunned—not just because of the breakup, but because of what happened next.
From the edge of the crowd, another figure approached.
Xue Liyan.
His "invisible" beta cousin. The one no one really noticed except on reports or dinner rosters. He walked straight into the emotional mess like it was choreographed.
He didn't say a word as he approached. He crouched beside her, careful not to touch her at first.
"Ning-jie," he said softly.
Her eyes fluttered open. The moment she saw him, she cracked. Shattered.
She crumbled.
She cried—openly, pitifully—her arms wrapping around Xue Liyan like she had no pride left to protect.
She threw herself into his arms with the force of someone who'd held everything in too long. "I am not— We are not—"
"I know," Liyan whispered, brushing her hair away from her face. "I know."
And then—like a mother would with a crying child—he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a simple black hair tie.
From where? No one knew. Maybe he carried one just for her. Maybe this wasn't the first time.
He gently gathered her hair—dark and tangled and wet with tears—into a messy bun at the crown of her head, his fingers quick, practiced. Then, with almost reverent calm, he placed a hand on the back of her neck and rubbed slow, grounding circles on the soft skin beneath the hairline.
A soothing touch. A calming anchor.
Her cries softened in his arms, and her body finally gave way to exhaustion.
Across the room, half-shadowed by the dim lighting, Xue Zhen continued to watch.
His hand clenched around his glass.
He didn't hear the words. Didn't need to.
All he saw was Xue Ning, crying in someone else's arms.
And Xue Liyan's hand, cradling the nape of her neck.
That touch.
That almost intimate gesture.
It twisted something in him.
Xue Zhen felt something cold drop into his stomach. Because the woman who always held her chin high in the boardroom... was now breaking, hugging a cousin no one paid attention to, while her omega friends sniffled through their designer tissues.
He turned away before anyone could see the frown that carved itself across his face.
He no longer knew which version of Xue Ning was real—
and he hated himself for not knowing.