Abandoned Luna Now Untouchable (Cecilia) novel Chapter 71

Cecilia

“Ahhh!” A female scream pierced the air, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor.

I didn’t understand what was happening until a targe form partially covered mine. My nose brushed against expensive fabric, and an unmistakable scent-sandatwood with hints of mountain pine-wrapped around me. A scent that had been inexplicably comforting to me lately.

“Alpha Sebastian?” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

Alpha Sebastian winced slightly. “Let go of your hand,” he said quietly.

Only then did I realize my fingers were clutching his shirt, my palm pressed against his abdomen, feeling the hard muscles beneath the fabric… released my grip immediately.

The darkness and my swollen face mercifully hid my embarrassment.

Alpha Sebastian pulled himself up and untied my restraints.

I noticed him pressing a hand against his lower back as he moved to subdue Cici, binding her wrists the way mine had been bound.

Within minutes, the house was flooded with people-police officers, Harper, and finally, Xavier.

Everyone froze at the scene before them.I explained what had happened as clearly as my drug-addled mind would allow. Alpha Sebastian handed the lighter to the police and described “Unfortunately, I grabbed the lighter with my bare hands,” he explained to the officers, his voice tight with frustration.

“My fingerprints are all over it now, but the knife-” he gestured toward the blade lying on the floor, glinting under the harsh overhead lights, “-that should still be usable evidence.”

“Cici, you were actually going to burn Cecilia alive?” Harper shouted, her voice trembling with fury. Her face was flushed, her hands clenched at her sides.

“You’re absolutely insane!”

Cici’s head snapped toward Xavier. The moment she saw him, her entire demeanor changed.

In a blink, the arrogance vanished, replaced by wide eyes and a trembling lip.

“Xavier,” she whimpered, her voice suddenly small and tearful, “it’s not what you think!

I’m the victim here! I’m being framed!”

Xavier stood frozen, as if someone had ripped the breath from his lungs. He stared at the scene-my torn clothes, the gasoline soaking the floor around me, the blood still drying on my skin. The knife. The lighter. The smell of smoke and fear. His face was pale, his jaw slack. His hands hung limp at his sides, fingers twitching but unable to move

He finally saw it. All of it.

The cost of his silence, his cowardice, his repeated failure to protect me.

This was what his betrayal had bought.

I’d warned him once-told him in a voice shaking with pain and truth:

You didn’t kill me yourself, but if I die because of you, there’s no difference.

No difference at all.

And now. he understood.

Some damage was permanent. Some things could never be taken back.

“Cecilia.” he finally managed, his voice barely more than a whisper.

His feet shifted, slow and heavy, like they were chained to the ground. He tried to move toward me.

I just looked at him in silence.

I looked at him, my gaze as still and lifeless as a stagnant pond.

I glanced at him, just for a second. He looked wrecked-dark circles under his eyes, shoulders slumped, his once-proud posture now small and folded in on itself.

But I felt.nothing. Not pity. Not anger. Just a hollow stillness, like standing in the eye of a storm that had already passed and left everything in ruins.

I didn’t argue. I didn’t reply. I simply closed my eyes and turned my face slightly away from him.

Time passed in fragments-soft beeping machines,

the low hum of the air conditioning,

the distant murmur of nurses outside the door.

At one point, I felt him shift closer.

He gently rested his forehead near the crook of my neck, his breath warm against my skin.

A moment later, I felt it-the soft, almost weightless drop of a tear soaking into my hair.

Then another. And another.

Silent. Heavy. Too late.

I stayed still, breathing evenly, pretending to sleep. Pretending not to notice the way his shoulders shook ever so slightly.

(This is over,]I told myself. [No matter how many tears he cries now. No matter how sorry.he looks.

[lt’s over. Truly over.]