Alpha's Discarded Luna (Talia) novel Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Talia’s POV

The cab let me out in front of Melody Works.

Electra was waiting under the awning. She’d kept Di Lian safe for me for years–my mother’s piano, the last thing of hers left in the world.

“I tried to stall them,” she whispered. “I said it wasn’t for sale, that the owner was coming. Talia–it’s him. He’s already inside.”

I knew before she said it. I felt him through the glass.

Aires.

He stood beside the piano, and tucked against his side, gazing up at the worn black lacquer with shining eyes, was Imema.

So he was the buyer.

I pushed the door

open.

“It’s not for sale,” I said unequivocally.

Imema turned first. “Talia… we were only looking.”

That piano is mine.” My voice came out rough, but it didn’t‘

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Chapter 3

shake. “The consignment is done. I came to take it home.”

Aires finally looked at me.

His jaw tightened, as if my being there were one more thing I’d arranged to inconvenience him.

“It’s just a piano,” he said, the way you’d reason with a difficult child. “I’ll buy you ten.”

“I don’t want ten. I want this one.”

“Don’t be selfish.” His voice cooled a degree. “It’s Imema’s dying wish.”

Imema said softly, one hand pressed to her chest. “I only wanted to give my last concert with a real Di Lian.” Her eyes lifted to mine, wet and luminous. “But if it means so much to you, Talia, I’ll find another. I would never want to take something precious from you.”

Said sweetly. Said so the whole shop could hear how gracious she was, and how cruel I’d have to be to refuse a dying woman who’d just offered to back down.

She’d always been good at this.

“At least you know your place. Anyway, I’m not selling it,” I said again. “Not for any price either of you can name.”

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Aires’s expression hardened. “What if I insist that you sell? You cannot disobey my orders.‘

“Or what.” I looked at him. “This piano is the only thing I have left of my mother. She taught me to play on it before she died. Every key on it remembers her hands.” My voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to. “Do you really have to do this?”

For a moment he said nothing.

“I’m asking you to stop being difficult,” he said.

And there it was.

Five years, distilled into a single sentence. Everything I was, everything that mattered to me, weighed against Imema’s passing whim and found difficult.

My heart was filled with bitterness.

“No,” I said.

r

“I will never give it up. Not for her wish. Not for your patience. Not for anything.” I let my eyes move from him to Imema and back. “You can buy every piano in this country. You can stand here and call me selfish in front of strangers until you’re hoarse. It won’t change the answer.”

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Chapter 3

Imema’s lip trembled. A single tear slipped free. “Aires, it’s all right. Please don’t fight with her over me. I never wanted to come between you-”

“You didn’t come between us,” I said.

They both went still.

“There’s nothing left between us for you to come between.” I said it to her, but it was for Aires. “I used to think there was. I told myself if I waited long enough, was good enough, quiet enough, he’d turn around one day and see me.” I shook my head slowly. “He just looked right at me and called me difficult for wanting the last thing my mother ever gave me. I don’t think I’ll be waiting anymore.”

Aires’s brows drew together. “Talia-

“Have the piano delivered to my address by morning.” I looked at the shop assistant.

Then I walked to the door. Electra stayed quietly by my side the whole time.

But at this moment, she could no longer hold back.

“How does he dare.” Electra’s voice shook with fury. “How does he stand there and call you difficult–over your own mother’s piano–with that woman hanging off his arm.” She caught my:20

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sleeve and turned me to face her. “Talia. He doesn’t even know, does he. He still doesn’t know.”

“Know what,” I said quietly.

“That it was you.” Her eyes were wet and bright with anger. “The rogue attack, all those years ago. You were the one who pulled him back from the edge. You saved his life—and he’s spent five years treating you like something he scraped off his shoe.” Her hands curled into fists. “You even gave up everything for him. The stage, the music, your own name. You were going to be one of the great pianists of your generation, Talia, and you buried all of it in that house–for a mate who can’t even let keep your mother’s piano.”

I froze and looked back at the lit window of the shop, where Aires was bending his head toward Imema, gently.

you

Noticing my gaze, Electra took my hand and held it.

r

I wanted to cry. The pain and the disappointment had somewhere too deep for that.

gone

I was already thinking, clearly and calmly:

I want a divorce.

X

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Chapter 3

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