Alpha's Discarded Luna (Talia) novel Chapter 55

Chapter 54

Talia’s POV

I hold Imema’s gaze, refusing to flinch. “You’re saying Aires has her.”

She tilts her head, feigning surprise. “Electra is your closest friend. She came to confront me, offended Aires in the process… and you don’t know where she is?”

“Do you?”

“No.” She sighs, delicate and burdened. “But from what Aires tells me, he wants to repay her in kind. Tit for tat.” A pause. “What she said that day did wound me, 6:21

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But she wasn’t the reason I… did what I

did. I didn’t want anyone to suffer on my account. But Aires…” She shakes her head

sadly. “He insisted on avenging me. On making her pay.”

Her voice softens to something conspiratorial, almost kind. “Since he won’t listen to me, perhaps you can persuade him. You’re his wife, after all.”

The words drip with honey, but I taste the venom underneath. She’s not asking for help. She’s demonstrating–look how far he’ll go for me. Look how little your friendship matters against my comfort.

The coffee grows cold between us.

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“If you don’t want more conflict,” I say carefully, “tell me where she is.”

“I don’t know.” She checks her watch, a small, satisfied smile playing at her lips. “Aires’s flight lands soon. He’ll worry if he can’t find me at the hospital. I should go.”

She gathers her bag and glides away, leaving me alone with cold coffee and

colder truths.

Richard said Aires didn’t take her. Imema says he did.

Someone is lying.

***

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The hospital is quiet when I arrive. The entire floor where Imema stays is private, guarded, and exclusive. Empty hallways stretch before me like a maze.

Footsteps echo behind me. I slip into a fire escape, pressing myself against the cold wall, holding my breath.

The footsteps pass. A door opens, then

closes.

I wait. Count to sixty. Then I creep out, moving silently toward Imema’s room.

My reflection in the glass door startles me. I look like a thief, like an intruder in my own mate’s life.

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I am his wife, the relationship between us is completely legal and legitimate. And yet here I am, skulking in corridors, while Imema sits in comfort, certain of her place in his heart.

She’s right to be certain, he’s never given me reason to doubt her importance.

Voices drift through the crack in the door.

“You just returned from your trip,” Imema

says,

her voice soft and warm. “You didn’t

need to rush over. Tomorrow would have

been fine.”

Aires’s voice follows, low and familiar. “I heard you left the hospital today.”

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My heart sinks. He came straight from the airport, didn’t go home or even call anyone before directly rushing here.

The antiseptic smell of the hospital turns suffocating.

Imema’s response is perfectly calibrated: concerned, selfless. “I was just going stir–crazy. I just needed some air. Aires, honestly! You worry too much. I’m not a kid, right!”

୮

A pause, and then her voice chimes again. “Aires, about Electra… she has apologized. She knows she was wrong, of course she might have said all those things in the

heat of the moment. You don’t need to punish her further. She’s Mrs. Perseus‘$6:21

Chapter 54

friend, after all.”

I press closer to the door, straining to hear. Aires’s response is quiet, but unmistakable. He agrees, humming in reply.

So Richard did lie, Aires has her in his custody. My friend is in his hands because she dared to defend me.

Something hot and sharp lodges in

my

chest. I clench my jaw so hard my teeth ache. The metallic taste of blood fills my

mouth.

A clatter inside. Imema’s soft gasp. “Oh no, Aires, I’m so sorry! I’ve spilled medicine on your jacket.”

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Through the crack, I catch a glimpse of

the scene inside.

I recognise that jacket.

It’s a jacket I made for him. Custom–designed, hand–stitched, every detail chosen for him. I made it for his

birthday, two years ago. He’d worn it often, and I had let myself believe it meant something significant about our

marriage.

That night, when I gave it to him, he had kissed me deeply, hugging me to his chest. Really kissed me, not the perfunctory pecks of duty. For the first time, I had thought maybe… maybe he

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was finally seeing me.

I snap back to reality with Imema’s pleading voice.

“Let me clean it! Please, Aires. I know you wear this often. You must love it, so just let me make it right.”

Silence stretches.

“Aires?” Her voice wobbles. “Do you… do you hate me now? Is that why you won’t let me touch it?”

“No.”

A sniffle. “You really don’t hate me?”

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“No, Imema! It’s just-”

“Then please, let me take care of it. I’ll return it good as new, I promise!”

The silence this time is longer, and heavier.

Finally, he relents. “Fine.”

Imema’s voice brightens through tears. “I’ll clean it carefully. I promise.”

I step back from the door. My hands are shaking.

That jacket…my jacket. The one tangible proof I had that he might, somewhere beneath the ice, feel something for me.16:21

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And he just handed it to her like it was nothing.

Like I was nothing.

Aires’s footsteps approach the door. I slip back into the fire escape, pressing myself into the shadows. He passes within feet of me, close enough to touch.

He doesn’t see me, of course he doesn’t.

I wait until the hallway is empty, until his footsteps fade completely. Then I emerge, walk to the elevator, and leave the hospital behind.

In the lobby, I pass a window. My reflection stares back: pale, hollow, eyes:21

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Chapter 54

too bright.

I look like someone who just lost a war she didn’t know she was fighting.

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