Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 208

Chapter 208

RILEY

82

I hadn’t even noticed it was missing until that moment. The thick metal chain that Mama Sophia had made me wear every day for as long as I could remember the one that made it hard for me to talk about certain things, hard to remember certain details it was gone.

I remembered having it when Mama Sophia pushed me off that cliff, remembered the weight of it around my neck as I fell. But somehow, sometime since then, someone had taken it off me. I had no idea how or when it had happened.

“Riley,” my real mama said carefully, “what do you mean about Aunt Andy? Who is Aunt Andy?”

Now that the necklace was gone, the words came easier, even though they still scared me to say. “It’s a lover’s curse,” I said quietly,

looking down at the floor. “Aunt Andy used to do it to me all the time whenever I disobeyed or made Mama angry.”

The silence that followed was so complete I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

“She normally called me her little test subject,” I continued, the memories becoming clearer now that the magical compulsion wasn’t

forcing me to forget them. “Or she would use poison or different curses on me. All of them hurt really bad.”

I heard something crash to the ground – maybe someone had dropped something – and I immediately dove under Alpha Zade’s bed,

my body moving on instinct before my brain could catch up.

“Please don’t hit me!” I cried, curling up as small as I could make myself. “I didn’t mean to make you angry! I can be good, I promise!

I can be quiet!”

The familiar terror was washing over me, the same panic I’d felt every time Aunt Andy decided I needed another “lesson.” I pressed

myself against the wall under the bed, trying to make myself invisible.

‘I have medicine!” I said desperately, remembering the emergency supplies I’d hidden in my clothes. “I stole some antidote and sewed it into my shirt, so I could take it whenever Aunt Andy was mad and wanted to take her anger out on me. I can give it to you if you

promise not to hurt me!”

My fingers fumbled with the hem of my shirt until I found the small tear I’d made to hide one of my stolen vials. I pulled out a tiny bottle filled with clear liquid and threw it out from under the bed, hoping it would land where someone could reach it.

“That will make the pain go away for about a week,” I said, my voice muffled by the bedframe above me. “But it’s not a real cure. Only Aunt Andy knows how to make the real cure. She might take it away If Alpha Zade apologizes really nice to her though. Sometimes she did that for me when I begged enough.”

I heard gentle footsteps approaching the bed, and then Lyn’s voice, soft and careful. “Riley, sweetheart, nobody is going to hurt you. Can you come out from under there? We need to talk to you about what you just told us.”

I peeked out from under the bed to see Lyn crouched down at eye level with me, holding the vial I’d thrown. His face looked shocked

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14:53 Tue, Jan 27

Chapter 208

but not angry, which was confusing because adults usually got angry when I talked about the curse magic.

‘Nobody’s mad at you,” he said gently. “You’re not in trouble. We just need to understand what you know about this curse so we can

help Alpha Zade. Can you come out and talk to us?”

Slowly, carefully, I crawled out from under the bed. Ollie immediately ran over and hugged me, which made me feel a little bit safer.

My real mama looked like she was about to throw up, and my real daddy’s face was so angry I thought he might shift into his wolf form

right there in the bedroom.

But none of them moved to hit me or yell at me, which was different from what usually happened when I revealed things I wasn’t

supposed to know.

“Riley,” my real mama said, her voice shaky, “can you tell us more about Aunt Andy? About what she did to you?”

I looked around the room again, still scared but starting to realize that maybe these people really weren’t going to hurt me for telling

the truth.

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14:53 Tue, Jan 27

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart