Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 27

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart

Chapter 27

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Riley

I couldn’t make words come out from my mouth anymore. They were stuck somewhere deep inside my chest, trapped that the fear

that had taken control over everything.

Even after the lady left, even after she wasn’t looking at me with those eyes that seemed to see right through me, I couldn’t stop

shaking in fear of what just happened.

The restaurant felt like it was closing up on me and I couldn’t breathe. People were still staring at our table, whispering to each other

behind their hands watching me, as some looked like they were sympathizing while some looked amused with what they were seeing.

I wanted to disappear, to curl up into a ball so tiny that no one could see me anymore.

“Riley?” Xenois’s voice was soft now, it was different from when he was yelling at the pretty lady. “Hey, buddy, it’s okay. She’s gone

now.”

I tried to nod, tried to show him that I heard him, and I was listening but my head felt too heavy to move.

Everything felt too heavy. My arms, my legs, even breathing felt like too much work.

“I’m going to clean up in the bathroom,” Mama said, her voice still shaky and upset as she looked down at her clothes and shook her

head like she was sad about the whole thing. “I look like a mess.”

“Of course,” Xenois replied, but he wasn’t really looking at her anymore. His eyes were on me, worried and confused as I seemed to be

the focus of his worry at the moment.

“Take your time.”

I watched Mama walk away, her wet clothes making squishy sounds with each step as she made her way out of my vision. Part of me

wanted to follow her, like I always did, to hide behind her like I always did when things got scary.

But another part of me, a bigger part, was relieved she was gone. Even if it was just for a few minutes. I didn’t want to be around her

anymore. She was scary and she provoked that nice lady. The pretty one that she hated me for talking to.

“Come here, Riley,” Xenois said gently, opening his arms interrupting me from my thoughts as I turned to look at him again. “It’s

alright.”

Before I could think about it, before I could remember all the reasons why mama didn’t want me to do anything that would ruin her

plans, I found myself moving toward him.

He lifted me up easily, settling me on his lap like I was his son.

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His scent was present as he unleashed it, allowing it to wrap around me like a blanket.

It was warm and safe and nothing like the angry smell that filled our apartment so many times.

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It was different from Mama’s scent too, which sometimes smelled sweet but other times smelled like the medicine she took when her head hurt, or bitter when she was mad and would yell and hit me.

I buried my face against his shoulder and felt some of the tightness in my chest start to loosen. It felt like I could breath now as my body went slack in his arms, confident that he would hurt me either.

“That’s it,” he murmured, one of his big hands rubbing gentle circles on my back, providing warmth and safety.

“You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

Safe. The word felt strange in my head because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt truly safe with an adult.

Even when Mama was being nice, even when she was smiling and calling me her good boy, there was always something that made me walk on eggshells, made me choose my words carefully, to make sure that doesn’t change.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Xenois continued, his voice rumbling in his chest where my ear was pressed against it. “Adults shouldn’t behave that way, especially not in front of children. Lumina was wrong to do what she did.”

My body went rigid at his words. Wrong? The pretty lady had been wrong?

But that wasn’t right. That wasn’t what had happened at all.

I pulled back a bit to look at his face, trying to understand what he meant. His expression was kind, he looked serious in a way grown-ups looked when they were trying to teach you an important lesson.

“I want you to know something, Riley,” he said, his voice sounding very serious now.

‘I won’t let Lumina come near you or your mama anymore. What she did today was unacceptable, and I’m going to make sure it never happens again.”

The words hit me like Ice water as I tried to yell at him and hit him. He was going to protect us from the wrong person. He was going to keep away the one person who might actually help us, who had looked at me and somehow knew that things weren’t right with me.

I opened my mouth, trying to find the words to tell him the truth. I wanted to explain to him that Mama was the one who hurt me, that Mama was the one who got angry and said terrible things and sometimes forgot to feed me when she was having one of her bad days.

That the pretty lady hadn’t actually been scary at all she’d been trying to protect me from the real monster.

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But the words wouldn’t come. They never came when I needed them most.

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And even if they did, who would believe me? Mama was so good at being perfect when other people were watching. She knew exactly how to make her voice sound sweet and sad, exactly how to make her eyes fill with tears, exactly how to make everyone fall in love with

her fake kindness.

The scary lady Lumina – had seen through it somehow and known Mama for what she really was. She had seen past Mama’s perfect mask to the anger underneath and the monster she was.

And now she was gone, and I was alone again with the monster who looked like a mother.

“I can see you’re still scared,” Xenois said gently, misreading my silence completely. “That’s normal after what you just witnessed. But

I promise you, Riley, I will never let anyone hurt you like that again.”

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