Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 275

Chapter 275

RILEY

A

93

The tears came then, hot and bitter and completely unstoppable. They’d been building since the moment I walked into Andy’s cell, since she’d looked at me with that twisted motherly smile and asked if I wanted to know the truth about what had happened to Mama

Sophia.

But she’d also been the only mother I’d ever known. She’d held me when I had nightmares, had taught me how to read, had sung to me when I was sick. She’d been cruel and manipulative and probably incapable of real love, but she’d been mine. And they’d killed her like

she was nothing.

“They made me watch,” I whispered to Lake’s unconscious form. “Andy made me see all of it. Every moment, from beginning to end. She said I deserved to know the truth about the people who claim to love me.”

I could still hear Mama Sophia’s voice in my head, could still see the way her face had looked in those final moments. Not like a monster or a villain, but like a woman who was terrified and alone and calling for the one person she’d thought might save her.

Me.

“How am I supposed to live with them now?” I asked Lake, though I knew he couldn’t answer. “How am I supposed to look at Lumina and pretend she’s my mother when I know what she’s capable of? How am I supposed to hug Ollie when his grandfather helped torture

the woman who raised me?”

The silence in the room was overwhelming. Outside, I could see people walking past in the hallway, nurses and doctors going about their normal lives, completely unaware that my entire world had just collapsed again.

I’d thought the worst thing Andy could tell me was that Lake and I couldn’t be together. I’d thought she might threaten him, might try to convince me that I was putting him in danger by keeping him close. I’d prepared myself for manipulation, for lies designed to

separate us.

But she hadn’t needed to lie. The truth was so much worse than anything she could have invented.

“I don’t know what to do, I admitted, my voice breaking. “I don’t know how to be around them anymore. I don’t know how to look at Ollie and see an innocent child instead of the grandson of people who murdered my mother. I don’t know how to trust Xenois when he’s capable of standing by while someone burns to death.”

Lake’s hand was still warm in mine, still steady and real. He was the only thing left that made sense, the only person who understood what it felt like to be shaped by violence and abandoned by the people who were supposed to protect you.

“Wake up, I pleaded, leaning closer to his still face. “Please, Lake, I need you to wake up. I can’t do this alone. I can’t figure out how to keep going without you.”

But Lake remained unconscious, lost in whatever dreams or nightmares were keeping him hidden from the world. And I was left alone

1/3

12:50 Thu, Jan 29 M ..

Chapter 275

Á3

with the weight of Andy’s revelations, with the knowledge that the people I’d started to love were capable of unthinkable cruelty.

93

Outside the room, I could see Lumina still standing in the hallway, Ollie pressed against her side. They were waiting for me, probably hoping I’d come out and explain what was wrong, hoping they could fix whatever Andy had broken.

That’s your real family,” Andy had concluded as the memory faded, leaving me gasping and broken on the cell floor. “That’s what they do to people who love you. And mark my words, sweet boy when Lake becomes inconvenient, when his problems become too much trouble,

they’ll do the same thing to him.”

Now, sitting beside Lake’s unconscious form, I couldn’t get those images out of my head. Couldn’t stop seeing Sophia’s face in those

final moments, couldn’t unhear her screams echoing through the forest.

She’d been a monster. I knew that, intellectually. She’d hurt me in ways I was still discovering, shaped me into a weapon, conditioned me to see violence as love. But she’d also been the only mother I’d ever known. She’d sung me to sleep when I had nightmares, patched my wounds after training sessions, held me when the weight of what I was becoming felt too heavy to bear.

And they’d burned her alive.

“She loved me,” I whispered to Lake’s still form, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. “In her fucked up, twisted way, she loved me.

And they killed her for it.”

I pressed my face against Lake’s hand, breathing in his familiar scent – antiseptic and fear and something uniquely him that had

always meant safety to me.

“They’re going to do the same thing to you,” I continued, my voice breaking. “As soon as you become too much trouble, as soon as your problems outweigh your usefulness, they’ll find a way to get rid of you. Just like they did with her.”

The worst part was that I could see how it would happen. Lake’s powers were unstable, dangerous. His psychological state was fragile at best. It would be so easy to convince themselves that he was a threat, that the greater good required his elimination.

And I would lose another person I loved to their version of justice.

“I won’t let them,” I promised, squeezing Lake’s fingers tighter. “I won’t let them hurt you the way they hurt her. We’ll run as soon as you wake up. We’ll go somewhere they can never find us, somewhere we can just… exist without having to justify our right to be alive.”

Lake’s eyelids fluttered slightly, and for a moment I thought he might be waking up. But he just mumbled something incoherent and fell back into deeper unconsciousness.

I settled back in the chair, never letting go of his hand, and began to plan our escape. Andy had been right about one thing – I couldn’t trust them to protect the people I cared about. Every adult who’d claimed to love me had ultimately betrayed that love in service of some greater good.

But Lake and I didn’t need anyone else. We never had. We’d survived on the streets together, survived Andy’s training, survived everything the world had thrown at us.

2/3

12:50 Thu, Jan 29 M..

Chapter 275

We’d survive this too.

Even if it meant leaving everything else behind.

Comments

✔ LIKE

:.

Write Comments

<SHARE

493

93

3/3

12:50 Thu, Jan 29 M

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart