Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 278

Chapter 278

LUMINA

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The taste of Andy’s blood still lingered in my mouth as I sat in our living room, staring at my bruised and swollen knuckles. Carol

had healed Andy just enough to keep her alive – we weren’t done with her yet, not by a long shot. But the hours of torture had yielded

nothing useful, nothing that would help us undo the psychological damage she’d inflicted on Riley.

Xenois paced near the window, his phone pressed to his ear as he spoke in low tones with the hospital staff.

“Any change in Lake’s condition?” he asked, his voice tight with stress.

“And Riley – how is he doing?”

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I watched my mate’s face fall as he listened to the response, and I already knew what the nurse was telling him. No change in Lake’s comatose state, and Riley hadn’t left the boy’s bedside in over forty-eight hours. He’d refused food, refused to speak to anyone who tried

to enter the room, refused to acknowledge the existence of a world beyond those four walls.

“Thank you,” Xenois said quietly, ending the call. “Lake’s stable, but still unconscious. Riley won’t let anyone near him. The medical

staff are getting worried – he hasn’t eaten anything substantial in two days.”

Across the room, Zade shifted restlessly on the couch, his color finally returning to normal now that the lover’s curse had been

broken.

The antidote Riley had obtained from Andy had worked perfectly, but the cost of that salvation sat heavy on all our shoulders. Beside him, Lynn remained unnaturally quiet, her usual animated energy dampened by what she’d witnessed and participated in during Andy’s

interrogation.

“Lynn’s been breaking people’s bones for information since she was sixteen,” Zade had confided to me earlier, his voice filled with concern for his mate….not mate, publicly accepted mate… Friend? Ugh it was so frustrating, not knowing the deal between Zade, Lynn and Lyn. And I did not want to pry. Lyn had asked for some space to heal, and locked himself in his room. And everyone respected that, even Zade who looked like he was scared Lyn had been broken by whatever torture he had faced then? Zade who had called me days ago, telling me that he and Lynn were planning to make Were witches legal in his city, come out with Lyn and make him his rightful mate, even if he was a male. But everything had been pushed to the ack burner ever since the attack and everything was torn from us in ways we were still trying to make head of.

I was drawn back to the present by Zade continued speech.

“But what we did to Andy today… I’ve never seen her look so shaken.”

The sound of small footsteps drew my attention to the doorway, where Ollie stood with his favorite stuffed wolf clutched against his chest. His green eyes – so much like Riley’s – were filled with a longing that made my heart ache.

‘Can I see Riley now?” he asked for the dozenth time since we’d returned from the hospital. “Please? I just want to make sure he’s

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Chapter 278

okay. I want to tell him I’m sorry for bothering him.”

&

The guilt in his five-year-old voice was devastating. Ollie had been replaying Riley’s harsh rejection over and over, trying to understand why his beloved big brother had pushed him away so violently.

“Not yet, sweetheart,” I said gently, patting the couch beside me. “Riley needs a little more time.”

But even as I said the words, I knew they were lies. Time wasn’t going to heal what Andy had done to Riley. Space wasn’t going to

make him forget the images she’d burned into his mind. We’d been approaching this all wrong, giving him room to spiral deeper into

trauma while we waited for him to magically recover on his own.

Ollie’s shoulders sagged with disappointment, but he didn’t argue. He simply retreated to the corner where his toys were scattered,

settling down to play quietly while the adults wrestled with problems he couldn’t understand.

Samuel and Silvia sat together on the loveseat, their faces etched with the particular pain that came from watching their family fall apart and being powerless to fix it. They’d already lost so many years with their grandsons – the thought of losing Riley again, this time

to psychological warfare, was almost unbearable.

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“Maybe we should consider bringing in outside help,” Samuel suggested quietly. “A specialist who deals with magical trauma, someone

who might understand what Andy did to his mind.”

“And tell them what exactly?” Lynn finally spoke up, her voice rough from hours of exertion.

“That we need help deprogramming a child soldier who was raised by kidnappers and is now reliving his abuser’s death on repeat? That we tortured a woman for information and came up empty?”

The bitter truth in her words settled over the room like a heavy blanket. We were all complicit now, all stained by the choices we’d

made in the name of protecting our family.

I stood abruptly, the movement drawing every eye in the room to me. The weight of their attention, their expectation that I would somehow have answers, pressed down on my shoulders like a physical force.

“I’ve been going about this all wrong,” I said, my voice cutting through the oppressive silence.

Xenois stopped pacing, turning to face me fully. “What do you mean?”

“Giving Riley space,” I continued, my hands clenching into fists as the realization crystallized in my mind.

“Respecting his boundaries, waiting for him to come to us, letting him process things at his own pace – it’s not helping him. It’s

making everything worse.”

‘Lumina, Carol said carefully, “trauma victims need time and space to-

“Riley isn’t just a trauma victim,” I interrupted, the words pouring out of me with desperate urgency. “He’s my son. My child who was

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stolen from me as an infant and shaped into something I barely recognize. I failed him completely in life – I didn’t even know he was my

biological son until it was too late. But I’m done. I’m done letting other people dictate how I parent my own child.”

Xenois moved closer, his expression cautious but hopeful. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that every day we give Riley space to avoid us is another day Andy’s poison has to work deeper into his mind,” I said,

turning to face each member of our family in turn.

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12:50 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart