Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 99

Chapter 99

RILEY

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The car ride started quiet, which was never a good sign with Mama because it was some sort of warning.

Mama was mad about something and was waiting for the perfect time to bring it up. I kept my hands folded in my lap, staring out the window at the houses we passed, trying to make myself as small as possible in the passenger seat. I could feel her looking at me in the rearview mirror every few seconds, and each glance made my stomach twist tighter.

“So,” she said finally, her voice that sounded fake and sweet which meant trouble was coming for me. “Tell me about your sleepover,

baby.”

I knew this was coming, especially with the way she hated the fact that I had insisted on staying for the sleepover.

Mama never liked taking me off her sight and Mama always wanted to know everything that happened when I wasn’t with her, every conversation that I had with others and every question that people asked me and the answers that I gave them.

I’d learned a long time ago that the truth usually got me in trouble, but lying got me in worse trouble if she found out.

“It was fine, Mama,” I said quietly. Keeping my voice steady and neutral so that she wouldn’t be able to get any hints from it either.

“Fine?” She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. She sounded angry as her hands gripped the steering wheel tight as she snapped.

“Just fine? You got to spend the night in that big fancy house with all those nice things, and with that family and it was just fine?”

I swallowed hard as I thought of what to say now. This was a trap. If I said I enjoyed it too much, she’d get angry that I liked being somewhere else better than home and would punish me for it, calling me an ungrateful child and I didn’t want to be ungrateful. If I said I didn’t like it, she’d want to know why, and I’d have to lie about that too.

“It was nice,” I said carefully, hoping this would help soothe her suspicion. “Thank you for letting me go.”

“Did they ask you questions, Riley? About me, about our life, about where we came from?”

My heart started beating faster, hearing this question from her as I shook my head.

“A few questions, Mama. Nothing bad.”

“What kind of questions?” Her voice got harder, and I saw her knuckles turned white again on the steering wheel.

“Just… normal stuff. Like what my old school was like.” I remembered how I’d frozen when Miss Lumina asked me, how I couldn’t think of anything to say because I’d never been to a real school before, not even in the other pack. Mama had always taught me at home,

when she remembered to.

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Chapter 99

“And what did you tell them?”

“I said I didn’t remember.”

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“Good.” She nodded, and some of the tension left her shoulders as she breathed easily, humming. She seemed happy with the

response that I had given them. “What else?”

“They asked about what toothpaste I wanted to use. And what I wanted to eat. Normal stuff like that.”

“And you answered properly? You didn’t make any demands or act ungrateful?”

“No, Mama. I was polite like you taught me.”

We stopped at a red light, and she turned around to look at me directly. “Were you happy there, Riley? Did you like it better than

being home with me?”

This was the biggest trap of all. I knew what she wanted to hear, and I knew what would keep me safe.

But something about the way Ollie’s family talked to each other, and cared for each other made me wish I was their son too.

I shook my head. “No, Mama. I missed you.”

It was a lie, and I hated myself for telling it. But I’d learned that sometimes lying was the only way to survive.

“Good,” she said, turning back around to face the front as the light turned green. She started the car again as she kept talking.

“Because I need to ask you something important, and I need you to tell me the truth.”

My stomach dropped in fear but I nodded my head. “Yes, Mama.”

“Last week, when you were playing with Ollie, you told me you shook his hand like I asked you to. But I think you lied to me.”

The memory hit me like a punch in my guy. I still remembered that incident. The incident where Mrs Lumina burned her hand and she retaliated against me forcing me underwater.

The very next day, after I’d told her I shook Ollie’s hand, she’d found out somehow that I hadn’t. She’d locked me in my room for two days with only water, and when she finally let me out, she’d made me hold my hand over a candle flame until I cried. She said it was so I’d remember what happens when I lie to her.

I started shaking. “I… I shook his hand, Mama. I swear I did.”

“Don’t lie to me, Riley.” Her voice was deadly quiet now.

“I’m not lying!” The words came out too loud, too desperate as I tried to get her to believe me while my breath kept coming out short

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Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart