The Rejected Luna (Avery and Kaden) novel Chapter 23

**Between Then and Now by Mark Twain**
**Chapter 14**

**Christian’s POV**

“Lysander, Orion, Zayden, Christian—please, let me explain! Everything I did… I did it for you!”

Carrie’s voice echoed in my mind, a haunting melody laced with desperation, her familiar sobbing tone intertwining with that ever-present, pitiful expression that had once ensnared my heart.

There was a time, not so long ago, when I had been utterly captivated by the facade she wore, entranced by her charm, and I had willingly fallen into her web, believing every word she spoke.

“What happened five years ago… yes, it was my fault,” she continued, her gaze darting nervously between us, her eyes wide with a frantic hope that we might still care. “I shouldn’t have let myself be deceived by that omega. I hurt you all… but I’ve realized now. I truly have.”

The mere sound of her words sent a shiver down my spine, a visceral reaction that I couldn’t suppress.

She turned her attention back to me, her voice lowering to a near whisper, as if she feared that any sudden movement might send me fleeing. “Christian, Lysander, Orion, Zayden… I know you were always good to me.”

“The only reason you ever cared about Blair was because of me, wasn’t it? You used her to show me my mistakes, hoping I’d come crawling back to you, right?”

“This… this is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

She took a tentative step closer, as if trying to rekindle the connection she believed still flickered between us.

“Christian, I promise I’ll treat you better from now on. Let’s just put everything that happened before behind us, okay? You didn’t really love Blair anyway—she was just a placeholder for me, wasn’t she?”

“Lysander, Orion, Zayden… I’m still your sweet little sister. Without Blair, nothing has truly changed.”

Her conviction was unnerving; she spoke as if she genuinely believed we would be swayed, that we would forgive her for all the pain she had caused.

But we didn’t.

I couldn’t.

As I stood there, absorbing her words, her attempts to weave a tapestry of lies disguised as heartfelt confessions, I felt nothing but a chilling emptiness.

She kept insisting it was all “for us,” but deep down, I knew she had never truly cared about any of us.

She had hurt Blair—framed her, manipulated her, and even tried to extinguish her light, all to cast herself as the center of our universe.

My words dripped with ice, foreign yet unmistakably mine. “If you hadn’t lied and schemed against Blair time and time again… I never would have fallen for her in the first place.”

“Carrie, you disgust me.”

Her face drained of color, her body froze as if paralyzed. There she sat on the floor, staring blankly ahead, as though the very essence of life had been sucked from her.

Her eyes locked onto mine, wild and hollow, and I felt an urge to turn away, to escape the pain of her gaze. But then she laughed—a sharp, cold sound that pierced the air, almost manic in its intensity. It rose higher, a cacophony of despair, tearing through the silence and sending a chill racing down my spine.

I halted mid-step and turned back, unable to tear myself away from the unsettling sight before me. She appeared utterly unhinged.

“What the hell are you laughing at?” I demanded through clenched teeth, my anger boiling just beneath the surface. “After everything, you still have the audacity to laugh?”

She didn’t respond—just stared at me, as if she could see through the very fabric of my being.

Then, in a sudden fit of rage, she spun around and swept everything off the table in one sweeping motion, her lips curling into a twisted smile—mocking, manic.

“I’m laughing at you. At your selfishness. Your hypocrisy. And how unbelievably stupid you are—and you don’t even know it.”