Chapter 4

The next day, I couldn’t stand to be in that suffocating penthouse.

I went to the animal medical center, hoping work would bring me some peace.

I was checking the stitches on a wolfhound that just had surgery when the door was pushed open.

Amara walked in.

Her usual fragile demeanor was gone, replaced by a victor’s smirk.

“Maeve, all alone in here?” she drawled. “Last night’s gala was wonderful. Thank you for giving me your Honorary Chair position.”

I didn’t look up, continuing to change the wolfhound’s dressing.

“You’re welcome.”

Amara stepped closer, a malicious glint in her eyes.

“You know, Darian told me I’m much better suited for the position than you,” she said, feigning a sigh. “He said you’re too cold, too strong. That you make him feel pressured. Not like me. I make him feel like a true Alpha, a protector.”

My hand paused for a fraction of a second before I continued wrapping the bandage.

The wolfhound sensed my turmoil and whimpered, nudging my hand gently.

“And this Moon-soul Crystal,” Amara said, deliberately touching the pendant on her neck. “Darian said only its pure energy was worthy of me. Unlike some cheap bracelet, just good enough to shut someone up.”

She laughed. “You have the title of Luna, but you can’t even keep your own mate’s heart.”

I finally looked up at her.

“What are you trying to say?”

A flicker of excitement crossed Amara’s face. She knew she’d hit a nerve.

She leaned in, her voice dropping to a cruel, pitying whisper.

“Darian told me he’s obsessed with this new side of me. This helpless, broken side that has lost everything and needs him.”

Her voice was pure venom.

“Because it reminds him of you when you first came to him. When you had just lost your parents and had nowhere to go. A pathetic little thing that needed saving. That, he said, was you at your best.”

Her words were a poisoned blade, piercing through my last defense.

I finally understood.

Darian wasn't in love with the strong woman who fought by his side.

He was in love with the ghost of a helpless orphan he could control, an idea that fed his savior complex.

“Are you finished?” I asked calmly.

My composure infuriated her.

“Stop pretending!” she shrieked. “You’ve lost! You’ve lost everything!”

I turned to get more medical supplies, ignoring her.

Enraged at being dismissed, Amara lunged forward and grabbed my arm.

“You can’t run from the truth!”

“Let go,” I said. The two words were ice, and the cold authority in my voice made her tremble.

“I won’t!” she screamed, yanking on my arm. “You fake, pretentious bitch!”

I ripped my arm from her grasp.

“Ahh!” Amara cried out.

She used the momentum to throw herself backward. She fell deliberately, right toward a surgical tray of sterilized silver scalpels.

A sharp silver blade sliced across her arm. Blood instantly gushed from the wound.

“AHHH!” she let out a piercing, agonized scream.

At the exact same moment, the clinic door was thrown open.

Darian stormed in, still in his formal meeting attire.

He had clearly received Amara’s panicked message and come running.

His face darkened the moment he saw her on the floor, crying and clutching her bleeding arm.

“Amara!” he rushed over and gathered her into his arms. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Darian…” Amara leaned against him weakly, tears streaming down her face. “I just came to comfort Maeve… I didn’t think…”

She glanced at me, standing there with a cold expression.

“She… she pushed me…”

Darian’s head whipped around to face me, his eyes blazing with fury and disgust.

“Maeve!” he roared. “I can’t believe you’d be so vicious as to attack her in a hospital!”

“I didn’t,” I said flatly.

“No?” he sneered. “Then how did Amara get hurt? Did she throw herself onto the scalpel?”

"Yes." I met his gaze without flinching.

My “shamelessness” sent him over the edge.

“You are the biggest disappointment of my life!” he bellowed.

He carefully lifted Amara into his arms as if she were a priceless treasure.

“I’ll get you to a doctor,” he said to her gently.

As he left, he shot me one last look—a look of pure loathing and contempt that crushed the final embers of affection I had for him.

“Maeve, you’ve made me lose all hope in you.”

The door slammed shut.

I stood in the empty room, listening to the calm, steady beat of my own heart.

I stroked the wolfhound’s fur, and a smile of pure relief finally touched my lips.

I walked to the wall and glanced at the calendar.

Today. The full moon. The day the rejection agreement took effect.

I gathered my important belongings and drove to the private airfield outside the city without a single look back.

My uncle’s plane was waiting quietly in the twilight.

As I climbed the stairs to the jet, my phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from Darian. “Stop your tantrum and come back to apologize to Amara. Don’t forget your place.”

My face was blank. I turned off the phone and tossed it, along with the cheap moonstone bracelet, into a trash can beside the runway.

The plane took off, the roar of the engines drowning out the world I was leaving behind.

Goodbye, Darian.