Chapter 7

Iris’s POV

I didn’t cry when they told me that Evie was gone.

I had already screamed, and begged as I held her body in my arms while it turned cold.

What more was left?

They tried. The healers. The nurses, but nothing changed the truth.

Evie was gone.

I held her hand long after she stopped breathing, hoping that she would squeeze my hand back. I whispered her name, again and again, hoping that she would open those blue eyes and smile at me.

But she didn't.

I couldn’t accept it, and my brain refused to process it. My baby, my little girl, was gone.

I knew this was coming. I knew she was sick. But it wasn't supposed to be like this. It shouldn’t have been this soon. Evie still had several days to go. All she needed was proper care when the seizures started. A basic medical treatment to keep her breathing until her body calmed down.

Instead, she died because we didn’t make it to the clinic.

Because her father, her own father, decided that a scraped knee and a few tears from another girl were more urgent than his dying daughter.

Because he decided that Tiffany needed him, not Evie.

Evie had been dying in my arms, struggling to breathe, turning blue, while he turned his car around.

She’s faking it, Eric said.

That was the last thing he said to us before he kicked us out of the car and drove away.

I replayed those words in my head while the healer checked her body, and checked her heartbeat. 

I sat outside the room in silence as they worked, but I knew it was already too late. I knew when her body went still in my arms.

The door opened slowly. The healer stepped out. He was the same who had given me the news of Evie's illness.

He looked at me like he didn’t know what to say. His mouth opened and closed several times, before he forced out the words.

“She’s gone, Luna.”

He didn’t even need to say it.

“I know,” I said hoarsely. My throat was raw from all the screaming.

He hesitated before he sat beside me quietly.

Finally, he cleared his throat. “It… it wasn’t the Moonbane Curse that killed her directly. The seizure was caused by stress, emotional stress.”

My throat tightened. “She heard him. She heard Eric say that she was a mistake.”

The healer winced. “That kind of shock can destabilize a child’s nervous system, especially one that was already weakened by the curse. But the seizure wasn’t fatal. It was manageable. If she had reached the clinic in time, she would have stabilized. Her breathing could have been regulated.”

“So… she didn’t have to die,” I whispered.

He didn’t answer, but I heard the answer loud and clear.

I turned my face away. I clenched my fists as tears welled up in my eyes.

She died… because of him.

If he hadn’t stopped the car. If he had just kept driving. If he had chosen her.

But he didn’t. I thought my tears had dried up, but I was wrong as tears ran down my cheeks.

I should have known. I should have expected it. But part of me thought that maybe this time, he would be different.

The healer hesitated before he spoke again. “There’s something else.”

There was something in his voice that made me turn to him.

“The research on the Moonbane Cure was… progressing. We had a breakthrough. A new formula. The tests were showing promise.”

I blinked, struggling to process what he was saying. “A cure?”

“Yes,” he said carefully. “It was still in the early stages, but we had a real chance this time. Evie would have qualified for the trial, and there was a 80% chance of her survival.”

My heart skipped at his words.

“But then it was shut down,” he added slowly, “By Alpha Eric’s command. He said it was unnecessary, that the reports were fabricated, that you were lying to manipulate him.”

My mouth went dry.

“He shut it down because of me?” I whispered.

“He said the whole Moonbane diagnosis was a fake,” the healer said bitterly. “That you were using your daughter to guilt him into staying in the marriage. He forced us to halt everything. No matter what we tried to tell him, he didn't believe us. We couldn’t even apply for funding.”

I stared at him, frozen in shock.

A cure had been in reach.

Evie could have lived, if only Eric hadn’t stopped it.

If only he had believed me, or at least given me the benefit of doubt. But he didn’t. He thought I was playing some game.

And now she was gone.

The healer sighed gravely, then he stood up. “I’ll leave you alone for a while.”

A silent sob escaped me, and before I could stop it, I was sobbing again.

My heart burned with pain as I sobbed. I felt like I was going to die.

My baby was gone.

I would never hear her laugh again. I would never see her run across the backyard in her favourite yellow dress. I would never feel her arms wrap around my waist as she yelled “Mommy!”.

I would never get to watch her grow up.

All the birthdays I had imagined. All the school dances. Her first shift. Her first heartbreak. Her wedding. I would never get any of it.

He took it all from me.

And the worst part was that she died believing that she wasn’t enough for her father. That she was a mistake. She died with those words ringing in her ears.

I yanked on my hair harshly as I rocked myself slowly.

This was all my fault.

I should have taken her away sooner. I should have left. I should have never let him near her. I thought I was protecting her by keeping her close to her father. But all I did was cause her death.

A sharp pain pierced my chest, and I gasped in agony. The pain of losing Evie almost felt physical.

Eventually, the tears stopped, and I wiped my face with the back of my hand, sitting up straighter.

I was done begging. I used to think I couldn’t leave him because of Evie, because she needed him.

But now she was gone, so I had no reason to stay.