Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Child You Never Believed: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 7

“Help… my head hurts so much…”It felt as if something were drilling into my temples again and again. I was in so much pain that my fingertips dug into the wall, leaving white dust packed beneath my nails.The door flew open.It had to be Mom.My mother was the cub behavior instructor of the Black Pine Pack. No one understood a cub’s condition better than she did. She would see that something was wrong with me. She had come to save me.“Are you still not done making trouble? The birthday feast is about to start, and Jenna is already getting impatient.”“Mom…”My voice came out weak and unsteady as I reached a hand toward her.“Mom, my head hurts so badly it feels like it’s splitting open… I think I’m going to die…”Panic flashed across her face, and she started to bend down to pick me up. Then she looked down and saw the Moon Oath Collar at my throat flashing a violent red.The panic in her eyes vanished. What replaced it was disappointment, then anger.“Evelyn, you’re lying again!”“Y

The next morning, sunlight slipped through the curtains and fell across my body, but it brought no warmth with it.The sound of dishes clinking drifted up from downstairs.Mom was already awake.Before long, the smell of bacon, buttered bread, and rich meat stew spread through the house.Whenever my collar had glowed red in the past, she would make food like this to force me to give in.That morning, she opened and shut the cabinets extra loudly, and the spoon kept striking the rim of the pot in sharp, deliberate beats.She was waiting for me to open the door on my own, lower my head, and confess, just as I always had before when I gave in for the sake of one hot meal and admitted to things I had never done.But the dead do not get hungry.“Evelyn still hasn’t come out?”Dad sat at the long table, drinking milk as he asked the question casually.“No.” Mom set the bowl down hard, her voice cold. “She’s stubborn as ever. I’d like to see how long she can keep this up.”“If she doesn’t wan

In the interrogation room at the Black Pine Pack Enforcement Office, I drifted near the ceiling and watched my mother sit across the table with both hands locked hard over her knees. She looked ten years older than she had the night before. There were dark circles under her eyes, her lips had lost their color, and her hair was still in disarray. Even here, she still refused to admit she had done anything wrong.She was afraid. She was afraid that the thing she had trusted for more than ten years would finally prove that she had killed her own daughter with her own hands.The collar they had removed from my neck lay on the table between them.The black leather band was still stained with darkened blood and scorched bits of flesh, and a shred of my skin was still caught inside the clasp. Yet the red moonstone at its center, the one meant to show the result of its judgment, was still flashing in sharp, steady pulses.The enforcement captain sat across from her with the interrogation notes

Three days later, the Artifact Division delivered its final findings.The white collar Jenna had worn around her neck had never been a temple-registered Moon Oath Collar to begin with.Its internal wiring had been altered. The judgment module had been removed long ago, leaving behind nothing but the simplest light panel. No matter what the wearer said or did, it would only ever glow white.In other words, Jenna had never truly been “tested” at all.The white light on her throat had never meant honesty.It had only ever been a result that had been fixed in advance.The day the report arrived at the Enforcement Office, my mother lost control on the spot.She turned the pages over and over, repeating, “That’s impossible,” under her breath. But the deeper she read, the clearer it became. There were maintenance traces, evidence of tampering, and records tracing the parts back to the black market. The proof came one piece after another, leaving her no room to lie to herself anymore.At last,