All Chapters of The Ex-Luna's Return: No Longer His Doormat: Chapter 151 - Chapter 157

~ 151 ~~ Third person POV ~The aftershocks of the plaza confrontation rippled through the northern district for the remainder of the day, turning the high-society circles on their heads.Fanny, thoroughly humiliated and backed into a corner by Mia’s newfound untouchability, simply could not let it lie. Her pride, bruised beyond recognition by the public reprimand from the Red Moon official, festered like an open wound. Desperate to salvage a shred of her superiority, she sought Mia out later that afternoon near the catering pavilion under the guise of an administrative inquiry.Instead, Fanny tried a quieter, uglier angle.“You think a fancy title and a royal bloodline change what you actually are, Mia?” Fanny hissed, stepping into Mia’s path when the hallway emptied out.Mia didn’t slow. “Move, Fanny.”“Tell me something, Mia,” Fanny pressed, her voice dropping into something soft and venomous, pitched just for the two of them. “All that noise about you and the Red Moon Alpha — th

~ 153 ~~ Mia ~The morning of Nick's fourteenth birthday arrived, completely stripped of the quiet, simple celebration I had originally envisioned. Transformed entirely by the unsealing of my true identity, the mountain lodge was packed to absolute capacity. It was no longer a small family gathering by the water, but a grand, suffocating affair swelling with pack leaders, regional dignitaries, senior medical colleagues, and the crushing, inescapable political weight of two entire territories colliding in one room.Red Moon's own people filled the northern wing of the grand pavilion. Hailey stood near the gift tables managing the frantic ushers; Aron hovered nervously near the food displays, trying to make sure everything was perfect; and Elder Edmund occupied a prime chair of honor near the dais, watching over the crowd with a sharp, calculating gaze. My parents moved through the crowd with quiet, practiced grace, accepting formal greetings from northern council members, while my hos

~ 155 ~~ Mia ~Every single instinct wiring my nervous system screamed a violent, unyielding no.I did not want this man's hands anywhere near me. Not here, not under the glaring lights of hundreds of watching northern and eastern nobles, and certainly not ever again after everything he had allowed to happen. The muscles in my spine locked up instantly, and my weight shifted backward as I prepared to pull my hand away, step right through the formal circle, and walk off the floor.Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.Across the room, standing near the edge of the dais with his hands clasped neatly in front of him, was Nick. He was watching the two of us with a naked, desperate, and heartbreakingly hopeful expectation written all over his young face. His entire heart was sitting right there in his eyes.It was his fourteenth birthday. It was his one, simple, unspoken wish—to see his parents standing together on the floor, putting aside the wreckage of the past for just o

~ 157 ~~ Mia ~The casual mention of Silent Moon from Darian’s mouth sent ripples expanding outward, transforming a private shock between the two of us into a sprawling, public revelation across the entire hall.Before I could fully process the dizzying realization that he was the anonymous buyer, Darian took half a step forward, without realizing how deeply he was exposing us both."You're the original artist," Darian said, his voice carrying clearly over the hushed stillness of the pavilion as he stared at the canvas. "You painted it while you were carrying Nick. I always expected you would give it to him for his birthday. Wasn’t that why you wanted it in the first place?"The words dropped like a stone into a still pond, and the murmur moving through the hall immediately shifted from polite birthday chatter into a sharp, collective gasp of astonishment.The high-society collectors, northern nobles, and eastern art connoisseurs who had packed the room froze in place. A second, enti