The Human Luna's Goodbye의 모든 챕터: 챕터 111 - 챕터 120

Elara's POVI'd asked him that because of the look on his face since he sat down, skeptical, watching Margaret and her lawyer like something didn't add up for him either. Some part of me wondered if this was a turn I hadn't expected, if he'd actually found proof his mother was lying, some card he'd been holding back for exactly the right moment, waiting for her to overplay her hand before he showed it.I want to be clear. I had no illusions about him. I just wanted Margaret hit as hard as possible, and I wanted leverage going into my own property settlement against him next. Orion didn't love me. I was certain of that now. He wouldn't lift a finger to protect me. But he was fair, especially when it came to acting as Alpha.Sure enough, after a tense silence, Orion stood and offered himself as a witness.Judge Miriam Whitfield turned out to be exactly as unmoved by billionaires and Alphas as her counterpart in werewolf court. She told Orion to submit a for

Elara's POVOrion didn't say a word the entire drive. His silence made it feel like he was the one who'd been wronged today, not me, the one who'd actually been dragged into a courtroom.I assumed we were headed to whatever coffee shop happened to be closest. Instead he pulled up outside a small café near Newland University, the one from that night.I remembered it exactly. The string lights along the patio. The chalk sign that never got the specials right. Orion across from me, nervous in a way I'd never seen him before or since, a small velvet box turning over and over in his hands like he needed something to do with them."I know this isn't what either of us imagined for ourselves," he'd said that night. "I know why I need this marriage. I won't pretend otherwise. But Elara, wanting you isn't the part I'm pretending about." I remembered the way my heart had climbed into my throat, how certain I'd been that this was real, that a man that careful

Orion's POVBernice nodded, serious, and told me quietly that I'd said it more than once, her voice careful, like she expected me to snap at her for it. Her retelling kept pulling more of it loose. Coming home drunk and tearing into Elara for not keeping the house spotless enough. Coming back from doing something for Celeste and complaining that Elara didn't understand how the world worked, sitting home all day the way she did. Elara sick, wanting nothing more than for me to stay with her, and me telling her to toughen up, telling her to take a page from Celeste's book on being independent.It was all coming back now. Every small, forgettable thing I'd never once let myself keep.I sat down on the couch and dragged my fingers through my hair, my head splitting. I wanted to hit myself, hard.I let a minute pass before I could ask anything else. "Besides all this in the mornings, what did she do the rest of the day?""Gardening. Scrubbing the furnitu

Elara's POVThe news hit me like a bolt from the blue. My vision went dark at the edges completely. I nearly went down right there in the office, my knees buckling before I fully understood what I'd just heard.Dr. Merritt caught me before I could fall, her grip firm and steadying on my arm. She explained this was one of the risks of IVF, especially when one parent carried the fertility gene condition tied to the Blood Moon curse.At the time, every test had come back clean, my egg and Orion's sperm both viable, no reason a pregnancy loss should have happened.But something could have shifted during the pregnancy itself, quietly, without any warning sign to catch. "It could be genetic. A recessive defect somewhere in Orion's sperm. Some unfavorable factor in your egg. We can't say for certain right now." Guilt filled her eyes as she said it.I knew none of this was her fault. Neither of us had been in good shape when this started, especially me. I'

Elara's POVThis was my first time setting foot on Golden Crown land, and I found myself noticing every detail of it despite everything else weighing on my mind. The pack sat along a stretch of river bluffs an hour outside Newland proper, the main compound built low and long against the hillside, all pale stone and dark timber, nothing like the imposing marble of White Moon's estate.Gardens ran the length of the drive, still green this late in the season, ivy climbing the stone walls in a way that looked deliberate rather than neglected, and somewhere beyond the tree line I could hear water moving, fast and close, the whole property built around the sound of it.Samuel's beta was waiting for us at the entrance, along with a tall woman in a white coat I assumed was Dr. Callow. But before either of them could say a word, I realized we weren't alone. A crowd had already gathered along the courtyard, pack members drawn out by the sound of the car, watching us with