Chapter 2

He turned around. His face showed nothing.

Like I was getting stuck on some trivial detail.

"So what do you want?" he said. "You want me to go back right now and tell her I'm dissolving the bond?"

The words choked in my throat.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

"So what you're saying is... as long as she's alive, I'll always be the one in the shadows?"

"Even if we hold the ceremony, even if everyone sees us as mates, I'll still live next to her bond, waiting for you to make time every month to do your 'duty'?"

Damon watched me in silence for a long moment, then let out a slow breath.

"You're taking it too far. I've never put you in the shadows."

"Once we hold the ceremony, you'll be my Luna, publicly, fully. My child will only ever come from you."

"She won't be in our circles. She won't touch your life. You won't ever have to see each other."

His tone sounded like a concession.

"In my heart there's only you. I'll give you everything I'm able to give."

Everything he was able to give.

But that didn't include loyalty. It didn't include a future without a third person in it.

I laughed once.

And then I remembered the early days of his company.

At a business dinner, a paunchy Alpha with a younger woman on his arm — clearly not his Luna — drunkenly slapped Damon on the shoulder:

"Damon, what's the point of making it big, huh? Just to live well. Keep the home flag flying, let the outside flags flutter too. That's real power."

"Like me — the one at home takes care of the old and the young, never complains, and the one outside knows how to charm and looks good on my arm. They don't interfere with each other. Perfect."

Damon had smiled, raised a toast back, and said the polite thing: "Mr. Holden, you're joking. I've got more than enough to worry about with Evelyn."

The whole table laughed, praised him for being devoted, praised me for being lucky.

I'd taken that as his one-of-a-kind love for me.

Looking back now, his words weren't really pushing back.

Did he have "the one at home" quietly doing her duty?

He did. The one bonded to him by contract.

Did he have "the one outside" who looked good on his arm?

He did. That was me.

They don't interfere with each other.

He'd already been living by that rule back then.

I'd just been too stupid to hear what was really being said.

"Get out."

Damon paused. "Evie..."

"I said get out!"

I grabbed the nearest thing and threw it at him with everything I had.

He didn't dodge.

The figurine grazed his temple, and a red mark spread along the skin.

"You're too worked up right now. Whatever you say, whatever you decide, you'll regret it later."

"Remember what I said. No child, and you still have a way out, you still have a choice."

So in his mind, no child meant he could walk away clean.

I dug my nails into my palm and used the pain to push down the nausea.

"I'll come back to see you later."

The door closed softly.

I slid down the wall to the floor.

The hole punched through my chest whistled with cold.

It told me that everything I'd believed in, everything I'd hoped for, everything I'd built over these six years, had been standing on sand.

And now the castle had fallen.

My phone buzzed. It was Aunt Harriet from back home.

I took a breath and picked up. "Aunt Harriet?"

"Evie," Aunt Harriet said, urgency in her voice like I'd never heard, "busy or not, you need to come home. You haven't been back in three months. You told your mom your ceremony date in one quick sentence on the phone. Do you know how worried she is?"

"...Yeah."

My throat was thick.

Three months.

That's right. For three months, my eyes had only been on Damon, on our future. I'd forgotten my mom was waiting for me.

"You just hung up on her in a rush, and her tears came right out."

Aunt Harriet sighed. "I shouldn't say this, but seeing her like that, I can't hold back. Evie, your mom... she doesn't have long."

I froze. "Aunt Harriet... what are you saying?"

"Late stage. There's nothing to be done. She kept it from you because she didn't want the shock to hurt the child. These past days she's been holding on by sheer will, just to see you go through your ceremony proud and happy."

The phone slid out of my hand, and I broke into a wail.

I cried until I had nothing left.

Then I fumbled for the phone and dialed Damon's number.

He picked up.

"Evie?"

I forced out the words with everything I had left.

"The ceremony... goes on."