Chapter 11

The name on the stone was carved in my hand.

Evelyn Hart-Kane.

I'd added her English name. The one her teacher had given her at school. She'd been so proud. "Mommy, my English name means stars."

"Mommy's sorry…" My voice cracked. I pressed my forehead to the cold stone. Tears fell on it, one after another, like beads on a broken string.

"Mommy didn't protect you. Mommy was too foolish. I let them get near you. It was my fault. I was wrong."

The wind pulled at my hair. The chapel bell rang, slow and long. As if to remind me there was no use in pain. Evie was gone.

That evening, on the way back from the chapel, with a bunch of sunflowers from the graveyard in my arm, I was walking through the foreign streets.

When I got to the door of my small rental, the same snow-white cat was curled on the mat. When it saw me, it mewed softly and reached up its paws to scratch at the door, as if welcoming me.

I called her Snowy.

I'd met her the day before the service.

I'd come out of the flower market, walking along the street, and I saw her crouched against the corner of an old building. It was drizzling. She hadn't tried to find cover. Her white coat was soaking. There was a wound behind one ear.

I crouched and called to her. She lifted her head slowly to look at me. Her eyes were wet and clear, the way Evie's had been when she was small, looking up at me.

I picked her up. She didn't fight. She just tucked herself into my arm and gave a small purr.

I took her to the vet. Cleaned her wound. Bought a carrier, litter, food.

I didn't think about it much, doing those things. But something in the back of my chest felt like it was being nudged along by something I couldn't name.

I named her Snowy. I hoped she'd keep me company, and fill out the shape of what a home was supposed to be.

Snowy was clingy.

I kept waking at night from nightmares. Evie in the bed, crying that she hurt. Evie falling down stairs, eyes full of fear. I'd wake gasping.

Every time I did, Snowy would jump onto the pillow and brush her tail across my face. Over and over. As if she were saying it's all right.

I held her a lot. Sometimes I'd cry into her fur. "Are you Evie come back?"

She'd just watch me quietly and then lift a paw to touch my hand.

Days went on. The pain didn't fully heal. But I learned to keep living.

I decided I'd settle here.

Leave the swamp behind. Leave Damien. Leave the Kane Pack. Leave everything that had been about being Luna.

I'd already lost the things that mattered. What was left was to live.

The next day my lawyer called.

"Ms. Hart, I just got that surveillance from the medical wing. You asked me to look, and yes, it's there." He kept his voice low. "Someone inside the medical wing is willing to cooperate. The time Fiona was in your ward with Damien… they were definitely doing something improper in there."

I closed my eyes.

The closet. Fiona on his lap. Hanging on his neck.

I laughed at myself, a bit. "Put it out."

"You're sure?"

"Damien plays dirty. I don't trust the Council alone." My voice was flat, like I was talking about nothing. "We need to set the public fire first. He can stall the Council. He can't stall the public."

"Understood."

I hung up and looked at the blue sky outside.

Damien. Isn't losing face your fear? Isn't the whole world knowing what you and your sister are doing your fear?

Then I'll strip the curtain for you.

Let you watch yourself burn down everything you care about.

The next morning, the Pack-wide social feeds exploded.

KaneSiblingsScandal

DamienFionaProof

DamienCheatingWithSister

KaneDisgrace

Multiple threads carrying video clips jumped to number one on the trending lists, and from there the storm ran loose.

The video wasn't very clear. It was enough.

Especially the moment of Fiona, half-undressed in the ward, draped across Damien's lap. The wave broke.

【They're brother and sister? Actually? Not step?】

【I'm going to throw up. People like this sit at the top of Packs?】

【What must the real Luna have gone through?】

At first Kane Pack tried to kill it. Denials, statements, bought comment control.

Then someone leaked Fiona's adoption records. A former employee came forward saying Fiona had been running Kane's private business for a long time, in a role closer to a wife than a ward.

Kane Pack couldn't push it back down.

And the competitors, who'd just been eyeing an opening, jumped off the ship in a wave too.

Investors pulling out. Lawsuits coming forward. Creditors knocking.

Overnight, Kane Pack went from favorite of the upper circles to something everyone wanted far away.

Fiona was losing her mind.

Looking at the feeds, the trending list, the insults, she locked herself in her room, smashing her phone and screaming. "Who leaked it? Who dared? I'll kill them—"

Fiona laughed through her crying. Her makeup was ruined in the mirror. Her eyes were red. She looked like a ghost that had lost its mind.

She grabbed Damien's arm. "Big brother, you love me the most, right? Save me."