9 Chapter 19 A DEAD PLANT
His thick eyebrows furrowed. “Sera, she’s your mother-”
I swear, if Celeste had been running her mouth in front of my son-
I was appalled that Kieran had been so careless in displaying his rekindled relationship with Celeste in front of Daniel and that Leona had been so crass as to have him overhear
that.
“I love you,” I said in a broken whisper before hanging up.
A bitter laugh tore from my throat. “Turns out, you succeeded.”
And on the nights when he needed physical gratification, he would come to my room, climb into bed with me, do what needed to be done, and leave. He never kissed me, never even fully took off my clothes, never spent the night.
Funnily enough, the tears were suddenly nowhere to be found. It was like they’d dried up,
leaving my insides arid, empty, desolate.
I tried to dress sexily around the house, hoping he could start to see me as less of a prison
and more of a woman, but he never even looked my way.
It rang twice, and a gasp tore out of me when Daniel’s face filled the screen. “Mom!”
Daniel sighed when I didn’t speak. “So I guess you and Dad aren’t getting back together?”
I blinked, caught off guard. “What?”
No matter how much you water a dead plant, it won’t miraculously come back to life. So I
stopped trying. I retreated into myself, wrote my books, and lived in a silent hell for ten
years.
He nodded. “There are two pools in the house, and I can see the ocean from my window. Grandpa said when the tide is right, he’ll show me how to catch a wave.”
He only called her name, not with any title. I wasn’t sure whether I should correct that manner. Celeste would join Kieran’s life officially one day, and I didn’t want my boy to be blamed for such a tiny thing.
I straightened my spine. “Can I help you?”
“Is he going to make her his Luna?”
I sighed as I drew up from the couch and headed to the door. I really hoped it wasn’t Kieran; I wasn’t in the mood for any more-
I scoffed at that thought.
I stepped forward. “Do you remember back at the hospital, right after Dad died, when you, my fucking brother, swore to rip away whatever scrap of happiness I clung to?”
“Goodbye,” I said firmly and slammed the door in Ethan’s face.
I froze. “What?”
I mean, I wasn’t the one who initiated it, but should I have fought harder? Should I have
done more to keep my marriage intact?
His face drained of color. “Sera, I was… I didn’t—”
My eyes widened, and an incredulous sound fell from my agape mouth. “Why am I treating you like this?”
“How’s the island?” I asked to distract myself.
I took a deep breath. “Where did you hear that, honey? Did someone say something to
you?”
But I got over the feeling of being used, and I figured if we couldn’t be proper lovers, we
could be good friends-but even that had been an exercise in futility.
I rolled my eyes and stepped back from the door. “Bye, Ethan.”
A sharp bark of laughter slipped out of me. “How nice of her to finally worry about me after ignoring me for ten years.”
But was my freedom worth it if my son was getting hurt in the process?
“Oh, my baby!” I clutched my chest, feeling like my heart was going to break free of my ribcage to go to him.
I laughed. “Yeah? You like it?”
But back to the point, Daniel had inherited the worst of both Kieran’s and my stubborn streaks. Once he dug his heels in, not even an Alpha command could shake him loose.
He sat up, his eyebrows knitting together. “At the airport, he promised me he wouldn’t leave your side if I went.”
What more could I have done? Over the last decade, I’d done everything in my power to turn lemons into lemonade.
“I miss you,” he declared.
As soon as I closed the door behind me, I rushed to the couch and unboxed the phone Kieran had given me.
He gave me a toothy grin, showcasing his canines that were still growing out slowly after falling out a month ago. I didn’t know if it was the ache of missing him, but he looked so young, and all I wanted to do was reach through the phone and hold him in my arms.
“|—”
“I see her and Dad together,” he said, his voice losing its luster. “And they’re always hugging. Plus, I heard Grandma say she was tired of being Luna and couldn’t wait to give
it to someone else.”
“Daniel is my only happiness.” I gritted my teeth. “And now, because of the goddamn
threat you brought to my doorstep, I had to send him away just to keep him safe.”
For a moment, I stood in front of the door, unmoving. I didn’t know why. Was I waiting for Ethan to knock again, demanding to reconcile?
SERAPHINA’S POV
“Oh, I miss you, too,” I said, forcing tears back down my throat.
Not in a million years.
I wasn’t given a chance to answer myself because my doorbell rang at that moment, stopping me from wallowing further in my anguish.
His jaw flexed, his entire body stiff and tense. “Mom has been trying to reach you,” he
said flatly. “You haven’t responded, and she’s worried.”
And maybe that was for the best. Trying to reconcile with my family was like trying to make Kieran love me. Like watering a dead plant-futile and useless.
“Sera-”
“Hon,” I choked out. “I forgot, I have to… get to training. I’ll call you back later, okay?”
“Save it,” I said sharply, slapping away his hand that held the door open. It dropped to his side without a fight.
“Is Dad going to marry Celeste and make her his Luna?” Daniel repeated, his voice
wobbling slightly.
For the first time since the divorce, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. I thought we’d gone
through the whole process as amicably as possible, and Kieran and I had been civil with
each other, at least in front of Daniel.
I could feel the tears I’d struggled to keep at bay pushing against my blockades, and I
knew the dam would burst any second.
“A fact she’s only remembering now.” I chuckled dryly. “If I’d known this is what it took, I
would have gotten shot years ago.”
“Listen, sweetie,” I started carefully. “Your Dad and I are-
I laughed, refraining from telling him that security guards wouldn’t be able to save him from a bad wave on the surfboard.
The last thing I wanted was to hurt my son, but was that what we were doing?
Sure enough, there was one number saved in the contacts, and I initiated a FaceTime call,
my hands shaking with anticipation.
My mouth dropped open, but no words came out.
I tossed the phone away from me and dropped my head into my hands.
He frowned. “Mom?”
I cooked Kieran’s favorite meals only to have them go bad because he ordered takeout
instead. I tried to get involved in pack activities but was shut down at every turn. I even learned everything I could about Formula One racing so we could talk about it during the Grand Prix, but as soon as I entered the living room, he would stand up and go to his room to watch it there.
He snorted. “There’s like fifty guards here, Mom.” He rolled his eyes, flopping onto a bed. “And they follow me everywhere. I can’t get a snack without an escort.”
“I don’t want Dad to marry her, Mom. I want you to get back together. I want you to be
his Luna.”
“You all should just continue doing what you’ve done for the last ten years. I’m not your sister, Ethan, and I am not that woman’s daughter. I have no intention of changing that—
not now, not ever.”
“What the hell has gotten into you, Sera?” he asked, his voice hard, his blue eyes glacial.
“We’re a family; why have you been treating us like this?”
Ethan’s eyes flared. “Seraphina!”
Daniel’s eyes danced with glee. “Oh, Mom, it’s huge!”
“Well, it’s all for your own—”
“Oh.” I blinked at Ethan.
After a full minute, I scoffed, wiping away a lone tear that had managed its way out of my
eyes. It was one thing that he’d even visited my home, but expecting Ethan to fight for
me?
That must have been what Kieran whispered to Daniel at the airport. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. What was Kieran thinking, making that kind of promise to our son?
“Where’s Dad?”
The sex was transactional, like a chore to tick off his list. And, of course, he always used a
condom. God forbid I had one more child to further tether him to me.
“Hi,” my brother exhaled.
“Sera, I-I never meant-”
19 Chapter 19 A DEAD PLANT
Before I could close it, he braced a large hand against it and pushed, leaving me no choice but to keep the door open.
“So tell me, Ethan-what’s next?”
I worried my lower lip between my teeth. “Is that safe, though?”
As soon as we got married and I moved into Kieran’s home, we’d slept in separate rooms. I’d tried to move into his room to foster some kind of intimacy, but I was shut down with a frigidity that made sure I never attempted that again.
