The Sickened Luna's Last Chance novel Chapter 316

hen I finally emerged from Lucien’s nursery with him bundled warmly in a little sweater and corduroy overalls in my arms, making my way down to the kitchen to feed him, I braced myself for the gossip.

“Stella!” one of the cooks, a ruddy–faced woman named Darlene, rushed toward me the moment I set foot into the kitchen. “There you are. Take a seat–we’ve got all kinds of questions.”

I glanced around at the gaggle of servants who were sitting around the kitchen table, eagerly waiting for my perspective as to what happened last night.

Of course they were curious, and I couldn’t blame them for that; they thought I was stuck in the midst of a love triangle with Anya and Alexander, that Alexander truly wanted me to be his Luna but I declined and he chose Anya as a backup.

They didn’t know the truth. They didn’t know that I was quite literally the reincarnation of the late Luna Ella, that I somehow still shared a soul bond with Alexander, and that I was bound to secrecy by this fucking curse.

They couldn’t know any of it. So all they saw was the surface, which made everything seem a lot more romantic and hopeful than it really was.

I forced a smile as I crossed the kitchen and pulled Lucien’s formula out of the fridge. “There’s nothing for me to answer,” I said as lightly as I could manage. “It was just a clerical error, that’s all.”

“A clerical error.” Darlene put her hands on her hips and exchanged disbelieving looks with the other servants.

“We all saw the look on your face, Stella,” one of the butlers pointed out, waving a gloved hand in my direction. ” You looked like you had been shot when the Alpha said your name. And poor Anya…”

I grimaced when the servants began whispering about Anya in hushed voices. Apparently, after everything happened, Alexander and Anya eventually returned to the banquet hand–in–hand. Alexander said that he misread the name on the card and that it was actually Anya who he chose to be his Luna.

“Well, I, for one, don’t believe it for a moment,” one of the maids said with a furrowed brow. “Anya and Stella are such different names, so how could he misread them? Furthermore, it was ultimately his decision—that can’t be mistaken.”

“And the way he looked at Stella when he said it,” someone else chimed in, turning to me. “He looked at you like he was falling in love all over again.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Darlene cut in before I could, “He only ever looked at one other woman like that: the late Luna Ella, rest her soul.”

1/2

My chest tightened painfully. A silence fell over the kitchen. Darlene and a few others lowered their heads and clasped their hands together, whispering prayers.

It took all of my willpower not to blurt out that I was right here, not rotting in the ground, and they didn’t need to pray for me. But I kept my mouth shut, somehow, perhaps only because I bit down so hard on my tongue that it nearly drew blood.

Finally, in an even tone, I said, “It really was just a mistake. The only upset was over the shock; Anya thought for sure she was going to win, as did I. So when he said my name, it took me completely by surprise and broke her heart. But it’s resolved now, so who cares?”