Chapter 377
Chapter 377:
I wasn’t going to give her the truth. Her fragile, human-like mind couldn’t withstand the trauma of discovering she had a child she didn’t remember, nor the horrors of the ambush that had broken her. But beyond that, my Lycan was selfish. I didn’t want a Luna who returned to me out of a tragic sense of duty to our pup. I wanted her to fall in love with me in this new, safe world I had built for her.
I shut the heavy steel door and locked the beast of her past away.
Carmella POV
The sterile, chemical stench of the Mount Sinai VIP lounge was suddenly swallowed by the heavy, intoxicating scent of rosemary and rain.
I looked up from the plastic chair beside Charles’s bed. My adoptive father remained trapped in a medically induced coma, the rhythmic hiss of the ventilator the only sound in the room — until Grant walked in. He looked like a dark god descending into a sterile purgatory, his tailored suit flawless, his golden-flecked eyes locked onto me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯
“Adelina is a very persistent woman,” Grant said smoothly, his deep voice wrapping around me like a warm, heavy blanket. He stepped closer and extended a crisp, cream-colored folder. “She asked Kain to leverage my clearance. I had my team pull the sealed records from Boston p>
My breath hitched. My hands trembled slightly as I took the folder. This was it — the key to my entire existence.
I opened it. Inside was a single, standardized adoption decree dated twenty-seven years ago. It stated that Charles and Eleanor Hawthorne had legally adopted an unidentified female infant from a state orphanage.
I stared at the paper, reading the neat, typed lines over and over.
It was clean. Too clean.
There were no medical records. No mention of the silver that haunted my fragmented flashbacks. No explanation for why my body was wolfless. And most glaringly, this pristine document offered no account of the raw, soul-deep terror I had seen in Eleanor’s eyes in the emergency room.
A cold realization washed over me, chilling the blood in my veins. Grant was lying to me.
He had the power to unearth anything, yet he had handed me a perfect, sanitized stage prop. He was trying to pacify me — to control the narrative and keep me tethered to him in the dark.
“Thank you, Grant,” I whispered, forcing a soft, relieved smile onto my face as I closed the folder. “This gives me a lot of peace p>
His eyes softened, a flicker of satisfaction crossing his handsome features as he reached out to tuck a stray curl behind my ear. “Anything for you, little one p>
I leaned into his touch, playing the part of the grateful, fragile woman he wanted me to be. But beneath my skin, a new and hardened resolve took root. I couldn’t trust Adelina’s mate, and I certainly couldn’t trust Grant. If I wanted the truth about the blood, the silver, and the missing pieces of my soul, I would have to find the hospital in Boston myself.
Carmella POV
The rhythmic hiss of the ventilator finally ceased. Charles blinked, his eyes slowly adjusting to the harsh, sterile light of the Mount Sinai VIP suite. He looked frail — but I didn’t have the luxury of pity. Not anymore.