Chapter 10
In my most rebellious and extreme teenage years, I often anguished over the thought:
If I were to die,
Would they regret it?
Would my mother shed even a single tear for me?
Now, I finally know.
After the guard’s words,
She simply replied, “Oh.”
And then hung up.
1/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
As if nothing had happened, she opened the door, brought the mangoes inside, and began peeling them.
Perhaps by accident, she cut her finger while peeling.
She held up her injured finger and went to the living room to get the first aid kit.
It was then that Abelard pushed the door open.
He looked panic–stricken and helpless, his lips trembling. “Mom, Peaches…”
“Oh, I just received a call from a stranger saying Peaches is dead.”
2/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
My mother said while searching for a bandage,
“What nonsense. Peaches is living better than anyone. Don’t these scammers check their facts before calling?”
“Mom, they’re not scammers… Peaches is really dead.”
Abelard said, his voice full of pain. “The Alpha Gabriel of the Silver Blade Pack called Dad and me. Dad is driving home now.”
My mother’s movements halted abruptly.
She looked up at Abelard.
The sunlight outside streamed in, casting shadows over the fine lines around her eyes,
3/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
falling into the cold gaze she always directed
at me.
This ambiguous expression remained until they got into the car and drove to the Silver Blade Pack.
My mother was not a silent person, but she was unusually quiet throughout the drive.
Delilah held her hand and gently comforted her. “Mom, death is irreversible. Peachy wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
For the first time, my mother ignored her beloved eldest daughter’s words.
Indifferently, she pulled her hand away.
Delilah stiffened, her eyes filled with sadness
4/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
and resentment.
Upon arriving at the Silver Blade Pack,
Alpha Gabriel and Beta Eddie greeted them.
Alpha Gabriel first comforted my mother before informing her that my body had been found.
“Luna Faye, we’ve done what we could to stitch her up, but some of the remains were taken by Beta Colin. According to his own admission, it might…”
He faltered, a flicker of reluctance crossing his eyes.
My mother looked at him and asked the first question she had spoken during the entire
5/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
journey. “Might what?”
“Maybe… it was cooked.”
My mother nodded.
Perhaps her calm demeanor was far more than the police had anticipated..
The young officer had turned back to glance at her twice on the way.
My remains had been stitched together and cleaned, but due to the torture endured in life, the face and features were now a blur, and the limbs were swollen.
The smell of the corpse was far from pleasant.
6/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
The moment she saw me, Delilah couldn’t help but cover her mouth and ran outside, leaning against the wall and dry–heaving.
“Suspect Colin is your husband’s beta.”
“According to him, he had been observing Peaches for a month before the attack to ensure he wouldn’t be detected and then disposed of the body in our territory to destroy the evidence.”
“But your daughter’s body wasn’t buried very deep. It rained a few days ago, and the rain washed it out.”
“A person collecting mushrooms in the woods discovered her.”
I remembered.
7/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
Why it felt familiar.
About a month ago, I had seen strange people near my office.
That afternoon, the sky drizzled lightly.
As I left the office building, my mother called, saying Delilah was having her wedding in a month.
She demanded that I return home.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve been away for six months, and no one from your family has contacted me. Why should I come back now?”
My mother, enraged, said, “Peaches, you
8/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
really don’t know what’s good for you! This is your home too!”
Is this my home?
The one where I can only set up a small bed next to Delilah’s piano every time I return?
The place where, if I took the last chicken wing from the plate, my father would slam his chopsticks and scold me for being uncouth.
I had once stained the sofa cover during my period, and my mother had looked at me with disdain, telling me to clean it up myself after I was done.
Is this what home is like?
9/18
H
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
“Mom, I don’t have a home.”
I said this with a smile and hung up.
In the rain a few steps away,
a familiar figure stood in a black coat, wearing a mask, their face somewhat blurred.
ar
In the moment our eyes met, he instinctively turned his head away.
But at that moment, my chest was filled with a pang of aching emotion, leaving me oblivious to the stranger’s odd behavior.
So,
he had been watching me for a long time.
10/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
But why?
He was my father’s beta, the only person in the entire pack who had been fair to me as I
grew up.
Why would he do this to me?
The pain from that night seemed to return.
This time, it descended upon my light, drifting soul.
I curled up in the air, my body feeling as though it were leaking wind from a thousand wounds.
It hurt.
11/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
More than that night.
Yet I couldn’t help but lift my head and fix my gaze on my mother’s expression.
Even now, I was searching.
Would she regret it?
Would she be sad?
Would she feel even a fraction of my pain?
Under the guidance of the werewolf guards, my mother went to see the captured Beta Colin.
His motives were simple and
straightforward: he had once been my
mother’s mate, but she had rejected him and
12/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
chosen my Alpha father instead.
From then on, he had spiraled into extreme madness, putting on the mask of a good old friend to gain my father’s trust, pretending to have moved on from my mother.
Behind the glass,
the interrogation room was bathed in cold, harsh light.
He lifted his head, looked at my mother, and suddenly grinned.
As if he knew there was no escape for him,
he wanted others to share in his suffering.
In front of my mother, he began to recount
13/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
the details of my death.
“I accidentally let her get the phone and make a call. Fortunately, the other side hung up.”
“Was it a call to you?”
“Your daughter looked so beautiful when she cried, just like you… so I skinned her face.”
“She was in so much pain that she couldn’t even cry anymore and kept calling for her mother.”
The werewolf guard barked, “Enough! No disrespect to Luna!”
My mother stood in front of the glass,
14/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
her back still straight, her eyes fixed on the
perpetrator.
She said nothing and shed no tears.
I floated in front of her, face to face.
She couldn’t see me.
Or hear me.
I said, “Mom, I hate you.”
That night.
The night I was violated and then dismembered while still alive.
I experienced the most excruciating pain a human could endure.
15/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
Blood poured out, turning my vision completely crimson.
A beastly, desperate howl erupted from my
throat.
The wind’s howl, the chirping of insects.
Withered leaves rustling down.
Fungi growing on damp wood.
An orchestra of countless noises pounded like drums in my ears.
Deafening.
I kept calling out.
16/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
“Mom.
Mom.
“Mom, it hurts so much.”
Help me, Mom, help me…”
In moments of utter despair, humans instinctively call out such names, hoping for
a miracle.
But none came.
You were at home, in your warm bed, dreaming a sweet dream.
Dreaming of your beloved eldest daughter Delilah getting married and living a happy
life.
17/18
Chapter 10
+ 5 Points
Abelard was pursuing a stable relationship, studying at a very good university.
After graduation, he would succeed his father as the next Alpha.
In your dreams, I was always absent.
