157 About Mother.
Lucian
“Let us investigate Martha. Maybe she has accounts under a different name where she stored all that money,” I said, and Darian shook his head almost immediately.
“I asked her for money the day you told me about the blackmail, and she honestly had none. She didn’t even try to make excuses. Just said she was broke,” he explained, but the sincerity in his voice didn’t change my conviction.
“All the more reason to dig, Darian. Alaric Moongrove doesn’t exist-at least not the way she described him. So there has to be another reason. Whatever it is, it must be big enough for her to jeopardise her status as Luna and yours as a legitimate heir just to cover it up.” I said, and Darian’s shoulders slumped slightly as he processed my words.
Martha was too calculated to risk everything for a harmless lie. No, this wasn’t just deception-it was protection. Of who or what, we didn’t know yet. But I was certain now that she wasn’t shielding herself.
“Very well,” Denis said with a nod. “We’ll launch a formal investigation on the former Luna. Since Alpha Vander is stepping down, it opens the door for us to conduct the investigation thoroughly. We won’t have to tiptoe around laws or invoke immunity. Once she’s no longer Luna, she’s fair game.”
We fell silent for a moment. The air between us grew heavier, and I knew the final topic was coming. Denis seemed hesitant, carefully stringing his thoughts together. I understood. This wasn’t about Martha. This was about my mother. Denis finally spoke. “Lucian… we’ve begun investigating your mother’s death. And we found something disturbing.”
My spine tensed.
“She wasn’t poisoned in Mooncrest like your father always believed,” Denis continued. “The poisoning happened in Neev- when she went there on vacation with you and your father. The same Neev you just sent your son to for treatment.”
A sharp chill ran through my body. The irony wasn’t lost on me. Of all the places-Neev.
“When Neev couldn’t produce the culprit,” Denis added grimly, “your father retaliated. Brutally. He cut off their food supply and sanctioned their trade routes. It took a long time for the damage to be undone.”
I clenched my jaw. My father had told me he was trying to look into my mother’s death. But he never mentioned Neev. Not
once.
“Why wouldn’t he tell me this?” I asked quietly, more to myself than anyone else.
“He may have wanted to shield you,” Denis said with a shrug. “Or perhaps he still feels ashamed of how he handled it.”
I nodded slowly, trying to rein in the emotions rising in my chest. Regret. Anger. Confusion.
“But to truly find out what happened to your mother,” Denis continued, “we have to visit an old woman named Katya Romanov. She was the maid attending to her the day it happened. She ingested the poison too. Not enough to kill her, but
enough to take her speech… and her legs.”
A thick silence fell over the room again. My heart twisted at the thought of that woman-robbed of her voice and her freedom for simply being there.
Darian finally broke the silence. “How can we even question someone in that state?” he asked, his voice tinged with
concern.
It was a valid question.
“She is educated and can write. She lost the function of her legs, not her hands. I’m sure she’ll gladly tell us all she
<157 About Mother
knows, Denis said, and while that should have brought relief, all it did was deepen the knot in my chest.
I had always believed my mother’s killers were in Mooncrest City. That was what I’d told myself for years, what I’d come to accept. But now? Everything had shifted. It wasn’t Mooncrest-it was Neev. A town I had barely spared a thought until this very week.
What puzzled me even more was my father. Why had he taken her to Neev? Of all places for a vacation, Neev didn’t make the cut. I had looked it up that morning before Mara woke up-there was nothing special about it. No renowned spas or luxurious resorts. Just a small, quiet town.
More troubling still was his silence. He hadn’t said a word when I told him Richard was being taken there for treatment. He could’ve said, “I took your mother there once.” But he didn’t. And that was unlike him. My father never missed a chance to talk about my mother. Yet he withheld that detail?
I didn’t know if I should confront him. Not yet.
“I think an investigation in Neev will be great,” I said finally, grounding myself in action. “Since it’s close to Goldenpeak, we’ll visit Neev first, then head to pick up Darian’s grandparents.”
Denis agreed without hesitation. He could see how vital it was.
The trip would be tiring-I’d be away from Mara for days, possibly even a week-but it was necessary. I hated the thought of being apart from her for that long, especially with her pregnancy. To help, we decided it might be wise to ask Keisha to stay with Mara and Tiffany while we were gone. They’d keep each other company, and the house would feel less empty.
Once we agreed on the plan and outlined our travel dates and investigation strategy, we shifted to lighter topics. Eventually, Denis and Keisha took their leave.
Mara had already gone up to bed. I stayed behind for a bit, only for Darian to ask to speak with me privately.
“Lucian…” he began, a little hesitant. “I don’t know how to say this, but… we have to investigate Father too.”
I met his gaze and didn’t interrupt. I’d been thinking the same.
“He didn’t say anything about Neev,” Darian continued. “You know how he loves to talk about your mother-he brings her up at every opportunity-but this? This was a significant detail. He deliberately withheld it. I’m not saying he hurt her-he clearly loved her-but he might know something. Something he doesn’t want you to find out.”
I nodded slowly. “Whatever it is, Katya will shed some light on it,” I said firmly, “and we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
I nudged him with a faint smile. “I guess you’ll be sleeping in the room tonight.”
Darian gave me a sly grin. “Looks that way.”
“Make sure you get it right this time,” I said with a pat on his shoulder and turned to head upstairs.
Mara was waiting. And as much as the shadows of the past were looming, her presence was the only light I needed to face them.
