251 Shattered Histories
Mara
Austin finally arrived with my sandwich and orange juice. I gave him a quick nod of thanks, and he left without a word-just as instructed. Only he touched my food.
As I took a bite and sipped the juice, I could feel the weight of the room pressing back in. Time to get back
to it.
I swallowed and fixed my eyes on Lacy, whose tears had long dried. Her eyes were empty now. Hollow.
“What did your father tell you about Luna Natasha?” I asked, calmly, but deliberately.
I knew Lucian and Alpha Vander were waiting on this answer more than any other. There was a crack in
the foundation-something had been left out of the family history, and we were circling it now.
Lacy blinked slowly, then spoke, her voice dull.
“Ini-initially,” she corrected herself, “he said he used to go by Tom Alaric Moongrove. Back then, he
worked at a car dealership in Neev under the alias Tom Chase. That’s where he met Natasha Redlock.”
She paused.
“He said she’d come into town on holiday with her mother. They came to rent a car. He swore it was love at first sight. Said she was different. Elegant. Curious. They hung out a lot. Went places together.”
Lacy looked at the floor as she continued.
“About a month into seeing each other, Alpha Vander showed up in Neev-broke, barely getting by. When
he found out who Natasha was, he made his move. Wooed her, impressed her… took her away from him.”
She glanced briefly at Vander, then looked away.
“My father said she never looked back. Said he couldn’t compete-he was a nobody, and Vander was
aiming to be somebody. He tried to warn her Vander was after her wealth, but she wouldn’t listen. She
eloped with him. That was it. He didn’t see her again… until years later, when they came back to Neev.”
Lacy’s voice wavered slightly.
“He said Natasha looked miserable. Told him Vander was cheating. Said she wanted out. That she was ready to leave, but Vander threatened to kill her if she tried. They started meeting in secret. He claimed he tried to help her-but then, one day, they were just gone. Packed up and vanished. He never heard from her again.”
She stopped.
One thing was clear: Alaric’s version was wrapped in half-truths and self-serving fiction. Maybe Natasha had pitied him. Maybe she’d entertained a friendship. But love? That didn’t track. Not for the woman who built her world around Vander, defied her family for his sake and loved him till the end.
124
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she’d fought to forget.
I didn’t stop her.
Instead, I linked the two men I knew would interrupt-Vander and Lucian. Let her talk, I warned. She wasn’t done. And I needed to hear it all.
“I believed that lie too,” Lacy whispered, her voice hoarse.
She sounded like someone finally waking up after years of being asleep.
“I kept telling myself it was just a tragic love triangle. My father loved Natasha, lost her, and my mother betrayed him with the same man. It sounded painful but… understandable. Even when he admitted that he originally sent my mother to get close to Alpha Vander so she could kill him and his son-I excused it. He told me it was a wicked plan he regretted. Said he was angry, lost in revenge. And I… I believed him.”
She shook her head.
“I wanted to believe him. That it was all just pain and regret. I ignored how dangerous that sounded. He didn’t follow through with the plan, I told myself. So it didn’t matter.”
She buried her face in her palms, her body trembling.
“I didn’t know who he really was… not until Rockville.”
Her hands dropped slowly from her face, and her eyes met mine-wide, haunted.
“He changed. Completely. He asked me to sleep with some influential men from Mistwood. I refused. That’s when he snapped. I thought I’d done enough-I’d already slept with IT and Account staff from Steel Corp to help him. I thought it was over.”
Her voice broke.
“But it wasn’t. When I refused, he had me chained in a room. His men took turns. Over and over. I stopped
counting.”
The room was deathly silent.
Then Lacy whispered: “He said it was…”
“Training,” Martha interrupted, her voice ragged.
Lacy nodded immediately, tears falling freely now.
And just like that, the final pieces clicked into place.
Martha knew. She knew. Because she’d lived it too.
This wasn’t just betrayal or manipulation.
It was systemic. Generational. Weaponized.
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Two women-mother and daughter-broken by the same man, used and discarded by the same monster.
And still, somewhere in Lacy’s heart, she thought she could rebuild something with him.
It was more than sad. It was a tragedy.
“They did all sorts of things to me, Mommy,” Lacy sobbed, her voice shrinking into something childlike.
Small.Broken.
Whatever Alaric had done to her… it had shattered her completely.
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “He told me you went through the same thing. That it was to ‘toughen me up.””
Her next words came out in pieces, raw and shaking.
“After three days of nonstop abuse… he told me the truth. Said he never wanted me. That he wanted me dead. That youwere the one who decided to keep me. He said I was just another tool he never asked for- but one that ended up being useful.”
Lacy curled into herself as she spoke.
“He called me stupid. Gullible. And he was right. He started boasting… laughing about everything he’s done. He said people who betray him don’t get to walk away. That he punished Natasha for leaving him- for choosing Alpha Vander.”
The room tensed as her voice trembled through the air.
“He said he made her life hell. Sent her threats. Kept her paranoid. Made sure she never felt safe. He
wanted her for her money-and when she gave it to Vander instead, he couldn’t forgive her. So he trolled
her. Broke her down. And just when she thought she was safe… when she thought she could finally live in
peace-he poisoned her.”
Lacy’s voice cracked. “He said it was to prove no one escapes him. That no Alpha, no money, no amount of power could protect her from his wrath.”
Tears streamed down her face again as she finished, “He told me all of that-just so I’d know what would
happen to me if I ever crossed him. He said no one would save me. Just like no one saved you, Mom. Just
like no one saved Natasha.”
And then we heard it-thud. Crack.
I turned toward the sound.
Alpha Vander.
He stood frozen, fist buried in the brick wall, blood dripping from his knuckles. His chest heaved, his eyes bloodshot and bulging with fury. His whole body trembled as the growl built deep in his throat-low, unrelenting, animal.
He was no longer just angry.
< 251 Shattered Histories
He was unhinged.
The pressure in the room shifted violently. It was suffocating.
Lucian wasn’t doing much better-jaw clenched, fists tight, eyes full of rage and grief.
And me-I rubbed my bump instinctively. My baby could feel this storm.
I didn’t have words for them. No apologies. No comfort would do.
Because the truth had finally settled in:
Alaric-Chase-whatever name the devil wore-had been poisoning this family from the shadows for decades. He hadn’t just killed Lucian’s mother. He did it out of spite. He didn’t want Martha back. He
wanted her wealth. He wanted Vander’s downfall.
He didn’t love anyone. He only wanted power-and to hurt those who took it from him.
This wasn’t war. It was personal.
And I was done hoping for justice.
We needed to find him. Drag him out of whatever hole he was hiding in.
And then we’d give him the death he deserved-not a clean blade, not a quick end.
Slow.
Brutal.
Because monsters like Alaric didn’t deserve mercy.
And I was done playing nice.
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