Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 166

Chapter 166

They arrived in the early hours of the morning. The place was still awake in the way houses become when fear has passed through them. Quiet, but not restful. Tense. Listening. The second Camila saw Brad, she rushed to him and held him tight. It was obvious she had been crying already. Her relief was almost painful to look at because it sat right beside the terror that still had not left her.

Keith and Ethan were still up. Meadow and Elaine had fallen asleep. According to Ethan, Meadow had refused to go to bed and had stayed in the living room until sleep took her by force. Joseph believed that easily. The girl was stubborn in her own quiet way. He looked around the place and noticed all the modifications Ethan had made around the cabin. Things shifted for comfort. For access. For Meadow. For himself. For both of them together.

Then Joseph’s gaze landed on the painting over the fireplace. Meadow. Beautifully done. Placed high where anyone entering would see her first. Joseph looked at Ethan and smiled without meaning to. He did not need anyone to say it aloud. His brother was utterly in love with his wife. Not tolerating her. Not managing an arrangement. Not playing house because duty demanded it. In love. Deep

enough that it had already shaped the room around them.

Joseph sat on the couch and asked Rashel to bring him water. He noticed she was still up and wondered why. The whole house

seemed too wakeful, too uncertain where to settle. Ethan joined him in the living room, though he stayed close to where Meadow

slept on the three-seater couch. Even in conversation, his body leaned toward her without seeming to.

“Thank you, Joseph,” Ethan said.

Joseph nodded once.

“So, give me the details,” Joseph said.

That was directed partly at Ethan, partly at Dr James. James was the one asked to explain his theories properly. So he did. He walked

them through the records, the dates, the surgery, the impossibility of the shard placement, the reasons he believed Ethan’s

condition had not only happened but had been made to happen.

When he finished, Joseph, Adam, and Brian were all stunned. Joseph found it especially difficult to believe the full shape of it where

Dr Rosenberg was concerned. Mark Louis, maybe. A surgeon could be bought. Used. Concealed inside procedure. But Rosenberg? Their parents’ physician? The man who had been in their lives long enough to feel like old furniture in the family house? Joseph

wanted there to be some mix-up. Some hidden error. Anything that did not make the betrayal that personal.

“I do not think Dr Rosenberg is in on this. Maybe Mark but not Dr Rosenberg,” Joseph said.

Ethan looked at him sharply.

“Why?” Ethan asked.

“Because he recommended Camila for Meadow,” Joseph replied.

That, to Joseph, still mattered. If Rosenberg wanted Meadow harmed, why bring in someone who could help her? Why point them toward Camila at all? Keith started to answer before Ethan could.

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Chapter 166

“Well, Meadow isn’t his problem, so it is okay she gets help…” Keith started.

Joseph shook his head and cut across that.

“When I got to Camila’s house, they were beating Brad. They were not asking about you, Ethan. They were asking about Meadow. They wanted to know what Camila knows about her,” Joseph said.

That changed the room all over again. Ethan stared.

“Why?” Ethan asked.

Joseph shrugged once, frustrated.

“We preserved one of the goons hoping he would speak, but he would rather die than speak, and I still had Dr James to pick/up, so i

granted him his wish. Maybe you should ask your wife why dangerous people would be after her therapist,” Joseph replied.

He looked toward Meadow where she slept. The sight of her there, peaceful and worn out and completely unaware of the weight

gathering around her name, made everything feel stranger. Meadow was mute. Young. Soft in some ways that made people

underestimate her. Yet now she sat at the centre of too many ugly lines. Someone had once buried her memories. Someone now

wanted her therapist silenced or frightened or watched. The thing around her was not ordinary.

Just then Rashel asked to be excused. Keith denied her immediately, and harshly enough that everyone looked at him.

“Henceforth, you are to remain here. I want you to be where I can see you,” Keith ordered.

Rashel froze, then moved toward the kitchen without protest.

“Wait,” Keith said.

Keith’s voice stopped her.

“Give me your phone,” Keith ordered.

She reluctantly handed it over. Fear was plain in her face now. Not guilt exactly. Fear. The kind that came from being near too much

and not knowing how much suspicion might splash onto you by accident.

“It isn’t personal, Rashel, but you have seen and heard too much,” Keith said.

Keith dismissed her after that, but the point had already been made. No one was above caution anymore. Ethan hoped Keith’s

warning would be enough to keep the woman in line. Camila and Brad quietly headed off to her cabin, and Adam and Brian chose to follow them for safety. Dr James was given the second room upstairs.

Joseph decided he would sleep on the couch. Before that, though, he helped Ethan carry Meadow to their bedroom. He knew Ethan

would have wanted to do it himself. Of course he would. Joseph also knew Ethan would never ask Keith for that particular help if he

could avoid it. So Joseph simply stepped in without making a thing of it.

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Chapter 166

Ethan thanked him quietly. Joseph said nothing. He watched as Ethan tucked Meadow in and kissed her forehead before returning to the living room. The tenderness in it was almost painful because it sat against everything else happening tonight. Joseph noticed it, stored it, and still said nothing. Some things did not need commentary.

Keith then sent Rashel to sleep on the couch in his room so she would not be able to eavesdrop on whatever else they discussed.

“Won’t you go upstairs?” Ethän asked him.

Keith shook his head.

“We have to be careful. Rashel is new staff, so I do not trust her. I feel it is off that they suspected Camila was consulting for you and had gone to the hospital. Besides the kappa that drove her to the hospital, who has been working for us for years, no one knew of Camila’s movements. I plan to check her phone to ensure she is not a mole,” Keith explained.

Joseph did not think Rashel was shady. Not instinctively. But after what he had just seen and heard, he could not blame Keith for caution. Caution was survival now. So they stayed up. They spent the rest of the night discussing everything they knew and

everything that might be coming.

Joseph told Ethan about Malcolm too. About the takeover. About the anonymous Alpha forcing signatures and stripping a man of his pack while leaving him alive enough to feel the humiliation of it. Ethan felt terrible for Malcolm, and Joseph could see his mind

turning toward Whitewood almost immediately.

It meant they had to be on guard. That much was clear now in a way it had not been even a few hours earlier. Joseph told Ethan he was handling it and that Ethan need not worry. But Ethan was not comfortable with that. Joseph saw it plainly. His brother hated being excluded from anything concerning the pack. Hated helplessness. Hated having danger move around his people while he

stayed still.

Still, there was very little he could do. And Ethan knew it. That knowledge sat in the room with them until morning started pressing

faintly at the edges of the dark.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna