Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 168

Chapter 168

The moment she saw him, her body relaxed. That, more than the tears, said everything.

“Joseph,” Ashley said.

She stood up as she said his name, soft and hopeful and trembling at once, as if his return itself had already solved something for

her. He looked at her and felt absolutely nothing gentler than resolve. He did not ask why she was crying. He did not ask what she

had been thinking all night. He did not care enough to make the conversation longer than it needed to be.

“I need you to pack your things and go home. The wedding is off,” Joseph told her.

He said it plainly. No build-up. No drawn-out speech. No room for misunderstanding. Ashley stared at him in complete shock. For a

second she looked like she had not understood the words. Then the meaning hit, and it broke across her face all at once. Confusion.

Hurt. Panic. A kind of disbelief that seemed to shake her harder than all the tears she had already shed. She did not know what to

do with herself.

“Please, Joseph, don’t do this,” Ashley pleaded.

Her voice cracked on the plea. She looked almost offended by the abruptness of it, as though she expected he would at least explain

it kindly, soften it, let her down carefully. Joseph did not understand why she was being so dramatic. Maybe that was unfair. Maybe

any woman in her position would cry. But after the night he had had, after all the actual dangers moving around them, Ashley’s

tears over a consequence she had walked into herself felt small and aggravating.

“I am serious, Ashley,” Joseph said.

He kept his tone flat because flatness was clearer than anger. Ashley seemed to go still after that, but Joseph could see her mind

racing. It showed in her eyes. In the way she suddenly looked less wounded and more afraid. He knew that look. She was trying to

make sense of the break fast enough to survive it. In her head, Cynthia had probably already entered the explanation. Cynthia had

poisoned her mind so completely that Ashley likely believed the woman had made good on her threats. Why else would Joseph stay

away all night, return in the morning, and end things without discussion? Ashley’s imagination, mixed with her insecurities, had

already done the rest.

And then she said it.

“Cynthia does not care about you, Joseph. It is Ethan she wants. Don’t let her do this to us. She is only with you to get at me. Do

not let her win, please,” Ashley pleaded.

Joseph actually felt genuine shock at that. For a second he forgot his tiredness. Forgot the weight of the night. Forgot even how

angry he already was with Ashley. Because the nonsense she had just woven in her head was so absurd it caught him completely off

guard.

“What are you talking about?” Joseph asked.

Ashley paused, then wiped at her tears and tried to gather herself. Joseph watched the shift happen in real time. She was

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Chapter 168

sed this composing. Deciding. Building another approach. He knew enough about people to see when panic turned strategic. She needed this moment badly, and somewhere in her head she had decided that if she played it right, she could beat Cynthia at her own game and

save herself at the same time.

“She is a bad person, Joseph. She threatened to take you from me if I didn’t help her get back with Ethan. She wanted information from me, and I refused. I only connected with her because she was my mentor at the academy,” Ashley said.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna