Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 201

Chapter 201

For a moment, Joseph almost cried again.

“I heard what happened with Dr Rosenberg,” Ethan said.

Joseph moved away from the glass because that anger returned quickly. He still suspected the doctor was dirty. The man might have

been helpful now, but that did not erase what Joseph had believed he had done. Ethan’s ruined spine. Seven stolen/years. A family

broken around one lie.

“He wasn’t lying, Joseph. Dr James left a letter confessing to everything and explaining why he did it. The man is innocent,” Ethan

said.

Joseph felt cold. It was as if the hallway tilted a little beneath him. He stood still, gripping the phone. Shame rose through him fast,

hot and choking. Dr Rosenberg was innocent. Dr James had confessed. Joseph had handled the doctor roughly. He had intimidated

him. Accused him. Disgraced him. All the while, the doctor had meant well. All the while, Rosenberg had served their family

faithfully and had still attended to Amber, Levi, and Ashley when he could have walked away insulted.

He was not a foe.

Joseph’s hands shook because he was ashamed. Truly ashamed. Not the kind of shame that came from losing face, but the deeper

kind that came when a man realised he had wounded someone who had not deserved it. He bowed his head, wondering why he had

learned it too late. He had been so sure. So angry. So ready to punish. And now the truth had arrived after his anger had already

done damage.

“How are Levi and Ashley?” Ethan asked Joseph.

Joseph sighed. He hated that he did not even have a proper answer. Everything had been swallowed by their mother’s condition.

“I haven’t checked on them, but I will,” Joseph said.

Then Ethan asked him the question he dreaded most,

“How is our mother?” Ethan asked.

Joseph looked back at the glass. His mother lay there, unmoving. The truth pressed against his throat like a hand. He contemplated

lying. He really did. He thought about telling Ethan she was stable, that she was resting, that he would explain properly when Ethan

returned. He thought about buying a few hours. He thought about protecting Ethan from a pain he could do nothing about from

that cabin.

But if Amber passed before Ethan returned, and Ethan later found out Joseph knew the truth and kept it from him, his brother

would never forgive him. Joseph knew that because he would not forgive Ethan either. Some truths were cruel, but stealing a man’s

chance to choose what to do with them was worse.

As much as he wanted to keep the truth from Ethan, he knew he could not. Ethan had the right to decide what he wanted to do with

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the information. It would be entirely up to him.

“Ethan, mother is in a coma,” Joseph said.

Silence.

Joseph closed his eyes.

Ethan was in shock. Joseph could feel it through the phone, through the sudden absence of breath, through the way the line seemed

to go dead without truly disconnecting.

“How badly was she injured?” Ethan asked, worried.

Joseph took a deep breath and exhaled. This was the part that would hurt worse. Because a coma from injury was one kind of fear A

coma from a hidden sickness was another kind of betrayal entirely.

“It isn’t the fight, Ethan. The injury she sustained from the fight only aggravated the issue,” Joseph said.

Ethan remained silent and did not interrupt him. That silence told Joseph his brother wanted him to say it all. No delays. No half-

truths. No circling around the pain. Just the truth.

“When we rushed mother here, she was bleeding and not healing. I thought they had poisoned the knives they used, but during my altercation with Dr Rosenberg, he confessed to me that her liver is failing,” Joseph blurted out.

On the other end, Ethan froze on the bed. Joseph knew he had to give him a minute. He knew that kind of news could not be swallowed whole. It had to tear its way down. Ethan was in shock and disbelief at what he had just heard. Joseph did not have to see his face to know. How could their young-looking and vibrant mother be dying? How could she even be sick? How could Amber, with her sharp tongue, proud chin, and endless control, have something inside her quietly failing while the rest of them carried on around her? Joseph had asked himself the same things over and over, and there had been no answer that did not hurt.

He imagined Ethan thinking of all the things that could have caused the sickness and finding nothing. Amber had not looked like someone dying. Not at first. Not in a way that forced anyone to stop and panic. But her recent behaviour started making sense now. Her need to make Willow replace her. Her obsession with grandchildren. All the things she had done lately. The push. The urgency. The strange softness hidden behind control. It began to play in Ethan’s head, Joseph knew it would, because it had already played in

his.

Ethan held himself from breaking. Joseph could hear his brother’s breath change. He was not alone. Meadow was beside him while he was making that call. Joseph was grateful for that, even through his own pain. Ethan needed someone beside him. On the bed, he held Meadow’s hand for strength because he could not find any within himself to keep from breaking. Joseph knew Ethan, His

brother would rather bleed than admit weakness, but this was their mother. No Alpha strength could make that easy.

Meadow could feel something was wrong, but she held her peace, waiting for the call to end before they talked. Joseph did not hear

her voice, but he imagined her there, quiet and steady, letting Ethan take what he needed.

“How long does she have?” Ethan finally asked.

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Chapter 201

Meadow figured out what had happened from that question. Until now, she had been the only one other than Levi who knew of Amber’s sickness. She must have realised that Ethan and Joseph had found out from their conversation, and Joseph knew her heart would break for her husband. Whatever had happened between Meadow and Amber, whatever pain existed there, Meadow was not cruel. And Ethan loved their mother even when she was impossible.

“I didn’t ask Dr Rosenberg,” Joseph confessed.

Ethan sighed.

“I am coming home,” Ethan said.

Joseph’s body went stiff at once.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna