Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 209

Chapter 209

Joseph wondered what Levi’s gain was in all this. He had no children. He knew Amber’s health condition would not allow them to

have children even if they wanted to. He wondered what his sole purpose was. There was no way the Alpha did not have an end game, Joseph thought. Men like Levi did not exist without one. But he planned to keep his thoughts to himself. For now, Amber

needed him. If Levi’s devotion was real, then she needed that too. If it was not, time would expose him eventually.

Joseph did not go in. Instead, he went to check on Ashley.

She was awake.

Ashley was surprised to see Joseph at the hospital. He was also surprised she was awake because the doctor said she would need

longer than that to recover. Still, she was awake, sitting upright in her hospital bed and eating. She looked pale, but not weak

enough to be asleep. There was life in her eyes. Shame too, though she tried to hide it beneath a small smile.

“Joseph,” she said and then smiled at him.

He looked at her for a while before moving closer. He did not smile back. He did not rush to her side like a worried mate. He did not

ask frantic questions. He only studied her. Ashley seemed to shrink a little under his gaze, and that told him she already knew. Or at

least she suspected he did.

He pulled the chair in her room close to her bed and sat on it while he observed her. For a moment, neither of them spoke. The

silence was not empty. It was full of everything between them. The years. The lies. The intimacy. The ambition. The way she had

stood in battle when he needed distraction. The way she had lied about something no woman should ever lie about. It was all there,

ugly and tangled.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her.

Ashley smiled a sad smile. She knew he knew, and her game was up, but she wanted him to bring it up. Joseph could see it. She was waiting for the strike. Waiting for him to name the lie so she could respond to it. That annoyed him, but he held himself back. He

needed answers, not another scene.

“I feel better, but I still feel weak. The doctor said there was poison in the blade,” she said and then pointed at the medication they were administering to her through the IV.

“They said it will help my liver recover and fight off the poison,” she said.

Joseph nodded.

Then there was an awkward silence between them. He watched her fingers twist slightly against the bedsheet. Ashley was not as calm as she wanted to appear. Good. She should not be calm.

“Why did you join the fight? Why jump in?” he asked her.

Ashley smiled faintly, but it did not quite reach her eyes.

17

O III

1/2

Chapter 209

“I know if I said I wanted a piece of Cynthia, you would know there was more to it because I could always get a piece of her on my own. I aced my combat classes for my set, so it would have been easy,” she said.

Joseph nodded. That sounded like Ashley. Proud even from a hospital bed. And she was not wrong. She could fight. She had always been more capable than many gave her credit for.

“But that won’t really be why. They had surrounded you, and you needed them to be distracted and destabilised to engage again.

Luna Amber warned me not to join, but I am not one to listen, so I did,” she told him.

Comments

LIKE

Write Comments

<SHARE

WED

17

|||

O

く

2/2

Underwater: The Silent Luna