Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 252

Chapter 252

“May I speak freely, Alpha?” Agnes requested Ethan’s permission.

Ethan looked at her for a moment. He did not trust her. Not even a little. Everything about her arrival felt wrong, from the timing to the condition attached to her help. Still, she was the only donor standing in front of them, and his mother was lying unconscious on a hospital bed with time working against her. He had to listen, even if he already knew he might hate every word that came out of

her mouth.

“I will not take offence. Yes, you may,” Ethan replied assuringly.

Agnes swallowed. She took a deep breath and exhaled before she continued, as if she needed to gather years of bitterness from wherever she had stored them. Her eyes did not leave Ethan’s face, but Meadow knew the woman was speaking to more than him. She was speaking to the room. To Amber lying still on the bed. To Levi, who had not even arrived yet. To a past that clearly had not

released her.

“There are certain things money can’t buy, Alpha, and love and companionship are some of those things. You can pay people to stay with you, but they will never be companions like people that choose to be with you,” Agnes said.

Her voice had that rough, cracked quality that still did not match her face. It made the words sound harsher than they might have sounded from another woman. Ethan remained silent, his expression controlled.

“I have been silent for many years now, not because I wanted to, but because I was in a fight I could not win. I am a nobody. I am sure you know that by now, so I could be easily trampled on,” Agnes continued.

Meadow’s eyes narrowed slightly. She did not like the way Agnes said it, not because poverty or lower rank was something to mock, but because she could hear the bitterness turning itself into justification. Agnes was not only explaining herself. She was building a case. She wanted everyone to understand why she believed she had the right to demand Levi back like a debt.

“Levi was all I had. I loved him with all my heart. There was nothing he would ask of me that I wouldn’t have done for him. My love ran that deep,” Agnes said.

She paused, and something like pain flickered across her face. For one brief second, Meadow saw the younger woman Agnes must have been, poor, lonely, and clinging to Levi like he was the only safe thing in her world. Then the hardness returned.

“He was supposed to be my happy ending, but then Alpha Cain died, and he started spending time with his grieving widow and her sons. People warned me that she would entice him with money and power. She had it all to give, but I had nothing. I had nothing, Alpha. All I had to my name was a cottage my parents left me in Kentwood. It wasn’t much, but it was my home,” she said.

Ethan’s jaw tightened at the way Agnes spoke of his mother, but he did not interrupt. He had given her permission to speak freely. He would honour that, no matter how much the words scraped against him.

“People warned me, and even though I knew they were right, I trusted Levi’s intentions not to abandon me. Levi would often come and see me when he could. The visits started to reduce, and soon he stopped coming altogether. One day he showed up at my house

a claimed man,” Agnes said.

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Chapter 252

Her eyes watered then, but the tears did not soften her. They sharpened her.

“How do you think I felt when what was mine was taken from me? I do not know if Luna Amber knew of me, but she took the only thing that meant everything to me. She took Levi from me. Things were never the same after then. She had so much to give, and I had nothing. Now I have something, and I want my Levi back,” she said, spelling it out for Ethan.

Ethan shook his head, understanding her point and realising clearly that she was trying to force a union between herself and Levi. This was not only about love. It was revenge dressed up as justice. Agnes believed Amber had stolen her happiness, and now she wanted to take something back while making everyone bleed for it.

“How will you feel when you are with him, and he calls her name?” Ethan asked her.

Agnes looked at him, and the first crack appeared in her pride.

“How will your mind work when you remember being with you was an ultimate sacrifice on his part to keep the woman he loves

alive?” Ethan continued.

Tears streamed down Agnes’s cheeks because she knew what he was saying was right, but she held on to her bitterness like it was

the only thing keeping her upright.

“How will you feel knowing he loved her so much that he would return to you so she could live?” Ethan asked her.

The room went quiet.

Meadow looked at Agnes and saw the blow land. Not physically, but deep. Ethan had said the truth too cleanly for Agnes to twist it quickly. If Levi returned to her under those conditions, it would not be because he chose her. It would be because he chose Amber’s life over his own happiness. Agnes would have him in her home, perhaps even in her bed, but Amber would still sit between them

like a ghost who breathed.

“I will sleep well, Alpha,” Agnes said.

Her answer made Meadow’s stomach turn.

“I will be happy knowing I paid them back in their own coin. I will be glad they experience the same misery I did for these years,”

Agnes added.

Even though Ethan took offence, he could not act on it because he had given her permission to speak freely. But his eyes darkened, and the temperature of the room seemed to shift with his anger. Meadow felt it through the bond, the sharp rise of his temper, the way Echo stirred beneath it. Agnes was not only asking for Levi. She was deliberately trying to hurt Amber. She wanted Amber alive, yes, but miserable. She wanted the surgery to save her body and destroy her heart.

Ethan thought of how to counter the woman because he realised this was not a normal bargain. He also knew Amber would be furious if they gave her this woman’s liver. Amber would wake up to a life bought with humiliation, and she would hate every person who made that choice for her.

“How long will my mother survive in this condition?” Ethan linked Dr Rosenberg.

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Chapter 252

Dr Rosenberg automatically knew what Levi planned to do, and he could not blame the Alpha for asking. After listening to

everything Agnes had said, he knew Amber would curse all of them if they gave her the liver of her husband’s scornful ex without

her consent.

“Six months at best,” Dr Rosenberg linked back.

Ethan absorbed that quietly. Six months. It was not enough. It was frighteningly little when spoken plainly, yet it was time. Time to search. Time to fight. Time to find someone else. Ethan was planning to push their luck further and find another donor. He would

not hand his mother’s dignity to Agnes unless there was truly no other way.

Ethan was still contemplating what to do when Levi and Joseph walked in.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna