Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 283

Chapter 283

Ashley had sunk into depression after she left the clinic that day. It did not happen all at once. It came slowly, like cold water filling

a room while she kept pretending she could still breathe. At first, she told herself she was fine. She told herself she had survived

worse. She told herself Joseph breaking up with her was not the end of the world, and she would get over it because she always got

over things. But every time she said she was alright, it felt like lying to herself, and the lie became harder to carry.

She felt a hollowness inside her that only love and companionship could fill up. It was not even only Joseph anymore. It was the

loss of being wanted. The loss of the future she had lied, plotted, and fought so hard to keep. She had entered the relationship

seeking power, hoping to become Luna, hoping to wear a title that would make people look at her with envy instead of pity. Bu

somewhere between the lies, the forced closeness, the little moments where Joseph tried to do right by her even when his heart was

not fully in it, Ashley had fallen for the man.

That was the cruel part.

She had not meant to love him.

Power had been the goal. Position had been the dream. Luna had been the word her mother planted in her head so many times it became something Ashley thought she wanted for herself. But Joseph had become real to her. His seriousness. His irritation. His rare softness. The way he carried duty like a burden he had not chosen but would not drop. She had seen him, and somehow, she had

wanted more than the title. She had wanted him.

She hoped she was pregnant and got to keep him by all means. That thought had been ugly, and she knew it now, but back then, desperation had made it look like survival. A baby would have tied him to her. A baby would have made him stay. Maybe he would have learnt to love her properly. Maybe he would have stopped looking at her like he was trying to convince himself she was enough. Maybe she would have become the woman beside him, not because of lies, but because a child forced a new truth into their

lives.

Now the truth had come out, and there was nothing left to hold.

It was hard for her to go back to her parents’ house. She spent three days in a hotel gathering the courage to face her mother and father. The hotel room was small and cold in the way temporary places always felt cold. She stayed in bed for long hours, staring at the ceiling, thinking of Joseph and what he might be doing. Was he thinking of her at all? Was he relieved? Was he angry? Was he with Ethan, planning how to take back Whitewood? Every thought broke her heart again when she remembered it was over.

After crying for two days and watching the flowers a stranger had sent to her die, she finally braced herself and headed home. The flowers had looked so beautiful when they arrived. Fresh. Kind. Almost hopeful. Then one by one, they began to wilt in the corner of

the room, and Ashley felt like she was watching herself. Something pretty once, something hopeful once, now dying slowly because

it had been cut from where it belonged.

Ashley did not get the welcome she expected. Her father nearly denied her entrance, his face hard with shame and disgust as if she

was a stranger who had come to beg at his gate. Ashley pleaded with them to let her stay for six months so she could get a job and

get a small place. She hated pleading. She hated the way her voice shook. She hated the way her father looked at her like she had

become rubbish because Joseph had discarded her. But she had nowhere else to go.

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Chapter 283

Going back home was a big mistake.

Ashley’s parents were not kind to her, and it made her heart ache even more. She had thought home would at least give her space to

lick her wounds. Instead, it became another place where she was reminded of everything she had lost. Her father’s words were

sharp. Her mother’s disappointment was quieter but somehow worse. Time passed, and Ashley experienced her pain in slow motion.

Ashamed to go out and afraid to stay indoors. She was a mess.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna