Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 286

Chapter 286

“Wel, I am sick and tired of being your puppet. Goddess knows you can still have children. You are just forty-six years old. Please

have another child because I am done with this shit. I will live my life however I want and please, and if I end up with an Omega

that I love, so be it. But not anymore, Mother. I won’t let you and Father direct my life anymore. As for Father, tell him I will come

for my stuff when I find a place,” Ashley said.

She turned to head out.

Maya was shocked by her daughter’s utterances. She did not know Ashley had so much bottled up inside her. It had never been her intention to make her daughter feel that way. She had only wanted Ashley to be successful and not end up in the kind of dull, loveless hell she believed she had fallen into. But somewhere along the line, wanting better for her daughter had turned into

pushing her into a life Ashley never truly wanted.

“Ashley,” Maya called out, getting up and heading to the door to stop her child from leaving.

Ashley kept walking.

“Ashley,” Maya called again.

Ashley turned to look at her mother.

Maya walked up to her and hugged her.

Ashley froze at first because she had not expected it. Then her body softened just a little, enough to feel the pain beneath the

anger.

“I love you, dear. I was just mad that you lost a good opportunity,” Maya said, breaking the hug.

Ashley swallowed and shook her head.

“Joseph did not love me, Mother. It was hard being in love alone. I couldn’t deal with it. The only way I could cope was to lie and tell tales. It made me happy. I was happy for the moment that people believed me, but I could only survive on lies for so long,”

Ashley said.

Maya looked at her quietly now.

“Now I want to do the things that I would normally do. I finished top of my set. It is time to put my skills to good use, Mother. I am

going to help rid our pack of those intruders,” Ashley said with determination.

Maya looked worried.

“That is dangerous, Ashley. Even Ethan and Joseph could not get rid of them,” Maya said.

Ashley shook her head.

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Chapter 286

“Joseph gave them the pack to save Amber, Levi, and me. We were down and injured, but Joseph, Adam, and Brian would have wiped

them out had we not fallen. This is me paying back that favour,” Ashley said.

Maya was surprised by what her daughter had told her. For the first time, she seemed to understand that Ashley was not running

from shame. She was running towards danger. Towards redemption. Towards the kind of courage Maya had not known was still

inside her.

“Take your father’s truck,” Maya said with firm determination to help her daughter.

Ashley blinked.

“But he will be mad,” Ashley argued.

Maya shook her head.

“I can endure his wrath. But there is no way my baby will be hitching rides to wherever she is going,” Maya said.

Ashley’s throat tightened.

Maya entered the house and brought Ashley the keys, money, and a credit card.

“I do not have much, but it is enough to pay for fuel and meals,” Maya said.

Ashley took the card, the money, and the keys from her mother, then hugged her. This time, the hug felt different. Not perfect. Not enough to erase the words that had been said. But it was something. A small bridge over a wide wound.

Not wanting her husband to return and stop her daughter from using the truck, Maya told Ashley to leave in a hurry.

Ashley got into the truck and drove away. As the house disappeared behind her, tears rolled down her cheeks because she knew her mother would suffer at her father’s hands for this. That made the keys in her hand feel heavier. Her mother had chosen her, even if late, even if imperfectly, and Ashley had to make sure that choice meant something.

She had to make sure she made her proud.

She would do everything possible to get Sebastien to lead her to his master and then give the evil bastard up to Joseph. Even if she

and Joseph did not get back together, she would rest knowing she had tried. And maybe, if the goddess was not completely done

with her, she would be given a second-chance mate one day.

Because with the massacre at the mansion, Ashley doubted the treacherous bastard with the woody scent had survived.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna