The Return of the Fallen Luna: Rise of the Heiress-Chapter 13 A Choice That Made Sense, Until It Didn’t
She had offered them everything.
She had drafted business models, planned future ventures, and handed over opportunities, all without being asked, because she felt guilty. Because she believed she owed Maddison.
And all the while...
They were already using everything she gave them... while tearing her apart behind her back. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
A hollow, bitter realization settled in her chest.
How ironic.
She had been drowning in guilt this entire time, trying to make things right, trying to atone... while they were already conspiring to destroy her completely, leaving her no escape, no mercy, no way out.
A broken sound caught in her throat.
She wanted to laugh at herself, at her blindness, and at her foolishness, but the pain was too much.
It turned into tears instead.
And she knew... she knew that crying would only satisfy Maddison even more.
But she couldn’t stop.
Because it hurt.
It hurt knowing that she had bared her heart, given everything she had to make things work for everyone, only to be met with betrayal.
To think that they, that even Nathan, could be this cruel to her...
But why would Nathan go this far... for Maddison?
Why?
Hadn’t he said he loved her?
Or... had it all just been convenience? Interest? Something temporary he could afford to discard once it no longer served him?
Ashley could have accepted it; she would have accepted it if he had simply told her to leave. If he had looked her in the eye and said he couldn’t accept her background, that everything between them had only ever been about her value to his pack.
That... she could have endured.
But this?
This level of cruelty?
This was something she couldn’t understand.
Her chest tightened as the memories resurfaced, every gentle gesture, every restrained touch, every moment where he had acted like the perfect gentleman.
Back then, she had believed it was because he respected her... because she hadn’t yet reached adulthood, because he was waiting.
Now she knew better.
It wasn’t restraint.
It was distance.
Because when it came to Maddison... there was no hesitation. No control. No holding back.
And that realization shattered something inside her.
Because it meant one thing, and that is something she had been too blind to see before.
Nathan had never loved her the way he loved Maddison.
Not even close.
What he felt for her... wasn’t love.
It was tolerance.
Obligation.
Perhaps even a role he had accepted and seen her as someone who could become his Luna one day, because it benefited his pack.
A necessity.
But Maddison...
Maddison was different.
Maddison was the one he truly wanted.
And Ashley?
Ashley was just... the choice that made sense —
until she didn’t.
Thinking about it all felt like a bomb detonating in her chest, every realization, every betrayal crashing into her at once until she could barely breathe under the weight of it.
It was too much.
Far too much.
Ashley didn’t even know how she managed to leave the lakeside villa unnoticed. One moment she was there, drowning in everything she had just heard, and the next, she was running.
Maybe... it was because no one was paying attention.
Maybe Maddison’s loud, triumphant moans drowned out the quiet, broken sobs Ashley couldn’t hold back. Maybe no one cared enough to notice her slipping away.
Or maybe...
Maddison wanted her to run.
Wanted to see her reduced to that state.
To watch her flee in complete disarray, like a beaten dog with its tail tucked between its legs.
Ashley clenched her fists, her nails biting into her palms.
She couldn’t even deny it.
She must have looked pathetic.
Gone was the proud belle of the Black Mountain Pack. Gone was the capable, admired future Luna everyone once respected.
What remained... was nothing but a gullible omega.
A fool who had been deceived so thoroughly she hadn’t even realized she was being sold off piece by piece, and was still counting the profits for them while they sharpened the knife behind her back.
A hollow, bitter thought twisted in her mind.
They must have been laughing at her.
Every single one of them.
And if this humiliation spread, and surely it would, then to the other packs, to anyone who had ever known her... she would become nothing more than a pitiful joke.
Because the werewolf society was small. Tight-knit. News traveled fast, and reputations spread even faster.
Once her name was dragged through the mud, once her pride was shattered like this, there would be no place left for her.
Not here.
Not anywhere.
And with Nathan deliberately planning to spread it... he wasn’t just destroying her.
He was making sure she would never belong to any pack again.
Ashley ran as fast as she could into the back mountain, no longer caring about the branches that lashed against her skin or the thorny bushes that tore at her clothes.
She didn’t dodge them. She couldn’t even feel them.
All she knew... was that she had to run.
Far away.
Far away from the people she had called family for eighteen years... and from the man who had once promised to protect her, to love her until death parted them.
Promises that now felt like nothing more than convenient lies, and words that only held meaning when they benefited them.
But even as she ran, hollowness gnawed at her. Because where was she supposed to go?
Who did she even have left?
She had no home.
No place to return to.
No one is waiting for her.
That realization hit harder than anything else.
Her vision blurred, her steps faltered, and before she could react, her foot caught on a gnarled tree root hidden along the path.
Her body lurched forward, and she fell hard.
"Ugh—!" The impact knocked the breath out of her as her knee slammed against a jagged rock, the skin tearing open from the force. For a brief, horrifying second, she thought she might see bone beneath the blood.
A sharp, raw pain immediately flared. But even that... was nothing compared to what was tearing her apart inside.
Ashley lay there on her back, dirt clinging to her skin, her chest heaving as she stared blankly at the sky above.
And then... she broke.
A loud, unrestrained sob tore from her throat, her body shaking as everything she had been holding back came crashing down all at once.
She didn’t even know anymore.
Did it hurt because of the wound?
Or because of the truth she had just learned?
She couldn’t tell.
All she knew... was that it hurts. So much that she could barely breathe.
"Why...?" Ashley whispered between sobs as she stared up at the sky.
But even the sky was no longer clear to her, its blue swallowed by the blur of tears filling her eyes. By then, she had already run far enough from the road and the lakeside villa that no one would find her here. No one would hear her even if she cried her eyes out.
And maybe that was why she finally let herself break.
She cried hard, desperate to let out everything crushing her chest all at once.
