Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 155

Her worry got heavier with every step. She did want to be Luna by all means. That much was true. She wanted the position, the

security, the status, the life attached to Joseph and the McCloud name. She wanted to belong on that side of things, not be left

outside like some foolish girl who reached too high and lost everything. But at this rate, with Cynthia growing more dangerous and

Joseph growing more suspicious, Ashley could end up with nothing at all.

And there was another part of it that frightened her even more.

There was no way Cynthia would be kind if she became Luna.

Ashley knew women like that. Women who remembered slights and repaid them slowly. Women who smiled while keeping score. I Cynthia rose, Ashley would suffer. There would be no mercy in it. No gratitude. No generosity for past help. Cynthia would use her

and then step on her on the way up.

Walking toward her room, Ashley felt hopeless and helpless in equal measure. The full ugliness of her situation was beginning to settle properly now. She had played in something she did not understand. And now the options in front of her all looked bad.

Bit by bit, another thought forced itself into place.

She had no choice but to give Cynthia the information she wanted if she wanted to keep her away from Joseph.

The thought sickened her, but it kept coming back. Because her deepest fear, deeper even than Cynthia herself, was losing Joseph. Losing the life attached to him. Losing the comfort. Losing the money. Losing the place she had fought so hard to carve out for herself in that house. Ashley did not want to admit how much of her desperation came down to that, but honesty was ugly sometimes. She did not want to return to being poor and living with her middle-class family, watching other people enjoy the kind of life she had briefly tasted. Joseph had spoiled her silly, and she knew it. He had made her comfortable in ways she had started treating like normal. Nice things. Good rooms. A different class of life. Attention. Access. Hope.

The diner she had gone to with Cynthia that afternoon had made the contrast painfully clear. It was not just the place itself. It was what it represented. A step down. A glimpse of what life looked like when she was no longer attached to Joseph’s world. She could not handle it. She did not want to handle it. She did not want to go backwards.

Tears rose then, and Ashley wiped them away angrily before they could fall properly.

By the time she reached Joseph’s room, she had convinced herself of nothing useful. Only that she was trapped and tired and

scared.

She opened the door.

Joseph was not around.

Something about that disappointed her, though she could not have said exactly what she had hoped for. Maybe only his presence.

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Chapter 155

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Maybe the comfort of being near the source of the life she was terrified of losing. Maybe the chance to look at him and remind herself of what she was fighting to keep. Whatever it was, his absence left the room feeling colder.

So Ashley showered.

Then she went to bed.

Elsewhere in the house, in the Alpha’s office, Joseph was still working.

He had been trying to reach Alpha Malcolm of Ceenas because a feeling had been pressing at him all day. Restlessness. Suspicion. The kind that did not allow a man to sleep easily. Malcolm’s number had refused to go through for hours, and that only made Joseph more uneasy. He had intended to call it a night and leave the matter till morning, but something in him insisted on trying one more time.

This time the call rang.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna