Free Web NovelChapter 408: Chapter 408
Aria’s POV
The morning light came through the curtains in thin, pale strips, falling across Lana’s face where she slept curled against my side. I lay still for a moment, watching her breathe.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead, careful not to wake her, then slipped out of the bed and padded toward the bathroom. The Crescent Manor was quiet at this hour.
My wolf was alert even in the stillness, ears pricked, cataloguing every sound. The distant clatter of kitchen staff. The birds beginning their noise outside.
I ran the bath warm, not hot. Hot water was a luxury I had learned not to trust. Prison had taught me to expect cold. Now warmth always felt like something to be grateful for, even several months after I had walked out of those gates.
I bathed quickly and dressed up.
Then I woke Lana.
She stirred with a dramatic groan that made me bite down a smile.
"It’s morning, sweetheart" I said, lifting her. She was getting heavy. "And we’re going home."
That woke her up. Her eyes opened fully, bright and curious, scanning the unfamiliar ceiling. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
I bathed her in the en suite, wrestled her into her clothes while she cooed beautifully. I had just settled Lana on my hip and was reaching for the door handle when the knock came.
Three soft, deliberate taps.
I knew who it was before I opened it.
Jennifer stood in the hallway in a silk robe the colour of dove feathers, her silver hair pinned loosely, her eyes carrying the particular weight of a woman who had been awake for hours deciding what to say.
"Good morning, dear," she said softly.
"Good morning, Grandma Jennifer." My voice was warm. Whatever I felt about Nathan, I had never felt anything but sincerity toward this woman. "You’re up early."
"Old bones don’t sleep long." She looked at Lana and her whole face rearranged itself into something tender. "Good morning, my darling girl."
Lana buried her face against my neck shyly, then peeked out with a grin. Jennifer chuckled.
"Can we talk?" she asked, looking back at me. "Just for a moment."
I studied her face. The lines around her mouth and the careful steadiness in her eyes
"Of course," I said.
She stepped inside, closing the door softly behind her. I settled Lana on the bed with a quiet instruction to stay put, handing her a small toy from my bag. Then I turned to face Jennifer, standing near the window with my arms loose at my sides.
She did not waste time.
"Aria," she said, "I want to speak plainly. You deserve that much."
"I appreciate that."
"Nathan brought me here, to Asterfell." She held my gaze steadily, there was no apology in it, just truth. "He wanted me to talk to you. To try and convince you to give him another chance."
Something cold moved through my chest. Not surprise, not quite anger. Something quieter than both.
"I know," I said.
Her brows rose slightly.
"I guessed," I clarified. "The timing of your visit. The dinner. The questions during our walk yesterday." I tilted my head. "It was very clear what the purpose of your visit was, Grandma Jennifer."
She was quiet for a moment. Then she exhaled, a long, slow release of air, like a wolf settling after a long run.
"I came with the intention of persuading you," she admitted. "He is my grandson. I love him, even when he is foolish. Especially when he is foolish." She folded her hands in her lap. "But I sat with you last night. I watched you with Lana. And I thought — this woman does not need my permission to live her life. She has already built one."
The tightness in my chest changed into something softer.
"Then this morning," she continued, "I came to have a proper conversation with you. Not to persuade but to understand you."
I looked at Lana. She had already lost interest in the toy and was examining her own fingers with intense concentration.
"Ask me what you want to ask," I said.
Jennifer leaned forward slightly. "Tell me exactly why you do not want to get back with Nathan. Why did you tell me last night that you were done with him? I know he hurt you but I also know you used to love him so much. Tell me as one woman to another, what changed you?"
I told her everything
I told her about the morning the enforcers came to take me away. I told her how I had knelt on cold stone, I who had never begged for anything — and grabbed Nathan’s sleeve and looked up into his face and told him I was innocent.
I told her how his eyes looked. Like I was already a stranger. Like the bond between us meant less than the lies he chose to believe about me.
I told her about the silver ones. How they burned into skin and silenced your wolf until she went quiet inside you, and the silence was somehow worse than the pain, because your wolf was the only part of yourself that still believed you would survive.
I told her about Lana’s birth. My voice did not waver. I had learned, over a long time, to speak about it without wavering, but something about the way Jennifer’s face changed, going very still to very pale, made the memory press harder than usual against the walls I had built around it.
"I gave birth to my daughter on concrete floor," I said simply. "With no healer. No midwife. The guards did not come in. I delivered my daughter alone, in a cell, with nothing but my own hands and the sound of her first cry to tell me she was alive."
Jennifer made a sound. A small, broken sound, quickly swallowed.
"After that," I said, "I promised myself. Whatever happened. Whatever the world did or did not give me. I would never be that powerless again."
The room was very quiet.
Then Jennifer pressed both hands to her face, and for a long moment she sat like that. When she lowered them, her eyes were wet.
