The Luna You Betrayed Is No Longer Yours

Chapter 32: Chapter 32 What the book revealed

_Author’s POV_

The Ashthorne Group’s account records went back forty years.

Rowena had been working through them in sections, starting with the most recent and moving backward, building a picture of what the family’s finances actually looked like versus what Alice had allowed everyone to see. Celeste’s lawyers were handling the forensic layer, the tracing of specific transfers, the mapping of recipient accounts, but Rowena had insisted on reading the raw records herself. She needed to understand the shape of it, not just the conclusions.

By the fourth day, the shape was becoming clear.

Seven shops. All of them Ashthorne-owned, all of them listed in the family’s commercial portfolio as standard tenanted properties generating modest rental income.

On paper, they were unremarkable, the kind of mid-tier retail spaces that filled out a diversified portfolio without drawing particular attention.

What drew Rowena’s attention was the management arrangements.

Each of the seven shops was overseen by a different manager, but when she traced the names backward through the employment records, a pattern emerged. Three of the managers shared a surname with Alice’s late husband’s family. Two others had addresses in the same district where Alice had grown up.

The seventh was registered to a company whose directorship, buried under two layers of holding structure, traced back to the man who had climbed out of Alice’s guest room window.

The income from all seven was being reported at roughly sixty percent of what comparable properties in the same areas were generating. The discrepancy was consistent and had been consistent for eleven years.

Rowena sat with that number for a long time.

Eleven years of sixty percent. The missing forty flowing somewhere else, through the management arrangements, untraceable at first glance but very traceable at second.

She photographed the relevant pages, sent them to Celeste’s lawyers with a note, and then sat back in her chair.

She rubbed her eyes and went to find Miriam.

She found her in the garden with Vicky.

Vicky had married into the family under difficult circumstances, there had been a period, years ago, when her branch of the family and Alice’s had been in open conflict over a property matter that was never fully resolved. She had reasons of her own to dislike Alice that she had never fully aired because no one had asked directly.

Rowena sat down between them in the garden and said, “I want to tell you both something.”

They listened attentively.

She laid out what she had found, not everything, but enough. The shops, the managers, the eleven-year pattern. Miriam’s expression moved steadily from attentive to tight-jawed. Vicky went very still in the way she did when something confirmed a suspicion she’d been carrying.

“I knew something was wrong,” Vicky said, when Rowena finished. “Three years ago. The property review. Alice pushed to remove two of the shops from the active portfolio and have them reclassified. I asked why and she said they were

underperforming.” A pause. “They’re both on your list.”

“I know,” Rowena said.

“I should have pushed harder,” Vicky said.

“You didn’t have what I have now,” Rowena said. “You had a feeling. I have records.” She looked at both of them. “I need a few more days to build this properly. In the meantime, come out with me. Both of you.” She kept her voice easy. “Spring, fresh air, somewhere that isn’t this office. It’ll do all three of us good.”

Miriam looked at her with the expression of someone who recognized a deliberate change of subject and was willing to accept it. “Where?”

“Kasper suggested a route north,” Rowena said. “He’s heading south today for something, but he’ll be back tomorrow.”

Kasper had, in fact, gone south.

He had a contact at the Greywood Pack, a pack enforcer named Dill who owed him two favors and had excellent information networks, and he had been planning to use that contact for the Alice investigation.

But the errand had shifted when he arrived at the Greywood Pack’s southern facility and found, instead of Dill, Former Luna Aria waiting in the reception area.

Aria was Alpha Pierre’s mother. Sixty-three, precisely dressed, with the composed authority of a woman who had been a Luna for thirty years and had never quite accepted that the title had passed on.

She recognized Kasper. He recognized her.

“Kasper Ashthorne,” she said, pleasantly. “I heard you were coming. Dill mentioned it.” She gestured to the seat across from her. “Sit down.”

He sat, because refusing to sit would have been more conspicuous.

“I understand your cousin has returned to the Ashthorne estate,” Aria said, folding her hands. “After the dissolution.” The word dissolution landed with a very specific weight, not cruel exactly, but pointed in a way that was designed to be felt.

“She has,” Kasper nodded.

“Such a difficult situation.” Aria’s voice was warm and completely without warmth. “Divorced so young. And the timing, just as Kaelen was bringing his new wife in. It must have been humiliating.” A small, sympathetic tilt of the head. “She was always an unlucky girl. Her whole family, gone, one after the other. And now this.” Another pause. “Some people carry that kind of misfortune with them wherever they go. It’s not their fault, of course. But it touches everything around them.”

The room went very quiet.

Kasper looked at Aria for a moment. Then he said, calmly and clearly, “I’d like you to finish that thought.”

Aria blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“You called my cousin unlucky,” he said. “You implied she carries misfortune. I’d like you to finish the thought completely so we both understand exactly what you mean.”

Aria’s composure stiffened slightly. “I meant no offense.....”

“You meant every word,” Kasper said. “You chose each one.” His voice was still level, he had learned a long time ago that raising his voice was less effective than going very quiet, but the quality of it had changed in a way that made the two staff members near the door exchange a glance. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

“Rowena Ashthorne held together a pack that was three months from collapse when she married into it. She managed their accounts, funded their operations, and kept their Alpha’s grandmother alive with her family’s medical endowment. She did all of that for three years without acknowledgment or support and she left with her dignity completely intact.” He looked at Aria directly. “If that’s your definition of unlucky, I’d like to know what you consider fortunate.”

Aria opened her mouth.

“And if I hear the phrase abandoned woman applied to my cousin again,” he continued, “in any context, by any person, I will make sure that the specifics of how Moonreign Pack survived its financial difficulties for three years become widely known in regional pack circles.” He kept his eyes on her. “Including which family’s money made it possible.”

The room was very quiet.

Aria sat with her hands folded and said nothing.

Kasper picked up his jacket. “Tell Dill I’ll reschedule.”

Then he walked out.