Chapter 121

Kayla

The emails were damning.

I hadn’t expected Noah to find something like this when he had snooped in Gray’s office. Perhaps a cryptic letter or journal entry, but this… Every word, every line, was a confession of guilt. Gray had orchestrated it all—the silverbite to put Noah in a coma, paying the hospital director to ensure that the drug didn’t show up in Noah’s blood tests, and finally, the idea to use Anna’s pregnancy against Nicholas, including faking paternity tests.

It was all there, laid bare in black and white.

We had the evidence. We had the power to bring him down.

But as I stood there in the study, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Somehow, it wasn’t the guilty emails that were getting to me; it was the last one.

Luporath.

Of course, I knew that Gray was involved in Grace’s imprisonment. The whole guild likely knew. But he seemed so… certain that the so-called ‘relic’ was out there. If it did exist, then why did he want it so badly? And more importantly, what lengths would he go to in order to ensure that, like he said, he’d be the first to find it?

“We should leak them,” Jade said, breaking the silence. “Publicly. Anonymously. Let the world see what Gray’s been up to.”

Marcus nodded and glanced up at Nicholas. “It’s the only way to force the guild’s hand. They’ll have to make him resign to save face.”

I looked over at Nicholas, who was now standing by the window, his arms folded and his expression unreadable. He hadn’t said much since we’d gathered in the study, but I could feel the tension radiating off of him.

He was angry—angry at Gray, angry at the guild, angry at the whole damn situation.

But it wasn’t just anger I saw in his eyes. It was something deeper, something darker. A flicker of guilt, maybe, or regret.

“Kayla?” Jade’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “What do you think?”

I hesitated, my gaze flicking back to the screen. The emails were right there, ready to be sent out into the world. One click, and Gray’s empire would come crashing down.

But then I thought of Anna.

I had a feeling that she was just a pawn in all of this, a desperate woman caught in Gray’s web. She had a baby to care for. If we leaked the emails, she would be caught in the crossfire. Her name would be dragged through the mud, her reputation destroyed.

If people were already throwing rocks at her simply because they thought she was in the way of my relationship with Nicholas, then what would happen to her—to her baby—once this came out?

I couldn’t do that to her.

“Wait,” I said. Everyone turned to look at me. I took a deep breath, steadying myself. “We can’t leak the emails. Not yet.”

Nicholas frowned. “Why not? This is our chance to take Gray down.”

“Because of Anna,” I replied quickly. “If we leak the emails before she has a chance to get somewhere safe, I worry what the guild—or the public, for that matter—might do to her.”

Jade’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you care what happens to her? She’s guilty like the rest of them.”

I glanced at Nicholas again, and this time, he met my gaze. There was a flicker of understanding in his eyes, a silent acknowledgment. That was all I needed.

“We have to talk to her,” I said simply. “Wait until we do that to leak the emails.”

Everyone else fell silent, turning to Nicholas for support. He hesitated for a moment, passing his hand over his face, then finally nodded. “Kayla is right. Let’s leak the emails tomorrow instead.”

The next day, Anna arrived at the estate.

She looked as gorgeous as always as she stepped out of the car, her baby cradled in her arms. Her dark hair was pulled back into a loose braid, and her eyes were fixed on her child. She adjusted the small bundle before she made her way up the steps, where Nicholas and I were already waiting.

“Anna. Thank you for coming,” Nicholas said, widening the door for her. “We need to talk.”

We led her to the study, where we sat her down with a cup of tea and a friendly smile. Nicholas and I had discussed how to best go about this, and we decided on the subtle approach. Although, Marcus covertly stationed himself outside the study door once it was shut, just in case she tried to run.

Anna hesitated, though, when Nicholas and I took our seats across from her. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Why did you call me here?”

“We have something to show you,” Nicholas replied.

He gestured to the computer, and Anna’s eyes widened as she saw the emails about the paternity tests and using Anna against Nicholas on the screen. Guilt, fear, and confusion flickered through her gaze, and she tightened her grip on her baby.

“What is this?” she whispered, her voice trembling.

“I think you know, Anna,” I said softly.

Anna’s hands shook as she clutched the baby tighter. “I… I don’t…” She looked around wildly, as if searching for an exit.

Slowly, Nicholas withdrew the paternity test—the actual one, performed by Marcus’s friend—from his pocket and placed it on the desk.

“I’m not the father, Anna,” Nicholas said, as if any of us needed more proof at this point. “There’s no point in pretending anymore.”

Anna stared at the test in stunned silence, her mouth hanging open. The baby began to fuss, and she bounced him in her arms, although her face had gone pale. All the while, Nicholas and I remained calm, quiet.

Finally, Anna swallowed hard and said, “I was just desperate, you know. I-I’m sorry.”

There it was. I stepped forward. She flinched, but didn’t draw away as I placed a hand on her shoulder. “We know, Anna. And we’re not here to judge you. We’re here to help.”

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with distrust. “Why would you help me?”

“Because you’re not the enemy,” I said softly. “Gray found you when you were vulnerable. He used you for his own gain. What did he promise you? Money? Stability?”

“Yes. Money. I… I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice breaking as she hung her head, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just… I didn’t know what else to do. I don’t know who the father is, and the guildsman promised to write me a big check if I helped him break you two up. He said my baby would be cared for.”

I glanced at Nicholas, who gave me a subtle nod. That was the confession—no, the cooperation—that we needed.

But Nicholas didn’t know about my next move.

“Well, I have a better offer for you,” I said.

Both Nicholas and Anna looked up at me with surprise.

“There’s a car waiting for you outside,” I said. “It will take you to my pack, Bluemoon. There, you’ll have a place to stay, a job helping out around the house, and a small wage to support yourself and your baby. You’ll be safe there, away from Gray and the guild.”

I took a deep breath and went on, “But you’ll have to pledge yourself to Bluemoon, and thus pledge yourself to me. There have been multiple attempted coups in Bluemoon as of late, so I expect you to spread the word, tell the others about the good things I’ve done for you. That’s how you can repay us for this.”

Anna blinked up at me. “You… you’d really do that for me?”

“Yes. Because if I were in your position, I’d feel desperate, too. But there are other options, Anna. If only you had come to us instead of accepting Gray’s offer—if only you had told us what he was planning as soon as he propositioned you—you could have been protected already.”

Anna’s tears spilled over, and she nodded, staring down at her lap. “I… I’ll do it. Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you. And I’m sorry. For not telling you sooner, I mean. For living in your house, taking advantage of your courtesy, and—”

“That’s enough, Anna,” Nicholas said, firmly but gently. He stood, gesturing to the door. “The car is waiting, like Kayla said. The best thing you can do now is get in it and never look back.”

Anna nodded, rising. Nicholas and I escorted her to the front door once more, where the car was idling in the driveway. As we watched her being driven away to Bluemoon, Nicholas stepped up beside me, his hands in his pockets.

“That was a selfless thing you did,” he said, shooting me a sidelong glance.

I shrugged, my gaze fixed on the retreating car. “It was the right thing to do.”

“You’re a pretty amazing Luna, you know that?”

I felt a warmth spread through my chest at his words, but I turned and waved a hand, heading back inside. “If I were in her position, I would feel desperate, too,” I said.

I hesitated at the threshold, biting my lip, then said softly, “I hope to be the type of Luna who reminds people that they don’t need to be desperate, so long as they ask for help.”