Chapter 22
Faith’s Pov
I couldn’t breathe. Not because I lacked air, but because of my mother’s
angry looks and the silent blame she gave me. Her looks felt heavy, like they
were taking my breath away.
My chest hurt with a familiar, sharp pain. Her eyes were cold, like a frozen lake. They always reminded me of everything bad that happened between us
the last time we met. Each looked silently blamed me for things she thought
I’d done wrong in the past.
I knew people don’t change fast and things don’t change fast either. But a small, silly part of me hoped she had understood. Maybe my being away had made her feel a little bit. It was a silly hope. Her cold stare quickly killed it.
“Is there anything you want to say?” She asked. Her voice was cold and sharp. There was no warmth in it. She stared at me, and I knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted me to say sorry. She wanted me to apologize for all the bad things they had done to me, for the love they never gave me, because they didn’t care. She wanted me to say sorry for all their faults. She wanted me to beg for even a tiny bit of her love.
I almost laughed, a bitter laugh, but I stopped it.
“I don’t have anything to say to you,” I said.
I looked away on purpose. I would never let them make me feel unsure of myself again.
I stared at an old flower pattern on the wallpaper. Anywhere but her face, anywhere but seeing my own pain in her uncaring eyes. Saying those words felt like a small win, a weak shield against her big wave of disapproval.
Just then, the living room door didn’t just open. It crashed open, hitting the
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wall hard.
Alice rushed in, full of anger. Her face was bright red, like a ripe tomato. Her hair was messy, and her eyes burned with fierce anger. She didn’t even look at Mother. Her eyes shot straight to me, sharp, blaming, and full of hate.
I felt sick again. I wish I didn’t have to see her. I wished I could just disappear
into the floor.
All I could see when I looked at her was Astor and her together, hugging, cheating. That picture was stuck in my mind forever.
“You!” She spat out the word with hate. Her wild anger seemed to shake the air. “You did this, didn’t you? You told Astor to get rid of me! You’re jealous, Faith, you always are! Jealous that the pack liked me more, jealous that I was finally fitting in!”
She puffed out her chest with angry self–pity. Her voice got louder and louder. “Jealous that people always looked at me, not you! This is all your fault, isn’t it? Getting me kicked out of the Eternal Night Pack!”
I gasped, a small sound caught in my throat. Her accusations were so shocking, they felt like a punch.
Jealous? Yes, I have to admit, a part of me was jealous. Jealous of how easily she got people to like her. Jealous of the relationship she had with
Astor.
But for her to stand there, angry and blaming me after what she did, after she broke all my trust… it was just her own twisted, sneaky nature showing, my anger had been a slow fire, now it burst into open.
“Kicked out?” I repeated. The word tasted bad in my mouth, like old metal. “Alice, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And even if I did, why would I care about your… pack standing?”
I stopped myself from saying the truth: “because you slept with my mate
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The words were right on my tongue, a silent scream. It felt useless to even say it. She had already won in the cruelest way possible.
Truthfully, I didn’t know why Astor suddenly sent her away. After they cheated on me, I havd given the freedom to do what they wanted and I stopped caring. Or at least, I tried to believe that.
Mother had been watching quietly, looking almost happy. She finally moved. She stepped between us. She always protected Alice, and she instantly formed a shield around her again.
“Faith, what is this silly talk? Your sister is clearly sad. What have you done this time?” Her voice showed she already thought I was guilty, like she always did, blaming me for everything.
“I didn’t do anything,” I whispered. Her words suddenly hurt me, and my voice got stuck.
I knew she wouldn’t believe me. Nothing I said was ever good enough. But her openly choosing Alice, leaving me standing there completely alone, felt like a fresh cut, a new heartbreak.
“We were fine before you came here, and nothing has been the same,” Alice said again. Her voice was cruel, meant to hurt me more.
Those bad words, those exact words, didn’t scare or hurt me as much as before. She had said them so many times that I almost believed them. They were a constant, ugly thought in my mind. I had learned to live with them, to not feel their pain. Or so I thought.
My eyes moved, not because I wanted them to, but pulled by a painful, invisible string, to Alice’s neck. Around her neck was a thin silver chain. On the chain were small, pretty moonstones. Each one glowed with a soft, magical blue light from inside.
I gasped, my breath catching. The world seemed to shrink to just that one
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terrible sight.
They were my moonstones.
Astor gave them to me for our first month at Eternal Park. I believed they were like a promise of our future, a sign of new love and commitment. At
least, that’s what I thought.
My first gift from him, worn close to my heart. A sign of a love I now knew
was a lie, a terrible trick.
Then, my eyes moved down to her wrist. Under her nice shirt sleeve, I saw the bracelet. It was a silver bracelet with tiny, detailed wolves howling. Their
small shapes looked like they were silently crying.
Astor had given that to me too, for my birthday. He said they showed how strong our connection was, like two wolves running together.
The strong wall I had worked so hard to build inside me, the one that kept me together through the awful betrayal, through my constant anger, through my parents‘ endless putting me down, that wall broke down completely.
These weren’t just any old pieces of jewelry. These were my jewelry. My memories. My special symbols, now disrespected. My pain, worn easily around her neck and wrist, like prizes from a fight. As if she had every right to
them, as if they were never mine.
I swallowed hard. My mouth tasted bitter, like ashes and pain. My voice, when I finally spoke, was a quiet whisper. It was thick with a sudden, huge anger inside me, an anger that felt like it would burn everything. My eyes, staring at the shiny stones and silver wolves, burned into her with a raw, hurt
anger.
“Alice,” I said, her name feeling sharp and painful in my throat. “Where… where did you get those?”
