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Chapter 27: "I have an empty garden."
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 28: "All that's happening here is bigger than you."
Something goofy in my heart makes me shake my head and bite my lower lip as I pack the little things I have into a small bag.The same small bag I came here with.I can remember when I was unloading the contents of this bag, I had been filled with an undeniable sense of sadness. I tried to hide it then. Tried to power through it.Now I'm packing the bag again, and I can't deny, I don't feel so bad. Not as bad as I thought I would feel when I was packing up again.He… He said he has a garden. An empty garden.Somehow the thought of that has my stomach clenching and uncertain feelings running through my heart, because Caelum could have chosen to be a dick. Pardon the unseemingly word.But I am right. He could have chosen to hold the knowledge of what had happened last night over my head, knowledge I do not have and cannot have as long as I don't remember.Yet he didn’t do that.Instead, he tried to lure me…. Is trying to lure me, with the promise of an empty garden.~Well look who’s sm
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 29: "I'm sorry for being so rude."
Sophia’s pov.“What does she mean by all that’s happening is bigger than me?”Caelum’s friend keeps his eyes on the road and doesn’t deem it fit to give me an answer. That only angers me, and in true Sophia fashion I turn away from him with only one thought in mind, I’ll find out for myself.Except I quickly realize I can't and that being dogheaded might lead to me wasting my time, so I decide not to.I still have to deal with the fallout of Ulric’s social media post, because I won't delude myself into thinking the whole mass of social media users are all pleased at seeing my photos on the internet.Even if the response was all good as Alora… and Caelum said, it’s all just a matter of time. I’m sure something will pop up.“If you won’t tell me what Alora means, can you at least tell me why Caleum’s face is blurred in every photo that was taken of us last night?”Caleum’s friend… no, Sebastien, his name is Sebastien. Sebastien turns to look at me this time and I evaluate the look he g
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 30: "You're my mate."
Caelum’s pov."Does she know you are her husband's brother?"Sebastien asks me this question five times before I glower at him and he slinks off with a smile on his face. Of course, she knows I'm her husband's brother. She found that out days ago.What she doesn't know is my aim or vendetta against her husband, and for the next twenty-four hours, I monitor Sophia Highrise like a hawk as she slinks around my house and tries to figure out what she can.She's resourceful, I'll give her that.In barely twelve hours she's managed to befriend all the household help, from the adoring maids to the flirting donkey I have as a gardener. She wins them over in a way I can't fathom, so in twelve hours, Sophia has what she needs to gain knowledge about me, and it's barely been a day since she's been here.I let her.I let her befriend the help. I let her flash the gardener a smile. I suspect she knows they've seen the pictures so they have multiple opinions about her already, but she catches th
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 31: "Excuse me?"
Sophia's pov.Caelum.... confuses me.I don't know what to think of him or his statements. I walk down the stairs to the main living room and I turn thoughts around in my head.What do I know so far?Nothing. Barely anything. I saw the opportunity to test Caelum's level of supervision in his house, and as I suspected, he saw everything and he heard everything. He sees everything and he hears everything. He saw me speaking to his help, he saw me speaking to the gardener. Everyone who I came into contact with yesterday has been shuffled out and some have been…No worries. At least now I know I need to be careful and watchful about everything. From my random words, to my acts of investigation, down to every last actionCaelum Maximoff sees everything, and he's wary of some things being revealed."You know you can ask me anything you want to know. You're my mate."Caelum's words ring in my ears one more time and I try to throw them away again, but I don't think I can. I felt someth
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 32: "Is this how you behave with all your in-laws?"
Alora and I make our way to the breakfast table almost awkwardly and I can feel her shaking beside me. My ears twitch at every shudder that goes through her.Almost instinctively I reach for her hand, and I am glad when she takes it.Despite the relative calmness of the surroundings when I stepped in, I realise there’s actually a number of things going on.There’s a large tattooed man in the kitchen at the far end of the large room. That is where all the cooking takes place, I guess Caelum Maximoff likes to watch his food being prepared even if it’s from a distance, AND of course the large tatted man is bald too, he’s probably some celebrity chef.We get to the dining table, and though I can feel Alora’s hesitation, I still drag her with me. We could choose to sit at the far end of the table, away from all of them, but I'd like to know what’s going on here, and who the mystery person is.I take the seat after the free seat closest to Caelum.He sits at the head of the table, while th
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 33: "Master Maximoff has ordered you to wear this."
“You have a lot of people in your house.”Breakfast went by fast. Alora was silent throughout and Sebastien got up the moment he was done with his. He declared he had some important work to attend to at the bar and left.Kellen took one more look at me, a long cursory look, and he stood, bowing, before bidding us a good day and being escorted out by one of the guards Caleum has lurking around.Alora excused herself shortly after and now, it’s just us.Me and my brother-in-law. Caelum’s response is basically a growl.“I reserve the right to have as many people in my house as I want.”My stubborn as hell, and daft as an ass, brother-in-law.“I’ll admit they’re very interesting characters.”The line of his jaw protrudes.“I like interesting people, Sophia.”I can hear the jab he hopes to throw at me there but I ignore it. I am plenty interesting, he just doesn’t know it yet, and he seems to have all his feathers in a ruffle this morning. Is it because I act like I don't need him while
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 34: "Noted."
Caleum’s pov.My heart hammers a strange beat in my chest as I look at Sophia through the dark lens of the car’s windows. They’re all tinted, so they cast her in a muted light, yet she manages to shine despite it.She stands there like she isn’t aware I am the one who has asked her to get changed into that dress like she doesn’t know I am waiting for her right now.We wait each other out, and finally, I relent because I know I've been a jerk.I wind the window down, only to be assaulted by the full force of her. She’s let her hair down.She looks resplendent. This color suits her better.Sophia puts on an affected look. Like she’s just realizing the car which has been waiting for her all this while is mine, and that I am the one who’s in the car.It’s a game, and she’s won this round.I catch a whiff of her scent as she opens the door and gets in, and just to antagonize me further she casts a mildly aggrieved look at me before she looks away, “A proper gentleman would have come out
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 35: "It's been so long."
“If anyone says you looked like a hooker in those pictures, don’t listen to them.” Caelum’s words replay in my mind like a bad track and I fume silently as I stomp my way into the conference. This is all my fault.If I had checked up on where Ulric was headed then I wouldn’t have been caught unawares by this, and I wouldn’t have found myself being told to ignore the fact that I looked like a hooker in some photos,Because that’s what he meant right? That is what he meant.I did look like a hooker in those pictures, I knew it, and he tried to convince me otherwise, yet he just proved me undeniably right by what he said today. I did and he also thinks so/.The hubbub of activity and voices hits me head-on as I burst into the main hall and I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I can’t appear disorientated in front of all these people. If anything, I'm guessing they’re already hoping to catch me at my worst, I can't let that happen.I take a calculated step into the light throng
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Kellen isn’t in the room anymore when I enter so I go out into the garden to look for him. I can already see the presence of him in my mind, can already feel the residue he left there, and once again I meet him lying on the bench and staring at the clouds overhead. It’s almost noon now so the sky is a patchwork of colors, a gentle artist’s creation as he drags his paintbrush across the canvas. I ask in a deadpan tone, “Am I to assume you left that nagging at the back of my mind so I could find you or were you waiting for someone already?” I ask because, from the look on his face, I get the feeling that he already knew I would be making my way down here. His response is sullen, “Who would the blind grown male possibly be waiting for?” Again, he sounds moody, and this time I do not let it bother me as much as it would have this afternoon because I have something bothering me too. Something he’s caused to bother me, and which he’s now responsible for explaining. “What did you mean b
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 94: Stop it!
Sophia’s pov.For some reason, Caelum is concerned about the smear campaign going on about me online, and it takes me a moment to come to terms with it.Because it isn’t so bad to me. It’s Violet making her first move and that’s okay. She can’t hurt me directly anymore. The only thing she can do is hold onto Ulric and do his bidding, and I am way past the point where I consider that to be something valuable, or where I consider it to be something she’s taken from me.Right now, I feel nothing about it.I want to feel sorry for her, and I do, but not enough to care. She can fund a million more articles calling me every name imaginable, I wouldn't bat an eyelid to any of them.Yet Caelum though….“I’ll get it pulled down first.”His voice sounds calm and resigned as he begins, “Then block every other avenue they will have to put more out there.”That sounds like a simple statement. It sounds like an exceedingly simple statement, except I know how much it would take to get half the new
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 93: "We need to make this go away."
Caelum’s pov.I watch the look on Sophia’s face.I watch how it morphs and changes from a look of blank neutrality, to one of light worry, and then back to her blank neutrality.The emotions her’s elicits in me are cool and calm for now, but I can feel the annoyance the worry she feels brings out in me. I can feel myself waiting for her to just show me an inkling of how much this hurts her, and give me the excuse to do what I've wanted to do for a while now.Murder my half-brother with my bare hands.“I can see Violet’s handiwork all over this.”Sophia’s response isn’t the one I’d been hoping for, and I chuckle internally at that while I feel a smile line my lips, because trust her to always surprise me. I ask more silently, like we’re the only people in the room,“Do you want to see what the public response is?”She saddles closer to me and nods, and suddenly I want to do nothing more than have her in my arms, her laps straddling me, my hands on her hips, and my mouth on hers, bringi
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 92: "You're very good for him, Sophia."
Everyone goes back in when they’re dirty and soiled enough, and soon it’s only me and my garden. I’d always wanted to grow a garden. I just didn’t have the chance to really do that in Ulric’s mansion, but now that I can, I want to do it here.I’m halfway through rearranging and reconstructing the mounds of soil my little gardeners did when I feel a presence at the entrance to the backyard.I dart my eyes over to see who it is, because it’s not Caelum, I'd have felt it if it was him, and I'm right.It isn’t him.It’s Sebastian instead.I really can’t help the memory flash that comes, and I let it because he’s essentially the first person I knew from this world.He was the bartender who saw me at my worst. Who saw me smiling through alcohol and pain, who saw me whistling along to the sound of my favorite band coming from the speakers in the bar, and who I blatantly told I wouldn't stop drinking, not even if he forced me.I haven’t gone near another bottle of alcohol since then, and that
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 91: "Your mate doesn't define who you are."
Alora is snickering by the side of the wall and Ophelia is drawing with a light smile on her face, while I watch Dimitri… wreck the gardening mounds as he heaves and throws and just…“You could always ask him to stop y’know.”Kellen’s voice floats over from the bench he’s lain on, back against the stone, eyes to the skies, and voice oddly unfeeling as he makes that comment,He sounds calm, and he’s right, I could always ask Dimitri to stop, But so far, he’s the only one who’s offered to help me and he doesn’t seem to care that the others are saying he’s terrible at it, he’s doing what he’s doing regardless.I really want to ask him who taught him how to garden, but then I remember where they both were just a few days ago, and I keep my mouth shut.If Dimitri wants to ruin my garden to process his emotions, then he can. I’ll do my best to salvage what I can later.He seems really interested in actually doing the gardening, he’s doggedly adamant about planting the seeds, and playing wit
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 90: "Gardening."
Caelum chuckles, and it’s a laughing kind of chuckle because I enjoy it. I hear his laughter, I hear the sound of it and I enjoy its raspy timbre. I enjoy how he sounds like he just can’t believe his ears. And I enjoy how his eyes seem to gleam a bit, whether with remorse or happiness - I don't know - as he asks, “How is my reason for killing more noble than yours?”Caelum asks a simple question, but it strikes me as hard because I would have to be honest with him on this, and I don't think I have been honest with anyone about this in a long time now.I don’t think anyone really cared to know, so I've never told them. Not Violet, or Ulric, or any of the people I considered family.I feel comfortable when I tell Caelum, “My reason for killing him was anger.”Something primal gleams behind Caelum’s eyes and I suddenly feel so small when he places his gaze on me.Like he could swallow me up with the intensity of that gaze, and I'd let him. Light goosebumps trail up my skin as I clear my
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 89: "Your reason was more noble than mine."
I do not ask Caelum for permission to go out anymore.My mind has already brought up another way of getting what I need to do, done, and though it wouldn’t be the most conventional way, I still accept it as a way because it is… and asking for permission to go out, would mean I’d have to go out if he agrees, and i don’t want to because that would entail me leaving his side,And I don't want to.I realized it as soon as Caelum started speaking to me and I started seeing him smile from some of the responses I gave him. His voice is filled with light wonder as he peers down at me from where he’s seated and asks,“You’re really the daughter of an Alpha?”I nod, not feeling offended at the fact that he’s making that statement, or that he seems to find the need to ask that question. Not many people know I am the daughter of an Alpha, but it seems like an important thing for my mate to know, and he did say he wanted to understand me.To understand me, he has to understand my background, and h
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 88: "No."
“You know half the city is looking for you right now, right?”I only catch a sliver of Sebastien’s statement before I leave the room, yet I can already tell what he’s speaking about, who he’s speaking of, and what the implications of his words are. A short thrill of fear shoots up my spine because though Caelum acts all cool and composed, I can tell what the implications of that video will be now that we’ve decided to keep it up.Caelum showed off weapons with the ability to level the greatest mansion in the history of the past ten years, along with that, he killed the aged leaders of a prestigious pack. No one would believe that would have happened if you told them, yet it did, and all the world will care to know is that those weapons are still in his care and they should not be.They’ll try to attack Caelum from all sides. They’ll try to come at him with lawsuits for lack of a license to handle such weapons, try to label him a national enemy, of course, the real consequences of Ca
Luna Sophia's Retribution Chapter 87: "You just have to say the word."
Caelum’s face is scrunched in a light frown when he watches the video, but I notice there’s nothing foul about the frown.He looks conflicted, like he’s trying to decide on something and he can’t, so he’s keeping quiet about it. Mulling over it again and again in his thoughts.I feel a surge of worry and concern go through me and I speak without thinking about it any longer, “If you’re worried about the weapons and your identity, I'm sure we can find a way to get the video pulled down.I can.I can find a way to help with that. This video is only up because you came to save me, and I don't want that to affect you.” I realize how sappy I sound and some rebellious spirit in me lets out a barf sound, nope, it’s Alora. I shoot her a glare, and she looks away as she chuckles, but I feel Caelum’s gaze accurately on me. I feel the intensity of it, the moment it alights on me, and I feel the emotion that courses through it, his gaze bathes me in a subtle heat, like sunlight.And through it,
