Reclaiming My Broken Luna by Selene Souchon

Chapter 301: Weight of Betrayal Astrid's POV

Damien didn't have to say a word for Vanessa to understand everything. She could feel the uneasiness of his wolf through the mate bond.

They had been together for years, and Vanessa could easily read him like an open book.

The truth was out, hanging heavily in the air between them, but it was the betrayal that made her heart break.

Tears that Vanessa had been trying so desperately to hold back finally fell freely from her eyes. Her voice trembled, but there was no mistaking the anger behind it.

"How could you do this to me?!" she yelled, her voice shaking with fury and pain. "You deceived me, Damien! You played me for a fool! Why didn't you tell me the truth? Why didn't you tell me that Giselle was the mother of your child?"

The crowd stood frozen in shock, the weight of the revelations suffocating the room.

People exchanged glances, wide-eyed and speechless, not knowing how to process everything they had just learned.

No one had expected to hear such devastating secrets today.

I felt the heaviness in my own chest as I looked at Vanessa. I couldn't even begin to imagine the depth of her pain.

She had always hated Giselle, loathed her with every fiber of her being. And now, to find out that the child she had loved and cared for, the one she treated as her own, was the daughter of the woman she

had with her own husband - was a betrayal beyond comprehension. Damien and Giselle had made her look like a

creeping in. This wasn't how I wanted things to

be humiliated like this, especially

pride.

the worst moment of her life was unraveling before

with remorse. "Vanessa," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "I'm so sorry... I never wanted this.

from him, her eyes filled with betrayal. "Don't

get to apologize now, Damien. Not after

her words. The pain in her

bear. "I didn't have a choice," he said, his voice breaking. "I didn't

"No choice? You always had a choice, Damien. We've been together for years, you had all the chances to tell me the truth, but you never did. If you had told me the truth, I

as he absorbed the weight of Vanessa's words. Her pain, her betrayal-it was all his doing. His

eyes pleading with her to understand,

If I could go back, I would

a tentative step toward her, his heart aching as he watched her retreat further, the distance between them

was overcome

destroy everything. I thought I was protecting us... but I see now I that all I was doing was

fleeting moment, but her expression remained guarded, the pain still lingering beneath the surface. "Then why did you help Giselle deceive