The Day Our Promise Breaks

Chapter 625

This was her ace in the hole.

With the child in her grasp, Charles could only belong to her. And as for Evelyn- there would be nothing left but pain.

Charlie glanced back at Luna, wide-eyed and uncertain, her gaze searching for reassurance. Luna fixed her with a pointed look, silent but commanding, and Charlie, after a long, shaky pause, slowly lifted her tiny arm. It hovered, awkward and trembling, not quite brave enough to reach its mark.

Without missing a beat, Luna placed both hands over Charlie's. Guiding her with a touch that seemed gentle but was anything but, she helped Charlie's little arms wrap stiffly around Charles's neck.

The hug wasn't Charlie's at all—it was Luna, orchestrating the whole thing through her, turning the embrace into a cold, calculated performance.

Right then, Charles's entire being was wrapped up in his daughter; he didn't register Luna's presence, didn't even care that she was there.

"Aurora, call him Daddy," Luna whispered right against Charlie's ear, her voice low and hypnotic, almost like a spell.

Under the weight of Luna's expectation, Charlie's small frame trembled. At last, pressed to the edge, she squeezed out a voice so faint it was barely a breath, thick with fear:

"Da...ddy..."

Bang.

every emotion he'd buried for years -despair, agony, guilt, and now, a tidal

hold back. Tears burned in his eyes, blurring everything until the world was nothing but shapes and light. His throat closed up, and from

"Ah-!"

he pulled her tight, desperate, holding her like he'd never let go. Hot tears slid down his face,

shook, overwhelmed. This was too good to be real-better than any dream, more

and blood. His life. Alive, in his arms, calling him

her eyes lowered, lashes casting long shadows that hid the icy satisfaction in her gaze. She watched their tangled shadows on the

daughter is in my

You'll never beat me.

...

tense. She wasn't used to being held by anyone but

Luna was everything-her mother, her world, her only

that "Daddy"-they were just tasks, orders to

...