The Luna Choosing Game by Jane Above Story

hapter 0583

Julian immediately took another step backwards, adding more space between him and me. We both nervously glanced at Nicholas who mostly seemed confused by his own reaction. He cut off his growl with a sharp grunt.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't worry," I replied.

"It's my fault," Julian said.

"No," Nicholas quickly corrected. "I don't know what came over me."

"I knew this game was a bad idea," Bridget says, rising from the couch. "I tried to warn everyone, but no one takes me seriously."

I distinctly remembered Bridget championing the idea for charades so much that she took to mostly organizing it herself. Now, suddenly, when something had gone wrong, she didn't want anything to do with the idea?

"We should definitely stop," Bridget continued, "I, for one, am out totally." She looked around at everyone, expecting them to agree.

Maybe she wasn't wrong in this instance. The joyful mood I had been attempting to cultivate seemed utterly at waste now, with only thick tension in the air.

Jessica worried her bottom lip. Veronica looked down at her lap. Julian apologized. Nicholas said, "I'm the one at fault."

Everything really did seem like it was falling apart.

Then Elva raised her head, looking up from her coloring books. She spotted the empty spot between Nicholas and Jessica on the couch.

"Can I be on Nick-lass's team?" she asked.

And just like that, the entire mood shifted. The tension broke and everything brightened. Jessica laughed. Veronica's lips twitched in an almost smile. Julian smiled outright. So did Nicholas.

"Of course you can," Nicholas said. He glanced at me. "If it's okay with your mom."

Elva turned her doe eyes on me. It would have been fine with me anyway, but having her look at me like that would have melted even my coldest moods.

"You can," I told her, and she cheered. Cóntent belongs to NovélDráma. Org

minute," Bridget said. She placed her hands on her hips. "This unbalances

eyes. "With Elva on my team, we now have four, compared to your team's three." "My team'

take your place," Nicholas

we were quitting the

child," Julian told her. "Just sit this one out without making a

of them, even Elva. I sidestepped into her line of sight, blocking her from seeing my child and looking at her that way. Elva was innocent in all

me.

pushed me off that boat was the moment she forfeited any right to my feelings. I should have stopped caring what she thought long ago. When she left me in that pit

her lack of empathy for a long time. It

Bridget eventually snapped. Then she turned at

she was gone, the fun began once

decided that Elva should go next, so she hopped to her feet and rushed to the bowl to pick out her word. I decided to stay with her, while Julian returned to his seat beside Veronica. Neither of them seemed to care that

by now, I think,

slip of paper with a word and looked

concept more than a thing. It would be a trickier word to try to act out. But Elva

of her team. I stood nearby, ready

"Timer!" she called.

counted down from three, then

hugged me. Tears welled in my eyes at once, but I blinked them back. I dropped down to one knee and

called. "Daughter?

me go. Turning, she rushed across the room to Nicholas, where she threw her

to catch Elva's hug. He

"Family," Nicholas said.

shook her

Nicholas considered.

Jessica asked, slightly taken

seemed to click within Nicholas.

"Home," he said.

I said. My heart hammered

leaned back. "You

Elva that I thought I might melt into a puddle right there in the living room. Elva