Chapter 3

Ava's POV

As I folded my clothes and laid them into the suitcase, I tried not to think about Jake on the other side of the ocean, running toward the woman who had always held his heart.

My phone vibrated with a text message: [The flight lands in London in six hours. Don't follow me.]

I didn't open it. I turned off my phone and kept packing.

After deciding to leave, I slept unusually soundly for the first time.

In my dream, I was no longer someone else's substitute.

There would be no melodramatic scene at the ceremony where someone stole my mate away.

Nor would I wake from a nightmare in terror because I had lost Jake.

At dawn, my phone vibrated.

Still half-asleep, I answered it and heard Sean's panicked voice:

"Luna, can you come to France? Alpha is trying to win Emily back by giving his life to her. I can't stop him. He slit his abdomen in a suicide attempt!"

I jolted fully awake.

Only then did I see that while I had been asleep, Sean had called more than a dozen times.

There was also a video of Jake's suicide attempt.

Their first meeting after such a long separation, after once loving each other so desperately, had actually become this bloody.

Watching the blood pour endlessly from Jake's abdomen in the video, I once again felt the fierce love he held for Emily.

"Sean, he's trying to win back the woman he loves in his own way. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to come."

But Sean hurriedly said:

"Luna, Alpha Jake is unconscious, and the only name he keeps calling is yours…"

Afraid I wouldn't believe him, he moved the phone closer to Jake's mouth.

"Ava… Ava, I'm in so much pain…"

My heart trembled, and before I knew it, tears were already streaming down my face.

After a long while, I wiped away my tears and still bought the earliest flight to Paris.

I stayed by Jake's side through one night after another, and three days later, he finally woke up.

The moment he saw that I was the one sitting by his bedside, he roared with all his strength, "Why is it you again?"

"Where's Emily? She promised me that as long as I survived after killing myself, she would complete the mate bond with me!"

That faint glimmer of hope struggling to rise inside me went out again. Without sparing him another glance, I turned and tried to leave the hospital room.

But he suddenly reached out and grabbed my sleeve. After hesitating several times, he finally said, "Ava, I heard everything from Sean about the past five years. Thank you… but what happened between us was a mistake. I will only ever love Emily. Ask for whatever you want, anything at all, except the position of Luna."

I said nothing. I only firmly pried his fingers off one by one and walked away without looking back.

If there had really been anything I wanted, I would never have stayed by his side for five years as an Omega servant.

Sadly, he understood nothing.

As I stepped into the elevator, I saw a familiar figure.

When our eyes met, her gaze swept from my bloodshot eyes down to the mismatched socks on my feet. Then she said lightly, "For the past five years, you've taken pretty good care of Alpha Jake."

"But what doesn't belong to you will never be yours, no matter how you try to steal it. His love for me has never changed, from beginning to end."

She deliberately dragged out her words. "Even though… in these past five years, I never once went back to see him."

I smiled faintly and said softly, "Then I wish you two a long and happy life together, and may you grow old side by side."

As we brushed past each other, Emily suddenly grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear, "Let me tell you the truth. Back then, my father's death was nothing more than an excuse for me to leave him."

"He did too many things he never should have done. If I had become his Luna, I would've had to deal with all the trouble he caused. Hitting him with my car was just a spur-of-the-moment thing anyway. He would never have blamed me."

"Who knew he'd be so unlucky? One hit, and he went blind and became crippled. Of course I had no choice but to leave him."

"But things are different now… his pack has grown stronger and stronger, he's rich and handsome, and even his eyesight has returned. I don't mind giving him another chance. After all, he loves me so much."

Emily looked at me sideways, her face full of smug satisfaction.

I should have remained unmoved. This was between the two of them.

But looking at that ugly expression on her face, hearing her belittle the man I had loved for so long like that, I still couldn't suppress the anger rising inside me.

Silently, I unclenched my tightly balled fist and slapped her hard across the face.

But before I could react, in the next second, a heavy silver-headed cane smashed down hard on the back of my hand.

A searing pain shot straight into my bones. My right wrist drooped at an unnatural angle. It was obviously broken.

"Ava! Who gave you the nerve to hit her? If this were before, you would've lost both your hands for that!"

"For the sake of the five years you spent taking care of me, kneel and apologize to Emily, then get out of my sight at once!"

I clutched my right hand, tears of sheer pain streaming down my face.

I didn't even have a free hand left to wipe them away.