Chapter 636

The garden lights slipped through the heavy curtains, cutting harsh shadows across Luna’s face.
She was like a viper lying in wait beneath the rocks, silent and deadly, her eyes fixed on the taillights of Charles’s car as they split the night in two, carrying Evelyn away until both were swallowed by the darkness.
In those beautiful eyes, a storm of bitterness and resentment brewed, dark enough to devour everything in its path.
Tomorrow was the semi-final of the Sterling International Jewelry Competition.
Luna had planned this to perfection-dropping the bombshell that the kid was still alive right before the contest, just to watch Evelyn squirm. That woman she loathed with every fiber of her being.
All for this moment.
She wanted Evelyn’s heart thrown into turmoil, drowning her in guilt and pain until she couldn’t even hold a paintbrush steady.
Wasn’t Evelyn supposed to love that kid above all else?
The child’s fearful looks, the desperate cries—those were the sharpest knives, enough to tear apart whatever scraps of motherly love and resolve Evelyn had left, leaving her obsessed and frantic, incapable of thinking about anything but her child.
This was Luna’s game, and she’d played every card exactly right.
But damn it-
The cold glow of her phone lit up Luna’s twisted features, her fingers digging into the device.
Evelyn hadn’t cracked. She was still acting calm, still getting ready for the competition.
“No way,” Luna hissed, every word poisoned. She’d never let Evelyn have her chance.
She swiped her screen and dialed an encrypted number, her voice cold and sharp. “Target: Manhattan Grand Hotel, room 2808. Wait for my word.”
She paused, a cruel spark glittering in her eyes. “Go in and wreck that woman’s hand. Understand? Wreck it. Make sure she never touches a paintbrush again.”
Her order sent a silent hunt into motion.
Luna hung up, as calm as if she’d just handled some minor chore.
She turned and glided soundlessly down the hall to Charlie’s room.
Under the soft glow of the nightlight, the child looked peaceful in sleep.
Luna gazed down, her eyes empty of feeling.
She reached out, her fingers brushing Charlie’s temple in a slow, rhythmic motion, almost hypnotic.
Soon, Charlie’s small body started to twist and turn, caught in a tangle of bad dreams.
Little cries broke the silence, trembling with fear. “Daddy… Daddy…”
A satisfied smile curled on Luna’s lips-like a puppeteer pulling every string just right.
She picked up her phone and,
inton
à second thought, called et
her face instantly slipping look of frantic worry.
The shrill ring of the phone tore through the quiet of the study.
Charles
name glowing in the dark. His eyes turned cold, anger and suspicion swirling inside
namat the screen-Luna’s inside him.
He’d just hung up with Andrew, his heart still iced over from what he’d learned.
It was true.
There really were cases where, after
a heart
the ransplant, recipients took on
the donor’s personality,
emotions—even memories.
Luna….. she was carrying Dahlia’s heart inside her.
That explained everything-the relentless hatred, the twisted obsession with Eve.
It all made a cruel kind of sense.
Dahlia.
That woman’s venom just wouldn’t die, and now she was using Luna’s body for her own schemes.
He still didn’t know how much of Luna was left, or how much Dahlia’s heart had taken over.
But one thing was clear-Charlie couldn’t stay with Luna for another second. Maybe Luna still had enough control not to harm Charlie. But Dahlia?
That woman had lost all sense of humanity long ago. She wouldn’t show Charlie an ounce of mercy.
She’d already tried to destroy Charlie once. There was nothing she wouldn’t do.
This time, Charles swore he’d do whatever it took no one would ever hurt his Charlie or Eve again.