Reclaiming My Broken Luna by Selene Souchon

Chapter 399: Tough Love

Astrid's POV

The world outside my dreams pulledback slowly, the haze of sleep clinging toas | stirred awake.

Something was missing, though. | reached out instinctively to the empty space beside me, my fingers brushing

against the cool sheets where Killian should have been.

| blinked, still disoriented, as | pushed myself up. The room was dim, the soft glow of moonlight streaming

through the windows.

My eyes adjusted slowly, and then | saw him-Killian, standing on the terrace just outside, his broad back turned

to me.

His posture was rigid, his hands gripping the railing as though it were the only thing keeping him grounded.

Yawning, | stretched, rolling my shoulders to shake off the remnants of sleep.

The cool air hitas | stepped onto the terrace and | instantly wrapped my arms around myself.

"Killian," I called softly, my voice still hoarse from sleep. He didn't turn, didn't acknowledgeat first.

His head hung low, the tension radiating from him unmistakable.

| closed the distance between us, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "What's wrong?" | asked, my worry spilling

into my voice.

Killian finally turned to look at me. He forced a smile on his face, that looked quite broken. "What are you doing

here? You should go back and sleep," he muttered, faking a smile to pushaway.

"I can't sleep. I'm not used to sleeping beside an empty space," | muttered as | touched the railing and stood

beside him.

"What's wrong?" | asked directly into his eyes, leaving him no room for avoiding

me.

He didn't respond immediately. The silence stretched between us, broken only by the faint rustle of leaves in the

wind.

Finally, he let out a shaky breath, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the railing tighter.

"I can't stop thinking about her," he said, his voice raw, almost unrecognizable.

"Your mother?" | asked gently, already knowing the answer.

He nodded, his shoulders trembling slightly. "She's gone, Astrid. She's... gone." His voice cracked, and my chest

tightened at the sound.

| placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at him softly, reminding him that he doesn't need to be strong beside

me.

He turned tosuddenly, and the sight of his tear-streaked face stole the breath from my lungs.

Killian, the man who had always been my rock, my unshakable anchor, looked utterly broken.

“I should have—" His voice broke again, and he turned away, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I

should have fixed things with her. | should have

"Killian," I murmured, stepping closer.

He shook his head, cuttingoff. "I hated her for so long, Astrid. | held onto every mistake she ever made,

every hurt she ever caused. And

now now she's gone, and ICan't fix it."

en

| swallowed hard, knowing exactly how he is feeling right now.

| also went through that spain when my father died. Like him, | was so

caught up with my own hatred, refusing to forgive, wasting all the chances I had to just enjoy twith my

father.

The raw pain in his voice made my heart ache. | reached out, wrapping my arms around him from behind, resting

my cheek against his broad back.

He stiffened at first, but then he turned, burying his face in my shoulder. His strong arms clung totightly, as

though letting go would break him entirely.

"I was so angry," he whispered, his voice muffled against my neck. "So angry at her for everything she'd done

+didn't see her for who she was | didn't give her a chance to make things right."

Tears wet my shoulder as his sobs grew louder, the weight of his grief crashing over him like a tidal wave.

"I always saw her as a villain," he choked out. "Every decision she made... | thought it was selfish, calculated. But

what if... what if | was wrong?"

"You weren't entirely wrong," | said softly, stroking his hair as he cried. "But you weren't entirely right either Still,

none of it were your fault. She made mistakes, Killian, but she also made a choice in the end. She chose to save

us. To save you."

He pulled back slightly, just enough to look into my eyes. His golden gaze was bloodshot, his face streaked with

tears.

I" : :

She wanted to reconcile with me,

sq g o q q

Astrid," he said, his voice ean

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"You didn't know," | said gently, cupping his face in my hands. "You couldn't have known."

Unlike my father, Rowena took a completely different approach to get close to Killian.

Instead of asking for forgiveness like my father did and directly trying her best to make it up to her son, Rowena

used tough love until the end.

She played us into thinking that she was doing that all because of her schemes when in truth, she was actually

doing those things for her son.

If we had known, if she hadn't played things that way we wouldn't have treated her like a threat and a traitor.

I" :

Rowena knows you were hurt. But in

the end, she made a choice. thai

showed oy ach $ré loved you.

T ounts for something, doesn't

ei a q

it?" | mumbled to his The content is

on novelenglish.net! Read the latest

chapter there!

ear.

Killian nodded slowly, his breath

hitching as he tried to regain gpntrol.

I" | ; I"

It (lacey pakeitiedclel he

alniitted, his voice barely above a

whisper. The content is on

novelenglish.net! Read the latest

chapter there!

"No," | agreed, my voice soft. "It doesn't. But you don't have to carry all of this alone. I'm here. Always."

He pulledinto another embrace, his face pressed against my neck as his tears soaked into my skin.

We stood there in silence, the moonlight casting its pale glow over us as Killian shed the tears he had kept buried

for too long.

For the first tin a long while, | felt his walls cdown completely. And though

it broke my heart to see him like this, | held him tighter, hoping he could feel how deeply he was loved.