The True Luna's Forbidden Temptation - Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Analise.
I wake to the steady beep of a machine.
It’s faint at first, as though I’m underwater. My eyelids feel impossibly heavy, reluctant to open, as if they’ve been sealed shut with glue. Every part of my body aches with fatigue. My throat burns. My limbs are weightless and stiff at the same time.
Then the smell hits me.
Antiseptic. Sharp and sterile. The kind of smell that clings to you even after you leave. I recognize it immediately.
‘I think I’m in a hospital. Damn it! What happened to me?’
But underneath the hospital scent, I smell something else.
A trace of mint. Musky, earthy, familiar. The scent stirs something inside me—something that doesn’t belong in a hospital. It tugs at the edge of a memory I can’t quite place.
I try to swallow, but my throat is dry and raw, as if I’ve been screaming in my sleep. I part my lips to speak, but all I manage is a raspy croak. My heart begins to race, the beeping monitor quickening with it.
‘What am I doing here?’
I blink until the ceiling above me sharpens into focus—smooth white panels, soft recessed lighting. Not the usual bland hospital tiles. No water-stained fluorescents or flickering bulbs. No mechanical hums or plastic curtains. This room is different. High-end. Opulent.
My head throbs with a dull ache, each pulse matching my heartbeat.
That scent again.
Not perfume. Not cologne. More primal than that. Clean and unfiltered. And it triggers something, a long buried memory.
I shift slightly. My muscles protest, stiff and sore. But I push through it, sitting up inch by inch. The room stretches out around me, and I gasp. No, this is not a hospital room, but a freaking luxury suite. Floor-to-ceiling windows reveal a sweeping downtown skyline glazed in sunlight. Plush navy armchairs sit beside a marble coffee table. The art on the walls is modern, abstract—nothing like what you'd find in a standard facility. Every surface gleams. Even the air feels expensive.
This isn’t normal.
This is the VIP of all VIPs. I should know because I used to live a life of luxury once. This is the life I was born into. The life I left behind the day my father cut me off. My mother’s hospital room before she died looked a lot like this.
This is something Tyler and I could never afford. Even now when TL Glam has become successful, Tyler would still not go for something as posh as this. Not even for me.
I glance down. An IV line snakes into my arm, the clear fluid dripping slowly. My skin looks pale against the starched white sheets.
Then, like a flash of lightning splitting the sky, a memory returns.
I was standing on the sidewalk outside Luxe Emerald. Staring up at the LED screen. Lorraine’s face illuminated in dazzling color, her expression calm and triumphant.
The headline burned into my mind: “Lorraine McGregor Appointed CEO of Luxe Emerald.”
My chest tightens. My breath catches.
My mother’s company.
My inheritance.
Stolen.
Another memory strikes—my father’s voice, cold and gravelly across his mahogany desk: “I’ve given you plenty of chances. As long as you insist on being stubborn, your place in this family will continue to disappear. Piece by piece.”
The company my mother built—used like a carrot on a stick. All I had to do was give Tyler up.
Tyler.
My heart stutters. My hand flies to my stomach.
He doesn’t know I’m here. He doesn’t know about the baby.
Our baby.
Panic shoots through me like ice in my veins. I had only confirmed it days ago. I hadn’t had the chance to tell him. Everything had spiraled so quickly.
‘How long have I been out?’
The last clear moment: the sidewalk swaying under my feet, the world tilting like a seesaw. The heat, the shock, the betrayal. And then—nothing.
The door opens quietly. A nurse enters, her shoes making no sound against the polished floor. She freezes for a moment when she sees me.
“Oh!” she gasps, then quickly recovers. “You’re awake. That’s great news.”
Her voice is warm, reassuring. Her eyes scan the monitors as she steps closer.
“How are you feeling, Ms. McGregor?”
‘Ms. McGregor?’
The name echoes in my ears.
“Confused,” I say, my voice still hoarse. “What happened to me?”
“You collapsed outside the Luxe Emerald flagship store. We suspect it was from emotional stress, but the doctors ran full diagnostics to be safe. You’re stable now.”
“Stable.” I nod slowly, absorbing it.
“How long have I been here?”
“Roughly sixteen hours. You actually woke up briefly last night, but you drifted off again quickly. Your husband was very worried.”
My heart leaps. “My... husband?”
She smiles. “I assumed. The gentleman who brought you in didn’t leave your side until we stabilized you. He arranged this suite as well.”
It has to be Tyler. Who else could it be?
But then a pinprick of doubt forms. Tyler didn’t know I was going to Luxe Emerald. We hadn’t spoken since the argument. Could he have just happened to be there?
“Where is he now?” I ask.
“He left a few hours ago. Said he had urgent business but wanted to make sure you were in excellent hands. He seemed very devoted.”
A warmth spreads through me at the thought. Maybe he found out about the baby. Maybe this is his way of stepping up. Of making things right.
But something doesn’t add up.
The nurse called me ‘Ms. McGregor’. Tyler never even knew that name. As far as he’s concerned, my last name is Lander. I’d buried McGregor long ago.
“Thank you,” I say quietly.
She gives a polite nod and exits the room.
I turn and spot my phone charging on the side table. I fumble with it, fingers still stiff, and hit Tyler’s name.
Voicemail.
"Tyler, it’s me. I’m awake. I’m okay. Please come by when you can. We need to talk."
I hang up, a strange silence settling over the room. That scent is still here, lingering faintly in the air.
Where have I smelled it before?
The door opens again. A new figure enters—a woman, older, with silver hair pulled back neatly. She wears a white coat and glasses perched low on her nose.
“Ms. McGregor, I’m Dr. Chen. I’m glad to see you’re awake.”
“Thank you,” I say. “I’m still trying to make sense of everything.”
She sits beside the bed with a clipboard in hand.
“When was your last proper meal?”
I think back. Yesterday, I cooked. But I didn’t eat. Tyler mentioned—what seems to be another woman’s name. How can I eat after that? Then today, I found out that Pia has been appointed VP of my department. Again, how can I eat after that?
“Umm… I’m not sure,” I respond.
She studies me. “That’s not safe. Especially in your condition.”
I place a hand on my stomach.
“So you know about the pregnancy?”
“We do. You’re approximately eight weeks along, yes?”
I nod.
“Healthy for now. But your blood pressure was dangerously low. You were severely dehydrated and malnourished. That’s part of why you collapsed.”
A flicker of guilt surfaces. “I didn’t mean to neglect myself. It’s just been… a lot.”
“I understand,” she says gently. “We’ll monitor you for another day, then send you home with detailed care instructions.”
I nod again, but my mind is still spinning.
“Dr. Chen… why did you call me Ms. McGregor?”
She tilts her head. “Isn’t that your name?”
“Not legally. My IDs and insurance are all under Analise Walters.”
She pauses.
“We didn’t check your insurance. The man who brought you in paid everything upfront. In cash. He filled out your intake forms—and he wrote your name as Analise McGregor.”
My stomach drops.
It wasn’t Tyler.
Tyler wouldn’t know to call me that.
I force myself to ask. “So it wasn’t my husband?”
Dr. Chen shakes her head. “No. I called him your husband at first. He corrected me—politely, but firmly. Very well-dressed, very composed. And judging with how quickly he got this suite, he’s clearly well-connected.”
My heart pounds harder. “Did he say who he was?”
She nods slowly. “He said he was your… stepbrother.”
My mouth goes dry. “My what?”
She checks her notes. “Your records were signed off by a Mr. Blackwood.”
The name crashes into me like a tidal wave.
Sebastian.
I freeze. My lungs seize. My body goes completely still.
Sebastian Blackwood.
My stepbrother.
My secret hero.
The boy who once protected me from every monster in my life—including his mother and sister. The boy who disappeared without a word ten years ago, leaving a hole nothing could ever fill.
And now… he’s here?
Dr. Chen’s voice fades to the background, muffled and distant.
“Ms. McGregor? Are you alright?”
But I can’t answer her.
Because I am no longer just lying in a hospital bed.
I am fifteen again, sitting quietly beside Sebastian on the rooftop. I had a fight with my father that day, over Stephanie, my stepmother. It was one of those moments when my stepmother made life difficult for me, and my father took her side, and Lorraine is watching triumphantly on the side. I climbed the roof, didn’t care how dangerous it was. I thought nobody cared about me anyway. I wanted to drown out the whole world. Just then, I feel a presence behind me. He didn’t make a sound. He didn’t say a word. He just sat beside me. And for the first time, I felt like I wasn’t alone in my father’s massive mansion.
I am eighteen, watching him fight for me, lie for me, bleed for me. Some guy almost date raped me. He found out about it, and he beat the shit out of the guy. From then on, the guys in my school remembered not mess with me.
I am twenty, and I am standing in my balcony, hearing Sebastian say cryptic words. And then he kissed me—it was the most amazing, most electrifying kiss I’ve ever had. Knowing that it’s forbidden, because he was my stepbrother, made it exciting and terrifying at the same time.
The scent. Now, I remember. It’s the same scent I recognized in that restaurant many years ago.
Of course it’s him. Mint and musk and something wild underneath.
I close my eyes, trying to steady my breath.
Is he back?
And just like all these years, he showed up at the time I needed him the most.
Dr. Chen leans forward, and asks me again. “Ms. McGregor? Are you okay?”
I can’t answer. The room suddenly feels too small.
Because the past didn’t just catch up with me.
It opened the door and walked right back into my life.