The True Luna's Forbidden Temptation - Chapter 39: Chapter 39

Analise.
The silence is electric—charged and stinging.
All that’s audible is the slow, sick drip of Tyler’s blood onto the marble. It echoes.
"You’re insane," Vivian hisses, but the edge is gone from her voice. All that’s left is a tremor. "You made all this up because you couldn’t give him a child. Because you lost the only thing that ever made you special. So now you’re blaming him? Typical. Always the victim. Always the martyr."
"You know what’s funny, Vivian?" I tilt my head. "You’ve always called me a stray. Something Tyler dragged in like a wounded dog. But you never asked who I was before I started dating your son. Never once asked where I came from. You immediately assumed that I was beneath your status and that I didn’t deserve Tyler.”
Vivian stiffens. Her hand rises to her throat, like pearls might protect her from truth. For a flicker, she looks afraid.
Tanya sees it too. Her cool cracks.
Tyler finally looks at me—really looks—and there’s something like haunted recognition in his eyes. He knew this reckoning would come. He just didn’t know when.
"You think I’m trash?" I say softly. "That I crawled up from the gutter just to steal your son's name? I grew up in homes you couldn’t afford to clean. My father’s worth more than your entire bloodline combined. I walked away from it all—for love. For him." I point at Tyler, who flinches. "And all he ever wanted was someone to decorate his empty life."
Tanya scoffs. "Please. Without Tyler, you'd be nobody. Still baking cupcakes for spare change. He gave you everything. He elevated you."
I turn to Tyler, daring him to speak. "Is that what you told yourself? That you were saving me? That you were some white knight pulling me from obscurity?" I laugh—a jagged, hollow sound. "You were never a savior. You were a parasite in a polished suit."
He flinches. His jaw tightens. He doesn’t argue.
"You don’t have to do this," he murmurs finally. "You can leave. No one will stop you."
"Except you," I reply. "You never wanted me to leave. Not until I was drained dry."
A flash of anger lights his face—then fades. He knows it’s over. He just doesn’t know how to exist outside the lies.
"Don’t worry," I say. My voice is quiet, final. "I’ll go. But when I walk out that door, Tyler, I swear! You better smart up. Because I will do whatever I can to burn TL Glam to the ground!”
Vivian lets out a brittle laugh, all bravado and nerves. "You? Ruin Tyler’s company? Without his money, you’ll be forgotten in a week. You’ll be crawling back, begging for scraps."
I look her dead in the eye. She falters.
"You still don’t understand," I say. "Money never made me powerful. It made me patient. It made me quiet. But now? Now I’m done playing nice."
Tanya sneers. "You’ll regret this. You’ll never work in this industry again. We’ll blacklist you so hard, you’ll disappear."
"I hope you try," I whisper. "Because then I won’t have to hold back."
I turn to Tyler one last time. Blood has dried in angry streaks down his chin. For a second—just a second—I see the boy I once loved. Or tried to.
"Don’t worry. I’m only going to get a few of my things, and my legal documents. Then I’m going to leave this pathetic structure you like to call a house!”
I turn to go up the stairs. But then, Tyler calls out, his voice breaking. "Where will you go, Analise? You have no one. You have nothing? Do you think you will survive out there on your own? Without me?”
I whirl around to face him, pretending to look thoughtful for a moment. Then I say, "That’s where you’re wrong," I say. "Now, I finally have myself. Free from all of you, blood-sucking free riders!”
Then I spin on my heel to walk towards our bedroom. For the first time in years, I feels stronger than ever. Because now, I am walking out of this house, not broken, or scared. I’m walking out free!