My Mom Had No Heart for Me Chapter 08

My Mom Had No Heart for Me Chapter 08

The door closed behind Ivy.

My mother stood alone in my room. Then her hand came up.

The first slap echoed off the walls.

‘It was me. Her palm cracked across her own cheek again. “I killed her.”

I gave the heart to someone who was faking.” Another blow. Her lip split.

‘I made my daughter wait five years.’ She kept hitting, harder each time. ‘I watched her get worse and told myself she could hold on.”

Her voice cracked.

‘I’m the best healer in this Pack. I’ve saved hundreds of lives. But my own daughter-I didn’t even try.”

‘Stop!”

My father burst in and grabbed her wrists.

‘Let go!” She struggled against him. “You’re just as guilty! You never stood up for her!

“Because you never let me!”

His shout shook the room.

“You were always too busy being the perfect Luna! Pack meetings, charity events, taking in strays-you had time for everything except your own daughter!”

“Every time I said we should spend more time with Briar, you said she was fine!”

“Every time I said she needed better care, you said we couldn’t play favorites!”

“Every time I said that heart should go to her first, you said Ivy was more urgent!”

He was shaking.

“I knew. I knew Briar needed it more. But I was too weak to fight you. I told myself you were the healer, you must be right.”

His voice broke.

‘I gambled my daughter’s life on ‘must be right.”

I floated above them, watching.

Memories surfaced. Ones I’d buried deep.

Eight years old. The Pack’s Young Wolf Festival. Every pup got to try partial shifting for the first time-claws, or glowing eyes-with their parents cheering

them on.

I wanted to go so badly.

“Mom, can I-

“Your heart isn’t stable enough.” She didn’t look up from her paperwork. “Maybe next year.”

Next year, she said the same thing.

The year after, I snuck to the training grounds anyway. Watched the other kids shift while their parents clapped and cried with pride.

Then I collapsed.

When Mom finally showed up, her first words were: “Why do you always have to cause problems?”

Another memory.

The day Ivy arrived. Seventeen. I’d just been diagnosed.

Mom read my report, patted my shoulder, said “You’re young, you’ll be fine, and left.

That night, a blood-soaked girl stumbled into Pack House.

Mom held her for hours. Stroked her hair. Whispered: “You’re safe now. This is your home.”

I stood in the hallway, watching.

That was everything I’d ever wanted to hear.

She never said it to me. Not once.

Time blurred.

Ivy moved out of Pack House the next morning. Garrett didn’t come to help.

Three days later, he filed to break their Mate Bond.

“The bond was arranged by the Luna. Now that the Luna no longer supports it, I’m ending it.”

Ivy knelt outside Pack House all night, begging.

No one opened the door.

When the bond snapped, she collapsed clutching her chest.

For normal wolves, a broken bond is just pain. It passes.

But her heart was transplanted. Still fragile.

No one knew where she went after that.

Somewhere far away, they said. A border town full of rogues.

A young woman with a failing heart.

She wouldn’t last long.

Three weeks after the funeral, Rowena brought visitors to Pack House.

A middle-aged woman. A teenage boy. A mother holding a small child.

“Luna.” The woman bowed deeply. “My name is Vera, I was diagnosed with kidney failure last year. I was running out of time.”

*Last week, I received a transplant.”

“Miss Briar saved my life.”

The boy stepped forward, voice shaking. I’m Jonah. My liver was failing. I’d been on the list for two years. They told me I probably wouldn’t make it.”

“But Miss Briar… she gave me…”

He couldn’t finish. Tears spilled down his face.

The mother came forward, eyes red. ‘My daughter was born blind. She’d never seen anything her whole life.

She stroked the child’s hair.

“Now she can see. Sunlight. Flowers. My face.”

“Because of Miss Briar.”

Three lives.

My ruined heart couldn’t save me. But everything else I had-I gave it away.

My mother stood frozen.

“We wanted to thank her in person,” Vera said. “But we were too late.”

“So we came to thank you. For letting her donate.”

My mother’s mouth opened. No sound came out.

Letting her donate?

What right did she have to be thanked?

She couldn’t even save her own child.

*Luna. The young mother stepped closer, holding out her daughter. “She wants to hug you. She said she wants to thank the nice sister’s mommy.””

The little girl looked up at my mother with clear, bright eyes.

My eyes.

My corneas.

My mother’s whole body trembled.

She reached out and took the child into her arms.

The girl tilted her head. ‘Luna, why are you crying?”

My mother’s tears fell.

‘Briar used to do that,’ she whispered. “When she was little. She’d tilt her head just like that and ask why I looked sad.”

“But I was always too busy. Always too busy.”

Her legs gave out. She sank to the ground, clutching the child, sobbing.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Over and over.

‘I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t save my own daughter.”

“But she still saved all of you. She was so much better than me.”

The little girl didn’t understand. She just patted my mother’s back with tiny hands.

“Don’t cry, Luna. She is watching from the sky.”

In the weeks that followed, seventeen Pack members filed to leave.

Rowena was the first.

She didn’t say much. Just handed in her resignation, packed her healing supplies, and walked out the front gate.

My mother didn’t try to stop her.

None of the others said why directly. But every application had the same line:

“Lost faith in Pack leadership.”

My mother didn’t try to stop anyone.

She just stood at the gates each time, watching them go.

A month later, the Luna from a neighboring Pack came to visit.

“Seraphina.” She sat down, expression complicated. “There’s been talk.”

“I know.”

“People are asking if a Luna who wouldn’t save her own daughter deserves to lead anyone.”

My mother was quiet for a long time.

“They’re right.”

The cemetery was quiet.

My gravestone read:

Briar Valemont

A wolf in her heart, never awakened

May you rest under the moonlight

My mother stood before it.

‘Briar.”

Her voice was soft.

“I went to your room again today. I haven’t moved anything. Your books. Your drawings. That moonpetal plant you kept.”

“It bloomed. Did you know? You took care of it for three years and it never flowered. But three days after you left, it finally bloomed.”

“Rowena said moonpetals can sense their owner’s emotions. When you were alive, it was always sad. So it wouldn’t bloom.”

“Now that you’re gone, it…”

She couldn’t finish.

The wind stirred the cemetery grass.

She turned to leave. Stopped. Looked back.

“Briar… can you ever forgive me?”

The gravestone was silent.

The moonpetal flowers swayed in the breeze.

No answer.

There never would be.