The Broken Luna Rises Chapter 03

The Broken Luna Rises Chapter 03

“Tampering with medical equipment? Do you know how much that wastes hospital resources?!”

I lay quietly in bed and stared at his furious face.

“You think I did this?”

I didn’t even have the strength to lift my hand. How could I hack a machine?

Lucien let out a cold laugh.

“Who else would it be?”

“You’re just jealous of Celine. You’ll do anything to frame her.”

He strode to the bed and ripped the blanket off me.

“Get up!”

“Right now. Apologize to Celine!”

A cold wind hit my burning skin.

I broke into a violent cough.

A strong metallic taste rose up my throat.

I swallowed the blood and lifted my head.

I looked at him like he was already dead.

“Lucien.”

“Are you insane?”

He froze.

In seven years of our mate bond, I had never spoken to him like that.

I had always been gentle, patient, and willing to back down.

“You cursed me?”

He ground his teeth, shock written all over his face.

“I called you stupid.”

I calmly held out my hand and pulled the monitor’s power cord right out.

The ear-splitting alarm stopped.

The world finally fell silent.

“Don’t bother me with this blame-shifting nonsense again.”

I turned my back to him.

“It disgusts me.”

Lucien’s fists clenched so tight his knuckles cracked.

“Fine. Perfect.”

“Elira, if you want to be this stubborn, you can stay here alone!”

“We’ll see how long you can keep this up!”

He grabbed Celine’s hand and stormed out.

“Brother, does Elira really hate me?”

Celine sniffled, still pretending to be hurt.

“Ignore her. She’s crazy.”

Their footsteps faded away.

I closed my eyes and swallowed the blood rising in my throat.

…

The TV in the ward was on, with the volume set very low.

A breaking news flash popped up.

“Serious security flaw discovered in Blackmoon Pack’s self-driving system.”

“Earlier today, multiple vehicles with the system suddenly lost control on the highway.”

“Over a dozen chain-reaction crashes have been reported. No fatalities at this time…”

I leaned against my pillow and struggling to wipe the blood trickling from the corner of my mouth.

My vision doubled. The wolfsbane was destroying my hematopoietic system.

Lucien stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, yelling into his phone.

“What is the PR department doing?!”

“Take down the trending topics right now! Spend whatever it takes!”

“Find a scapegoat. Blame the code on an outsourced team.”

He ripped off his tie in frustration and threw it onto the couch.

Celine huddled in the corner, twisting her fingers, looking innocent.

“Brother, I’m sorry…”

“I just thought the system’s basic logic was boring, so I added a backdoor program.”

“I wanted to surprise them. I didn’t think it would cause crashes…”

She curled her lip, not a trace of guilt in her tone.

Lucien took a deep breath and walked over to ruffle her hair.

“It’s okay. Brother will fix it.”

“Just don’t be so naughty next time.”

“The media loves blowing things out of proportion. A few crashes? Just pay them off.”

I listened to his casual words and felt sick to my stomach.

Dozens of human lives.

To him, it was just naughtiness and a little money.

I fought through the sharp pain of failing organs and pulled the laptop from under my pillow.

The feel of the keyboard cleared my head a little.

My fingers flew across the keys, typing code fast.

Lucien would erase every trace to protect Celine.

I had to save all her original data before my time ran out.

The progress bar moved slowly across the screen.

My vision grew darker. I typed blindly from muscle memory.

“What are you messing with now?”

Lucien hung up and spotted the laptop in my hands.

He stepped over and slammed the screen shut.

“The pack is falling apart, and as Luna, you’re just playing on a computer?”

“Elira, do you even have a heart?”

I lifted my head and looked at his furious, red face.

“A heart?”

I let out a bitter laugh and coughed up more bloody spit.

“Lucien, you’re covering for a criminal who put people in danger. And you’re talking to me about having a heart?”

His face changed. His eyes turned cold and sharp.

“Stop talking nonsense!”

“Celine is just a kid. What does she know?”

“Don’t think you understand business just because you stay home all day!”

Celine walked over and linked her arm through Lucien’s.

“Sister-in-law, are you mad at me and trying to report me?”

“But you don’t have any proof.”

She winked at me, her smile full of mockery.

“Brother already had all my activity records deleted.”

“Even if you call the cops, they won’t believe you.”

I watched her smug face and opened the laptop again.

“Is that right?”