The Luna Who Paid to Live in Her Own Home Chapter 04

The Luna Who Paid to Live in Her Own Home Chapter 04

Della didn’t even glance at me. She opened a shopping app while I stood there watching.

“Ooh, these shoes are cute. And this bag. Oh, and this dress.”

The order confirmation chimes kept coming. One after another after another.

When she was done, she pouted. “Eighteen hundred dollars? That’s it? I barely got anything.”

The room tilted. I gripped the edge of the table to stay upright.

“Give me my money back!”

Della looked up at me like I was the unreasonable one.

“Give it back to you?”

“All those years, the money you lived on came from my allowance.”

“You finally make some cash and you don’t think you owe me?”

My wolf went completely berserk.

I felt her throwing herself against the barrier in my mind, desperate to rip back what was ours.

“Give me my money back!”

I lunged for the phone.

Mom’s hands hit my chest and shoved me. Hard.

My lower back cracked against the table corner. White-hot pain buckled my legs, and for a second I couldn’t see.

“Have you lost your mind? You’re attacking your own sister over money?”

“When did you turn into this, Rhea?”

Della stuffed the phone into her pocket. Then she pulled out a one-dollar coin.

“I almost forgot.”

She smiled and opened her hand.

The coin fell beside my foot and spun twice.

“I was going to skip my coffee so I could leave you a little extra.”

“But Dad already said you’re only getting one dollar next month.”

“So I didn’t bother.”

“Here. You can have it early.”

Something in me snapped. I grabbed her wrist.

“Give me my money back!”

Dad was on me in two strides. The slap cracked across the room.

My head snapped sideways.

His Alpha dominance slammed down like a wall. I couldn’t breathe.

My wolf was forced low, her body pressed to the ground, but she kept her head up. Fangs still out.

Dad’s golden wolf eyes burned.

“You dare talk back to me!”

“You went behind our backs and got a job? And then you cheated people on top of it?”

He turned and rushed into my small room, then dragged out the cardboard box containing my certificates and trophies.

He raised his hand high.

“No!”

Crash!

The trophy shattered across the floor.

My wolf let out a piercing howl.

“Keep faking it! Go on. Let’s see how far that gets you!”

Dad picked up another certificate.

He tore it in half.

“Buying fake trophies to fool your own family wasn’t enough? Now you’re scamming strangers?”

“You’ve completely humiliated this family!”

Della stood beside him, nodding along.

“She’s not really one of us. Never was. Who knows what she’ll pull next?”

“Just kick her out already. Then I can finally have my room.”

Mom pinched the bridge of her nose, disgust plain on her face.

“You love money so much? Fine. Your rent is ten times what it was, starting now.”

“And it’s a hundred dollars every time you walk through that door.”

“No money? Then don’t bother coming home.”

Something inside me went still.

My wolf stopped fighting. She turned away from them, lay down, and closed her eyes.

I lifted my chin.

“Fine. I won’t ever come back.”

Dad’s face went white, then red.

“Good!”

“Get the hell out. Now.”

“Don’t you dare take a single thing from this house!”

I lowered my head and looked at myself.

The small bag was a hand-me-down from Della.

The phone was one Mom had discarded.

The shoes were another pair Della had gotten bored of.

Even that so-called room of mine was mostly filled with Della’s clothes.

In the end, only my school uniform, passport, and identification documents truly belonged to me.

I bent down, picked up the one-dollar coin beside my foot, and placed it on the table.

“You can have this back too.”

Then I took off my shoes and walked barefoot out of the pack house.

As the door closed, I heard Dad calling his Beta.

“Turn the smaller room into a closet!”

Della laughed. Giddy, breathless, like it was Christmas morning. “Finally! I’m finally their only daughter!”

My old phone kept vibrating on the table.

Mom reached for it, but the screen went black as the battery died.

She ignored it and helped Della organize her belongings.

…

When Mrs. Hadley found me, I was sitting barefoot outside the border of the Briarwood Pack.

She didn’t ask a single question. She rebooked us on the earliest flight to London that day.

I remained silent throughout the journey.

I didn’t speak until we cleared security and reached the gate.

I borrowed Mrs. Hadley’s phone and sent Mom two photographs.

One showed the full scholarship offer from Kingswell Academy.

The other showed my boarding pass for the flight to London.

I turned off the phone.

Mrs. Hadley had already walked to the other side and gently waved at me.

I stopped and looked back.

Behind me was the city where I had lived for eighteen years and a home that had no place for me.

Ahead of me was everything I’d been fighting for.

I took a deep breath and stepped onto the plane.

Right before the cabin door closed. Far away in the Briarwood pack house, Mom’s phone lit up.