Chapter 88: She lied to me

Chapter 88: Chapter 88: She lied to me

In the medical bay, Amelia shifted against the pillows. "What’s the time?"

Claire glanced at the clock on the far wall. "Probably past nine now. And I really need to sleep... but I’m not allowed to."

Amelia’s gaze dropped to her own body. residues of weakness still clung to her limbs. She didn’t know what to do anymore. She couldn’t reach her other self.

Someone clearly wanted her dead. Was it the Underworld? No—that didn’t fit. The woman she had met would have finished her when she had the perfect chance.

That wasn’t their aim. Hadn’t their aim always been the brothers?

Everything felt tangled.

The door opened.

The three brothers stepped in. Claire rose immediately, already launching into a concise update on Amelia’s condition—stable vitals, lingering exhaustion, no active traces of the curse remaining in her system.

Dean held out the black orb. "Find where this came from."

Claire stared at the object, then at him. The expectation in his voice scraped against every exhausted nerve she had left.

Do they seriously just expect me to know everything?

Amelia interrupted before Claire could answer.

"You’re all so rude and arrogant. Couldn’t you at least thank Claire for saving my life?"

Silence dropped hard.

Amelia didn’t feel like holding back on her words. They had chosen to keep her alive, after all. That gave her a certain freedom to speak.

"She’s been awake with me this entire time," she continued. "And the first thing you do is throw more work at her? How much are you even paying her that you think it’s worth treating her with this much disrespect?"

Claire went still.

She couldn’t believe someone had actually said it out loud—the exact thought that lived in the back of her mind every time the brothers issued another impossible demand. It was terrifying. And strangely amazing. That quiet, private rebellion she had always kept buried suddenly felt a little exposed.

She waited for the cold backlash. It didn’t come.

"We may have been a bit harsh regarding your work. Only because you’ve always been competent." Enzo remarked.

Claire’s eyes widened slightly.

Reid followed with that familiar smooth charm, though it sounded more genuine than usual.

"That’s very true. We hope we didn’t hurt your feelings."

Claire recovered enough to straighten her shoulders.

"Everything is fine."

She stepped closer and took the orb from Dean, turning it slowly under the medical lights. Up close the surface was perfectly smooth, matte black, and utterly unreadable.

"There really isn’t much I can do with this alone," she said after a moment. "The priority is finding who brought it into Amelia’s room. These orbs aren’t something you can just pick up anywhere—not even in the dark markets."

Enzo’s gaze remained fixed on the object.

"Our mother mentioned seeing something similar back in the main Moonfist territory."

Claire gave a short nod. "I’m not surprised. But that information won’t help the immediate case. Still, I’ll do what I can. I’ll reach out to a few other doctors and see if anything useful turns up."

"Thank you. I owe you a lot Dr. Claire" Amelia gratefully said.

Claire’s expression softened into a small, tired smile. "I’m just doing my job."

She left the medical bay with the orb carefully secured, a warm, unexpected sense of satisfaction settling in her chest as the door closed behind her.

Silence returned.

The three brothers remained near Amelia’s bed, none of them quite knowing how to begin.

Amelia felt the awkwardness getting thicker by the minute and decided to break it herself.

"Thank you," she said, looking at each of them in turn. "For sparing the life you all seem to find so fickle and useless."

Enzo’s grey eyes met hers without flinching.

"We don’t spare lives that are fickle."

Amelia stared at him for a second longer, unsure whether the words were meant as a strange compliment or something colder.

"What else are you here for, then?"

Reid leaned a shoulder against the side of the bed, the usual sharp edge in his expression noticeably softened.

"Can’t we check on our partner? The days of us mentally torturing you—and physically—are officially over."

Amelia had no immediate answer for that. The statement sat strangely in the air between them.

She looked down at her hands.

"I won’t be able to make contact with my other self until I’m fully healed. Physically and mentally. So I’m practically useless to all of you right now."

Reid’s reply came without hesitation.

"If that’s all you need, then we’ll help you with it."

Amelia let out a short, dry laugh. "Oh, how generous. The same men who spent weeks treating me like some special kind of shit are suddenly offering rehabilitation services. How comforting."

Dean’s gaze sharpened.

"Explain something. How were we able to reach you in there? Why did our voices get through when we supposedly have no real connection or sentiment toward each other?"

Amelia’s mouth opened, then closed again. She didn’t know how to answer that.

If their voices could pull me back... what else are they capable of reaching?ℯℯ𝑙.

The thought unsettled her more than she wanted to admit. She was supposed to have a destined fated mate someday. Why did she keep getting pulled deeper into these three men instead?

Unless—

Something quiet and sharp clicked into place.

Unless my other self was lying to me.

The possibility settled heavily in her chest.

Why didn’t I think of that sooner?

Amelia couldn’t believe it. What possible reason would her other self have to lie to her—knowing how deeply she hated lies? She didn’t know. But her other self never did anything without purpose.

She wanted to make sure I had no contact with the Underworld until I was already under these men’s roof.

Every thread seemed to lead back to them. Why didn’t I see it earlier?

These men were likely the partners she had been bound to across her past lives.

It sounded absurd. Far-fetched. The kind of theory she would have dismissed without a second thought right before she ever talked to night menace.

And yet it was the most logical explanation she could form.

This is bad, she told herself firmly.

But somewhere deeper, something stirred that felt unsettlingly close to being happy about the outcome.