Chapter 120

Aria’s POV

The minute Silas and I stepped into the kitchen and out of earshot of the kids, he opened his mouth and the verbal lashing began. I’d already braced myself, preparing for it.

“You need to tell Lucian about his children,” Silas said, not for the first time. This was a tired argument between us, one that we’d had many times over the past five-years. One that neither side could win. “He deserves to know about his children. And the children deserve to have a father in their life.”

“Who’s to say that Lucian would want to have that job, even if it was offered to him? Even if I gave him a chance, Silas, I doubt he’d want them as anything other than heirs. And they deserve better than that.”

“You don’t know that’s how he would act,” Silas said. “Lucian is a good man. If you give him a chance…”

“I gave him a hundred chances before I left him, and he always disappointed me,” I said. “My kids deserve better, and so do I.” I shook my head. “It’s better this way for all of us. Lucian isn’t tied down to me, and I don’t need to be the perfect Luna anymore. I can be here, where I can do the most good.”

“I’m not saying you need to marry the man again,” Silas countered. “But it is unfair for him to be kept in the dark about his own children.”

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.

“I’ve done a good job on my own, haven’t I?” I asked him. “The kids are healthy and happy. They don’t need a father.”

Silas glanced behind him, back towards the dining room. “If that is true, why are they adding a mystery father to their family portraits?”

The question stung, maybe more than it was meant to.

The truth was, I was trying very hard to be enough for the kids. I tried to be for them as two parents would, with Piper acting as the dutiful aunt to help me out.

But there had certainly been times over the past five years where I’d longed for a partner to help me.

I did my best for the kids, but I so often felt like I wasn’t enough on my own. Maybe they weren’t growing up the best way possible. Maybe I was holding them back somehow from true happiness.

Silas, seeing my change in expression and demeanor softened somewhat. “You have done a good job with those kids, Aria. There is no denying that, and I’m sorry for bringing that into question. My point is merely, as the kids get older, they are going to have questions. Questions that I’m not sure you have the answers to.

“Eventually they are going to want to know about Lucian,” Silas continued. “And it will be up to you whether to lie or to tell the truth. Besides… you’ve done well, but you shouldn’t have to do all of this on your own.”

He checked his watch. “I’m sorry to leave on this note, but I must catch my plane. Are you alright?”

“I’m not angry with you, Silas,” I said. I’d never be angry with Silas for telling me his truth. Even if I didn’t always agree, he often gave me knew things to think about, and new perspectives to think about them from.

It was easy to pretend that Lucian wasn’t going to be a problem when the children were young. But now, Silas was right. The older they grew, the more they would ask about their father.

As of now, I didn’t have the proper answers to give them.

Lying about Lucian seemed like the easiest choice, but eventually, they would find out the truth on their own. How would they feel about the choices I made, especially when they discovered I lied to them?

Silas went into the dining room to say goodbye to the kids, then I showed him out. We hugged again at the door, to show there was no hard feelings.

When he was gone, I turned back into the foyer and stopped short, finding Luke directly in my shadow.

“Mom,” he asked. “Who is Lucian?”

My stomach dropped. “What? Where did you hear that name?”

I already knew he must have overheard some of what Silas and I had been discussing in the kitchen. I could only hope he didn’t hear too much.

“Uncle Silas said his name,” Luke said. “He sounded important. Who is he?”

I knew I’d have to make a decision about what to tell Luke and Jean about Lucian, but I didn’t think it would come quite this soon! Surely I could put off this conversation, just for a little bit, by being purposefully vague.

“He’s a man I used to know,” I told Luke. “But he’s not in my life anymore.”

Luke took in the words, seemed to turn them over in his head. “Okay,” he said, a puzzled expression on his face.

“You know you shouldn’t eavesdrop,” I told him, scolding lightly.

“Yeah, Jean said that too.”

Endeared, I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and lead him back into the kitchen. “What are we thinking for dinner tonight?”

Maybe, eventually, we would need to have the talk, but for now, I was content to let things be as they always have for the past five years.

Me and the kids against the world.

Being on the beach, the kids had grown fond of seafood, so that was what we have for dinner that night. After, when the kids went to play and I took the dishes to the sink to clean them, my mind began to wander.

Moonglow was a fairly isolated pack, especially with the war. Information on other packs was hard to come by, even one as big as Nightfall. Any news I received was mostly in letters from Cathy and Jasper, who were both still back in Nightfall.

But even that news had been mostly lacking. Cathy and Jasper avoided talking about Lucian as much as possible, something I was grateful for.

Still, in quiet moments like right now, I found myself wondering about him. If he was happy. I assumed I would be told if he remarried or had children, but I never received any message like that.

He had probably moved on, though. Even if Sheila broke his heart, I couldn’t imagine someone as important as the Alpha King of Nightfall pack would be single for long.

“Don’t say such things,” Luna scolded me.

“It doesn’t matter to us anyway,” I reminded her.

“Then why does it hurt to think about?” she probed.

It was a fair question that I didn’t have a good answer to. Maybe I was running from my feelings, but what good would it have done to face them?

Lucian was out of my life for good, and there was no going back.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Leaving my dishes, I went to answer it.

The postman stood there, holding out an envelope for me. “A letter for you today, Aria.”

“Thank you,” I said and accepted it.

As he left, I examined the letter. Reading the return address, I saw it was from pack Nightfall.