Chapter 194

Chapter 194: Chapter 194

Lena’s POV

I stood in front of the map for a long time without saying a word.

“What does this have to do with my father?”

Gemma handed me the document envelope. “Open it.”

Inside were several faded transport records. The paper edges had yellowed, and each page bore the seal of Blueridge Pack. In the cargo column, there were no names, only numbers, gender, and pack rank.

One line read: young she-wolf, unmarked, healthy.

The date was the day after Gemma disappeared.

There was also a price listed after it. The number wasn’t even that big. It was less than one ring Dominic once gave me.

Eight years of a person’s life. A pair of legs that could no longer walk properly. Scars all over her body. And in those people’s eyes, that was all it was worth.

All at once, I remembered the day my father sent me to Bloodmoon Pack. He had straightened my collar and told me this was a daughter’s duty. Back then, all I saw was how cold he was. Now I realized that maybe his practiced ease came from doing the same thing over and over again.

The difference was, I had been sent to Dominic. Other girls hadn’t been that lucky.

My stomach twisted hard.

When my father sold me to Dominic, I thought he was just treating his own daughter like merchandise. Now it looked like that wasn’t even close to the first time he’d done it.

“Eight years ago, Blueridge Pack was helping transport kidnapped she-wolves for certain rogue wolves,” Gemma said calmly, like she was telling someone else’s story. “After I was taken to the border, I was sold three more times. Every place gave me a new number.”

“What did Eliza do?”

Gemma lowered her head and looked at the wrist wrapped in medicated tape.

“That night, I asked Dominic and her to have dinner with me. I knew she liked him, but I thought it was just some silly girl crush. She said something came up and asked Dominic to go pick her up.”

I had already heard that part from Dominic.

“She gave my location to a man who had pursued me before,” Gemma went on. “She told him to take me away for a few hours, just long enough to make me miss the date. She thought she could use the chance to confess to Dominic.”

“That man had ties to Blueridge Pack.”

“Yes.” A bitter curve touched Gemma’s lips. “I don’t know if at first he only meant to scare me. But when I woke up, I was already in the back of a truck.”

My fingers tightened around the edge of the file.

“Did Eliza know?”

“She knew the next day. That man asked her for money and threatened to tell Dominic what she had done if she refused. So she paid him.”

“And then?”

“Then she stayed quiet.”

Gemma lifted her head. She wasn’t crying. In her eyes, there was only the kind of exhaustion time had worn flat.

“She told herself I would come back. A week later, she told herself I was probably dead. A month later, she started comforting Dominic. After that, she convinced herself none of it was her fault.”

Eight years.

A person gets more than two thousand nights to tell the truth in eight years, and Eliza never once opened her mouth.

“When did you escape?”

“Half a year ago. The last group holding me had infighting, and I ran during the chaos. I stayed at a shelter for a long time. I only came back after my body recovered a little.”

“Half a year ago?” I frowned. “Then why only show up recently?”

“I was scared,” she said honestly. “If someone came near me after I woke up, I thought they were about to chain me up again. If I heard a car stop outside, I’d hide in the bathroom. It took the doctor two months just to make me believe the ward door wasn’t locked.”

She looked down at her legs.

“Later, I saw Dominic in the news. He was still alive, and the curse was gone. You were standing beside him. That’s when I knew I couldn’t just drag my whole mess back into his life.”

“You’re not a mess.”

Gemma smiled a little. “Took me a long time to believe that too.”

“Why not expose her directly?”

“Because my words aren’t enough.” Gemma nodded at the file in my hand. “This can prove Blueridge was involved in the trade, but it can’t prove Eliza gave them my location. I need the payment records she kept, and the phone backup from that year.”

“So that’s why you moved into her house.”

“She thought I didn’t know anything.”

I looked at the thin girl in front of me. She hadn’t come back to fight Dominic over anything. She had come back to end the eight years stolen from her.

“When you said there isn’t much time left, what did you mean?”

Gemma was silent for a few seconds. “My kidneys and heart were both badly damaged. The doctor said if they can’t find the right treatment, I might only have a few months left.”

Something lodged in my throat so hard I could barely breathe.

“Does Dominic know?”

“He knows it’s serious. He doesn’t know the exact timeline.”

“You shouldn’t keep that from him.”

“If he knew where these injuries came from, he would kill every single person involved. And then he’d spend the rest of his life blaming himself because that night, he stopped to save your mother.”

Gemma took my hand.

“Lena, that wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t your mother’s either. The people at fault are the ones who kidnapped me, and the ones who knew the truth and chose silence.”

I remembered what Dominic had said outside the cemetery. If it happened again, he would still stop to save my mother.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because you can make him stop.” Gemma looked at me. “Since I came back, I’ve seen him many times. He cares about me, looks after me, and he’s willing to give up everything to treat me. But when he looks at me, all he sees is the past.”

“You can make him stop too.”

“Maybe before. Not now.” She smiled faintly. “He listens to me because he feels guilty. He listens to you because you matter to him. Those two things look similar, but they don’t feel the same.”

I hated how easily she said the conclusion I had never dared believe.

Her fingers tightened lightly around mine.

“When he looks at you, that’s when there’s a future in his eyes.”

She took a tiny storage card out of the pocket on the side of her wheelchair. “The full records are all in here. I already set up a timed release. If it isn’t canceled before tonight, copies will automatically be sent to the wolf council.”

“You were ready for this a long time ago.”

“I’ve waited eight years for this day.”

I pulled my hand back. “We don’t have anything to do with each other anymore.”

“A contract can be ended. Feelings can’t.”

“He never said he loved me.”

“That’s because he’s a coward,” Gemma said without hesitation. “When it comes to this, he always has been.”

I almost laughed.

Then suddenly, the sound of a key sliding into the lock came from outside the door. Gemma’s face changed instantly.

It was only two twenty. Eliza shouldn’t have been back yet.

Gemma reached for the file, but I moved faster and shoved it inside my coat.

The door opened.

Eliza stood outside. She was still wearing the same coat from yesterday, a shopping bag hanging from her hand. There wasn’t the slightest trace of surprise on her face.

“I knew it.” She shut the door, locked it, then slipped the key into her pocket. “You were way too calm when you left the yoga studio. Lena, every time you find something out, you get this exact look.”

Gemma gripped the wheelchair armrest. “You followed her?”

“I came to protect you.” Eliza looked at her. “Your health is bad, yet you’re here talking to an outsider about things that should’ve stayed buried.”

“What should be buried is the truth, not me.”

Eliza’s lips trembled.

“Give me the file.” She held out her hand toward me.

“No.”

“That doesn’t belong to you.”

“It does now. It’s evidence.”

Eliza suddenly laughed. She set the shopping bag on the table and took out a syringe.

The needle tip flashed cold under the dim light.

“I didn’t want to drag you into this,” she said. “But why do you never know when to back off?”