Chapter 435
"Luna!" Sean Shaw's ragged breathing came through the receiver. "I know you hate me, but I never knew you existed all these years! Your mother deliberately hid you from me—"
Luna's fingers tightened around the phone, her knuckles turning white.
"Does any of this matter now?" Her voice was glacial. "Twenty-plus years of silence, and suddenly you want to play father? Don't you find that ridiculous, Mr. Shaw?"
Sean's voice rose sharply: "I'm already arranging your transfer back to the capital! If you just acknowledge me as your father, I promise—"
"Promise what?" Luna cut him off with a bitter laugh. "To turn me into a pawn for the Shaw family? Or to use me as their stepping stone?"
Papers rustled on the other end—Sean was clearly struggling to contain his anger. "Do you even realize what you're saying? The Shaws can give you everything you've ever—"
"I don't want it." Each word was deliberate. "I'd rather be a 'cannon fodder' on the front lines than a puppet in the Shaw household."
"You—!" A loud slam echoed as Sean struck his desk. "Who do you think you are? Without the Shaws, you're nothing!"
Luna laughed then—a sound that sent an inexplicable chill down Sean's spine.
"I'm Luna White. Andrew Smith's fiancée. A combat medic in the special forces." Her voice was soft but unshakable. "But I am not—and will never be—a daughter of the Shaws."
Dead silence filled the line.
"You'll regret this." Sean finally spoke, his tone venomous. "Without the Shaws' protection, out there on the front—"
Click.
Luna ended the call without hesitation. Beyond the window, the setting sun bathed the training grounds in crimson, the distant shouts of soldiers carrying on the wind.
She took a deep breath and tore the slip of paper bearing the Shaw family's contact information to shreds.
As the fragments scattered in the breeze, an unexpected lightness filled her chest. Here, she had the man she loved. Comrades who fought beside her. A cause worth dying for.
As for the Shaws?
They were nothing more than a fleeting shadow in her life.