Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 159 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 159

Chapter 159 Musical Fairy

Lady Flourish’s POV

That same evening, almost perfectly timed with Ethan telling me he was dropping the case, a new headline crept onto the entertainment trending list. ‘Stonehedge Studios’ Rising Musical Prodigy Shocks the Scene.

By the time I noticed it, it had already climbed to third place.

I clicked through out of nothing more than idle, unhappy curiosity.

The numbers told most of the story on their own.

Phina’s social media had exploded overnight, her follower count jumping by half a million in a matter of hours.

Worse than the numbers was the chorus underneath them.

Established critics, names I recognized from a dozen legitimate reviews over the years, all suddenly falling over themselves to call the album a rare, once in a decade release.

My wolf let out a low, unimpressed huff. So that explained where the money had actually gone.

Once real money and real influence started clearing a path, even a mediocre voice could get elevated somewhere it never earned on its own merit.

Whether the acclaim was genuine or manufactured stopped mattering the second enough people started repeating it. Attention was attention, regardless of what it was built on.

The comments underneath ran thick with exactly the kind of praise money bought.

‘Striking looks, silk in her voice, an absolute musical fairy, one read, the phrase already spreading fast enough that three more posts had picked it up within the hour.

‘Stonehedge actually poured this much into a rookie? She must have real talent. Just listened, genuinely impressive.

‘You think she’s just some newcomer? She’s basically royalty now. All that promotion? That’s just Alpha Harold buying his fiancée the most spectacular engagement gift money can manufacture.

I closed the feed, the last of the confusion draining out of me and leaving something colder in its place.

Ethan’s decision suddenly made perfect, uncomfortable sense.

2

11:51 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 159 Musical Fairy

Finished

Nobody quietly pressured a songwriter into silence unless the machine defending the accused was already this large, this coordinated, this expensive.

My phone rang before I’d even set it back on the desk.

I didn’t recognize the number, but something in the timing set my wolf on edge before I’d even answered.

“Lady Flourish.” Poppy Farlane’s voice came through smooth and pleasant, exactly the tone she used right before delivering something that wasn’t actually pleasant at all. “Do you have a moment? I think we should talk.”

I kept my own voice carefully level, though every instinct I had was already bracing for whatever came next. “About what, exactly.”

“About the Phina Jacobs account.” A pause, deliberate, the kind she liked to let stretch just long enough to make the other person fill the silence themselves. When I didn’t take the bait, she continued smoothly. “I’ve been reviewing the case files this afternoon. There’s something in the poster infringement complaint that I think you’ll want to see before it goes any further. Something that doesn’t add up the way it should.”

My pulse ticked up despite my best effort to keep it steady. “You have my

attention.”

“Not over the phone. Come by my office tomorrow morning, before the rest of the floor gets in.” Another pause, shorter this time, almost thoughtful. “And Flourish, one more thing. You should know I didn’t take this account to spite you, whatever you’ve been assuming. I took it because something about the whole arrangement smelled wrong from the moment it landed on my desk, and I wanted a closer look before anyone else got to it first.”

The line went quiet, waiting.

I sat there a long moment after she hung up, turning the conversation over from every angle I could manage, my wolf too unsettled to land on any single read of it.

Poppy Farlane had never once, in three years of working under the same roof, gone out of her way to offer me anything resembling a favor.

Rivalry, competition, the occasional sharp-edged comment in a hallway, certainly. Never this.

Which meant either she’d genuinely found something worth showing me, something significant enough to set aside whatever history sat between us.

Or someone had asked her to make absolutely sure I walked into that office tomorrow morning entirely on my own.

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11:51 Thu, Oct 1

1 Refuse To Be Your Luna