Ch. I Refuse to Be Your Luna 179 I Refuse to Be Your Luna 179

Chapter 179 What My Father Hid

Lady Flourish’s POV

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I opened the study door before my father could reach it, and he stopped halfway up the stairs when he saw me standing there with my bag held firmly against my side.

My wolf was still awake beneath my skin, restless and angry, but I forced her down because I knew that if I let her instincts take control now, I might reveal more than I was ready to reveal.

“There you are,” my father said, his expression relaxing immediately. “I have been looking for you.”

“I heard you,” I replied, stepping past him. “What did you want?”

He frowned slightly when he noticed the tension in my posture, but he did not seem to understand the reason for it. “I wanted to speak with you about tomorrow’s registration, and I also wanted to ask whether you had decided where you would be living after you complete it.”

My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag, and my wolf pushed against my ribs at the mention of the registration. I looked directly at him and wondered how many times he had stood in this same house while carrying the knowledge of what happened to my mother without ever telling me.

“I haven’t decided yet,” I said.

He nodded and gestured toward the study. “Come inside, then.”

I followed him, keeping my breathing even as he sat behind his desk in the same chair where I had found the diary.

My wolf caught his scent more strongly in the enclosed room, and for the first time in my life, I noticed the difference between the familiar scent of my father and the person I had believed him to be.

“You look upset,” he said.

“I’m tired.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

I looked at him for several seconds before lowering my eyes. “The mountain was stressful, and Damian had me escorted home.”

His expression changed at Damian’s name, but only briefly. “I heard about what happened.”

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Chapter 179 What My Father Hid

“How?”

“People talk.”

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I almost laughed, but there was nothing funny about it. “Then you probably know that Stonehedge’s executive fleet was seen near the mountain.”

His eyes sharpened. “Damian told you that?”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

I watched him carefully, waiting for the smallest reaction. My wolf caught the shift in his heartbeat before I saw anything on his face, and that alone made me certain that there was more to this situation than he wanted me to know.

“Does it matter?” I asked.

“It could.”

I leaned against the edge of the desk. “Why?”

He was silent for a moment, then leaned back. “Because Stonehedge has enemies, and if someone is using one of our vehicles without authorization, it could become a security problem.”

Our vehicles.

The words settled inside me as my wolf raised her head again. My father had not said Stonehedge’s vehicles, and he had not asked what I saw; he had immediately spoken as though the matter belonged to him personally.

“How much access do you have to Stonehedge’s executive fleet?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed. “Why are you asking me that?”

“Curiosity.”

“You’ve never been curious about fleet access.”

“I am today.”

His jaw tightened, and for several seconds neither of us spoke. Then his phone vibrated on the desk, and when he glanced at the screen, something in his expression changed before he quickly turned it facedown.

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Chapter 179 What My Father Hid

My wolf noticed and so did I.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Work.”

“At this hour?”

“I don’t need to explain every message I receive.”

“No,” I agreed quietly. “You don’t.”

I picked up my bag and moved toward the door, but his voice stopped me.

“Flourish.”

I turned.

“You know you can talk to me about anything.”

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The words almost made me lose control. I stared at the man who had raised me, remembering my mother’s handwriting and the sentence where she had asked whether her child would resent her if she ended the pregnancy.

“I know,” I said.

Then I walked out.

I did not go downstairs.

Instead, I went directly to my room and locked the door behind me before pulling the diary from my bag.

My wolf paced inside me while I opened the pages again, and this time I read every entry slowly instead of stopping at the ones that had hurt the most.

There were several missing pages near the middle.

The binding had been damaged, and someone had removed four entries carefully enough that the torn edges were almost straight.

My claws pushed through my fingertips before I forced them back, and I stared at the damaged pages while my wolf growled in frustration.

Someone had wanted those pages gone.

I turned the diary over and examined the back cover. There was a small mark pressed into the

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Chapter 174 What My Father Hid

leather that I had never noticed before, a crescent with three short lines beneath it.

My wolf reacted immediately.

She recognized it.

སྙ༔

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I closed my eyes and reached inward, searching through the instincts that had belonged to my family for generations. The symbol was not part of Stonehedge’s official crest, but it was familiar from old records I had once seen in the pack archives.

Voss.

My mother’s family.

I opened my eyes.

“Why would someone remove pages from her diary?” I whispered.

My phone vibrated.

It was Damian.

“I’m back in Fenwick. We found something. Don’t tell anyone yet.”

My heart started beating faster.

I typed back immediately.

“What did you find?”

His reply came less than a minute later.

“The vehicle wasn’t stolen. The access code was authorized from inside the estate.”

I stared at the message until my wolf rose fully awake. Someone inside Stonehedge had authorized the vehicle.

And my father had just admitted he knew something about the fleet.

I opened the diary again and looked at the missing pages.

For the first time, I wondered whether my mother’s death and the person using Stonehedge’s vehicles were connected.

My phone vibrated again. Damian had sent another message.

“And Flourish, the authorization was issued using an old family clearance.”

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Chapter 179 What My Father Hid

:

I swallowed. “Whose?”

The typing indicator appeared.

Then disappeared.

Then returned.

Finally, his message arrived. “Your father’s.”

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Refuse To Be Your Lung