THE FORGOTTEN LUNA

KAEL.

I looked at the photos in my hands, and I still couldn't believe everything that was revealed to me. The man who gave me this information had been gone for some time, and yet the conversation between us kept playing in my head.

"I have the information about your girlfriend, Alpha Kael." He said after I acknowledged his greetings.

"Ex-girlfriend." I corrected him before I pointed to the chair in front of my desk, motioning for him to sit down. "Let's get to the point, as I don't have the luxury of time today."

He nodded his head, then placed a brown envelope on the table and pushed it toward me before taking his seat. "That's what I collected in the forty-eight hours that I followed her. She didn't go anywhere besides that apartment. They went out three times to a drive- through and bought groceries.

My forehead creased. "They?"

"You will understand more once you see the photos inside."

Without saying anything more, I grabbed my letter opener and proceeded to open the envelope. I ignored the written documents and went for the photos, and my heart began pounding loudly at the first one that I saw.

"How old is the baby?" I had no idea how I was able to manage the words out of my mouth because my mind went haywire in an instant.

A part of me didn't want to accept that it was mine. But what if it was?

"They just moved there a month ago, so I was unable to confirm the age with anyone. They seldom communicate with their neighbor next door. However, based on the baby's physical features, it appears to be around four or five months old. ""Is there a man with her?" I asked.

"No. But there is a woman who I assume takes care of the baby when she's not there."

"How sure are you that the baby is hers?"

"If you check the other photos, you will find one where the other lady opened the car door, and she was inside, breastfeeding the baby. I don't think she'd let another woman's child feed on her."

His words made sense, and the way she was clutching the baby was possessive.

I was told Desiree left the territory and went abroad when Adessa and I got married. Did she leave because she was pregnant? And came back when she gave birth?

Is it mine? I kept asking in my head.

If it were mine, she would throw it to my face and demand I take responsibility. So there was a big chance that it wasn't, but who was the father?

The neighbors he asked confirmed there was no other person who came and visited the child except Desiree. The child and the woman, who was around fifty, were the only ones residing there. The neighbors also said she would visit more than twice a week, and there were days she would stay overnight.

That meant this was where she went whenever she left the territory-not to meet another man-during the two weeks where I observed her routine. That was how often she would be gone in a week.

I wanted to believe the child was not mine. She would have demanded money or introduced it to me the moment Adessa left. That would secure her and would make me think before breaking up with her.

But it seemed she wanted to hide it from me as well.

I honestly didn't know what to feel looking at the pictures in my hand.

The Desiree holding the child was far from the Desiree I knew. Her hair was tied in a messy bun, and she was going around without makeup. She also looked tired, and her posture was too different from her usual confident stance.

In the three instances that she was out of the apartment, she wore regular flip-flops as well as a loose shirt-something I had never seen in the years that she was my girlfriend.

Desiree was always dolled up, that even if we only needed to go to a nearby shop, she would slip on her high heels and sexy clothes.

Was she living a double life?

What kind of mother would leave her child to someone else so she could hook up or pursue another man? Because that was obviously what she was doing-living under my roof when she had a child that was not even a year old and needed her. And if this child was hers, why didn't she leave it with her parents if she couldn't attend to it?

I had so many questions in my head, and I knew I would never find an answer today. And as much as my curiosity was piqued by this, I had other things to do.

I could deal with Desiree when I come back. At least with me gone, she didn't need to pretend around me and could spend more time with her child.

I sent the investigator to follow her again and find out the hospital where she would take her child for checkups or the like so he could extract more information-who the father was and exactly how old the child was.

I also wanted a closer photo if he could, because on the ones he gave me, I could barely see the face. Desiree was holding it protectively, so I had no idea if it was a girl or a boy. I wanted to see its face-a final confirmation that it wasn't mine. But at the moment, I would put her at the back of my mind.

If Desiree was something I could disregard at the moment, Miranda was a different thing.

Dexter told me that Miranda had

cleaned all accounts in the banks inside the territory and had not transferred any money somewhere else. I was informed she had been slowly withdrawing money until she I

took all the day I left to for

Adessa and closed her account.

I didn't believe him, so I made the call to the bank myself after he left,

but I was given the sameBelongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

information, confronted the bank manager. I asked for the reason for the withdrawals and why they allowed big withdrawals. He

answered that it was part of their

protocol not to ask the ip and his immediate family for any reason and to never deny any request. So he could not provide any answer, and he was baffled himself about the need for those withdrawals and the request to close all her accounts, but

he dared not ask anything.

Miranda's bank records were also clean. There were no unanimous transfers either way, so it seemed that Miranda knew what she was doing and how to keep her record clean.

I was trying to read Dexter while he

was reporting to me, and it seemed

Landon was right-he had no idea of Miranda's plans and was left hanging. Even if I wanted to feel bad for him, I couldn't find it in me. If he were part of Miranda's plan to kick Adessa out of my life, then he fucking deserved his misery. He

trusted the wrong woman and, in the process, betrayed his own Alpha.

Even though Landon had given me a good reason to fire him, I knew that keeping him close and under a close watch would be better than letting him go and not knowing what his next move would be.

I only needed to deal with Miranda at the moment to make sure she couldn't get to Adessa while Rasmus and Landon would take over and make sure Dexter would not be an accomplice or accessory to Miranda.