Chapter 240 Shattered

Chapter 240 Shattered
Lily's POV

I threw myself across Gabriel's still body, my hands frantically shaking his shoulders. His skin was cold. Too cold. But maybe if I could just wake him up...

"Gabriel! Please wake up! Don't leave me! Don't you dare leave me!" My voice cracked as I pressed my ear to his chest, desperate for even the faintest heartbeat.

Nothing. Just silence where his strong heart used to beat for me.

I shook him harder, my fingers digging into his shoulders. "Come on, Gabriel! This isn't funny! Wake up!" Tears streamed down my face as I cupped his face in my hands. "I need you! Our baby needs you!"

That's when I saw it. The silver blade wound right through his chest. The torn fabric of his shirt, stained dark with blood that had already dried.

The memory crashed through me like shattered glass. Silas raising the silver blade. Gabriel throwing himself between us. The sickening sound of metal piercing flesh. His gasp of pain. The way his eyes had found mine even as he fell, full of love, not regret.

"It's my fault!" I screamed, my voice echoing through the room. "Gabriel, I'm so sorry! I'm so fucking sorry!"

The wound stared back at me like an accusation. This was where his life had poured out. Where my weakness had stolen everything from him.

Ethan and Lucas moved toward me, their faces twisted with grief.

"No!" I snarled, pulling Gabriel closer to my chest. "He's just sleeping! Gabriel, please, I'm sorry! I should have been stronger! I should have protected you!"

The truth burned through me like acid. How many times had Gabriel saved me? And now he was gone because I was too fucking weak to defend myself.

"Lily, honey, please," Martha's gentle voice broke through my hysteria. "It's not your fault."

Eleanor approached slowly, her face streaked with tears. "Gabriel chose to protect you, Lily. Don't blame yourself."

But they were wrong. "If I hadn't been there... if I had been stronger..." My voice broke completely. "He should have let Silas kill me instead! I'm not worth his life!"

I thought about all the times he'd risked himself for me. Every single time, I'd made him vulnerable. And now he was dead because I couldn't handle one Beta with a silver blade.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my abdomen. I gasped, doubling over as my hand flew to my stomach.

"Something's wrong," I gasped, still clutching Gabriel's hand.

Even this – even our child's birth – was going wrong. Because the shock of losing him was tearing me apart from the inside.

Eleanor knelt beside me, checking my pulse. "How long have you been having contractions?"

"I can't be having contractions. It's too early!"

Another wave of pain hit. I cried out, gripping Gabriel's lifeless fingers. "I can't lose them too!"

But I knew the truth. The trauma was harming our child. Everything I touched turned to destruction.

"We need to get her to the delivery room now," Eleanor called out.

"No! I'm not leaving him!"

But my body had other plans. Another contraction ripped through me.

In the delivery room, the physical agony was nothing compared to the guilt eating me alive.

"I don't deserve to have his child!" I sobbed between contractions. "Our baby should have a father!"

The words kept echoing in my head. Gabriel sacrificed everything for nothing. And now his child would grow up an orphan because of my weakness.

How could I look at this baby every day? How could I see Gabriel's face and not be reminded that I was the reason they'd never meet?

"One more push, Luna!"

I pushed with everything I had, pouring all my anguish into bringing Gabriel's child into the world.

The baby's first cry filled the room, but I felt nothing. No joy, just crushing emptiness.

"It's a healthy boy," the doctor announced.

Eleanor brought the baby to me. "Look, Lily. Your son. Gabriel's son."

I stared down at the tiny face, and something inside me shattered completely. He looked exactly like Gabriel. The same dark hair, the same serious expression. Like Gabriel was staring back at me, asking why I'd failed him.

"Gabriel will never see him grow up," I whispered. "He'll never hold his own son."

The baby would ask about his father someday. And what would I tell him? That his father died saving someone who wasn't worth it?

I couldn't touch him. This innocent child deserved better than the woman whose weakness had orphaned him.

Before my fingers could reach him, darkness swallowed me whole.

---

I drifted back to consciousness in the darkness. The emptiness hit me immediately. The space where Gabriel's presence used to warm my soul was just... gone.

Our mate bond was completely severed. Like it had never existed at all.

I pressed my hand to my chest. Nothing. Just cold, aching emptiness that made me feel like a corpse.

Every breath I took was one he'd never take again. I was living on borrowed time – time that should have been his.

I thought about his final moments. The way he'd looked at me as the blade went through him. No regret in his eyes, only love. He'd died believing I was worth saving.

He'd been wrong.

What had I ever done to deserve Gabriel's love? I was just some weak girl who needed constant rescuing. I'd brought nothing but danger into his life.

Gabriel had suffered through silver burning his chest. And I'd been dragged away, helpless to be by his side as he faded away.

The Moon Goddess had cursed him. Making Gabriel love someone whose weakness would destroy him.

Our son would grow up asking questions. And everyone would have to lie to protect him from the truth – that his mother cost him his father.

I sat up slowly, my body screaming in protest. Good. I should hurt. I should suffer for what I'd done.

One by one, I started pulling off the medical equipment. All the things keeping me alive when Gabriel was dead.

I don't deserve this care. I don't deserve to heal when he's gone forever.

I walked to the window on unsteady legs. Looking down at the ground three stories below, I felt something like peace for the first time since losing him.

This was the answer. The only way to make things right. The only way to stop being a burden.

"I'm coming, Gabriel," I whispered. "I'm sorry for everything."

Our son would be better off without me. Eleanor would raise him. He'd grow up strong like his father, never knowing his birth mother was the reason his father died.

One step forward, and Gabriel wouldn't be alone anymore.

One step forward, and I could finally apologize properly for destroying everything.