LUNA ASTERBELLE's POV
Couple of minutes passed by and I still can't process what Jerome recently said. It was hard for me to trust his statements lately, and there wasn't any reason for me to believe him anyway.
I faked a cough at the same time that I walked out of the dining room, but I heard his footsteps that followed me out of the mansion. "Is there anything else that you want to say?" I asked in such an irritated tone. I wasn't amused with the way that he seemed to be playing with my emotions. "If you have so much time to spare, you might as well search for a method on how to remove this curse on me. If you wouldn't, then don't expect that I'd forgive you at all."
"Althea must've told you the solution to your problem before," Jerome said, which piqued my curiosity, so I turned around to listen to him attentively. "Althea most probably mentioned me to you and also the existence of your curse that was made by none other than herself. She wouldn't be selfish enough not to tell you about its cure back when she dragged you inside her dimension."
I raised my brow since I couldn't recall what he was trying to say. "As far as I can remember, she only mentioned about her son and how it was too quick for me to meet you ---"
"I told you, I'm not that woman's son."
"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, the Moon Goddess didn't look interested in giving me a clue about my curse's treatment. But it seems like you already know the answer to this..."
Jerome attempted to change the topic as he kept on glancing elsewhere, but it was inevitable. "Mate," he seriously uttered, then walked towards me to hold my wrist.
At first, I thought that he would be pulling me aggressively again, but I was totally mistaken.
"This mark..." Jerome bit his lower lip, trying to suppress himself from saying anything further. "Seems like I was wrong to think that no one out there would take you in... How foolish of me to believe that, knowing that you're a hybrid," he said before releasing my wrist.
I covered the mark on my forearm. "It doesn't matter whichever pack I belong to. Just tell me the connection of mates and this curse of mine already."
Just as when I was running out of patience, continuous sounds of a phone ringing echoed inside the living room. Instead of giving me an answer, Jerome chose to head back inside. I heaved out a sigh of frustration, wondering if I should take this chance to get away from this place. However, there was something inside me that was stopping me from doing so.
A few minutes after the phone call, Jerome returned. "Mrs. Belle called me," he said with a frown on his face.
"My mother did? Why?" I inquired. My parents shouldn't have any means of communication with Jerome, but they unexpectedly do, which I didn't know.
"Seems like one of your friends in college... died today. They invited me to her funeral with hopes that I could bring you together with me," Jerome relayed my mom's message.
My lips parted as I gasped. "W-who? I-I have a lot of friends in school ---"
"Andrea," he answered with a straight face.
With eyes widened, I suddenly remembered how Joseph disappeared out of the blue earlier when he was only a few steps away from my side. "T-that can't be... Andrea can't possibly die without seeing her lover still alive!" I yelled out to him as I unconsciously grabbed his collar with both of my hands, which almost strangled him. "Andrea... There's no reason for Andrea to die at this time of the day! This must be a hoax, my parents must be plotting something again to force me to come back to their side. I'm sure that they invented this ---"
"Luna, calm down."
Jerome held my shoulders as he tried to push me down, so that I would be forced to let go of his collar. There was a hint of concern in his eyes, but I can't seem to cool off.
"This was the first time since your parents last contacted me a few years ago. Mrs. Belle wouldn't be kidding around with the death of your precious friend. I'm certain that they wouldn't keep that a secret from you and that she would rather inform you about it then let you be dumbfounded," he said before I let him go. "Besides, this isn't the first time that you had a friend of yours who lost his or her life."
His words made sense, but those weren't getting through in my head at all.
"Just how insensitive can you get for you to say that this isn't my first time, Jerome Dawson? Do you have any idea how much she desired to see Joseph before she died? Do you even imagine just how painful it would be for Joseph if he remembers her and ends up knowing that she's already dead? And you're telling me that this is simply another life lost as if I had no opportunity to save her at all?" I consecutively asked, completely venting out my irritation to him.
Jerome shook his head. “That’s not what I intended, Luna. I didn’t mean to sound like you should be used to the deaths of your friends. I was only trying to comfort you —”
“Well, thank you! You’ve completely ruined my day. I knew that sticking right by your side would definitely bring me bad luck. Maybe if I didn’t entertain you, then Andrea wouldn’t have helplessly died,” I said to cut him off at the same time that I harshly pushed him away. “Don’t even think of following me or going to Andrea’s funeral. I won’t think twice of hurting you in any possible way there is,” I warned him with a ferocious gaze.
It seemed like Jerome was taken aback by my words, which left him standing firmly on the same spot even though I already walked away.
I hate him.