Chapter 100 Chapter 100
Rayne
I couldn’t change the past. I’d replayed it a thousand times in my head already—what I should’ve done, where I went wrong, all the moments I could’ve opened my eyes and seen the truth. But regret doesn’t rewind time. It just rots your insides.
Still, knowing what I knew now… I could do something.
I could make sure Amber never had to live in fear again. I could keep my promise.
Every bastard who touched her would pay for it. No exceptions. No mercy. Not even for Reed.
Especially not for Reed.
Even if it shredded the last pieces of my heart. Even if it meant burning what little I had left of the life I thought I wanted.
The verdict had been given. Amber won primary custody. I had visitation rights. People clapped me on the shoulder, congratulated me on still having a place in Evalie’s life. But I couldn’t even hear them. Couldn’t process their words. It was all just white noise against the screaming inside my skull.
All I could feel was the cold, hollow space where my love for Reed used to be. And the unrelenting ache of how much I owed Amber. I had so much to make up for and I couldn't even tell where to start.
Eden snarled in the back of my mind, pacing like a beast caged too long.
"Make it up to her?" He roared. "How the fuck are you going to make it up to her? You’ve been such a dick, Rayne. Do you honestly think she’ll listen to anything you have to say now? When you didn’t even believe her in the beginning?"
I swallowed hard, my throat raw.
“I know,” I told him quietly. “I know she has every right to despise me. I wouldn’t blame her if she spit in my face every time I walked by.”
The shame of it burned me from the inside out.
“But I can’t let that stop me. Not now. I have to try. I need to try. She’s been fighting alone this whole time… and I let her. I left her. That ends today. She won’t be alone anymore, not if I can help it.”
Eden huffed—still furious, still radiating disgust—but there was something else there too. A flicker of approval.
"Hmph. I never thought I’d see the day. You’re finally making sense for the first time in seven goddamn years."
His voice sharpened again. "I don’t care how you feel about that despicable brat. He has to be punished for what he did. Severely. There’s no redemption for what he’s done. You know that."
I nodded to myself, jaw clenched, heart twisting like it wanted to crawl out of my chest.
“For the longest time, I looked the other way. Every time he crossed the line, I forgave him. Made excuses. Because I loved him. Because I needed him to be better than he really was. But I see it now. All of it. And I can’t unsee it.”
I forced down the lump in my throat, forced the words through gritted teeth.
“I’m going to divorce him.”
There. I said it. The words felt like razors scraping down my throat.
“I’ll strip him of his Luna title. I’ll cut every tie between us. I swear it—on my bond with Amber. Reed has to pay. I will make sure he does.”
Eden let out a low, vicious growl of approval.
"Good. That’s all I wanted to hear." He paused. "Because if you don’t punish him yourself, Rayne... I will. And you know damn well I’ve never liked that brat. If I ever get my paws on him, I’ll tear him to pieces."
I didn’t flinch. Didn’t argue.
“You won’t have to,” I told him. “This one’s on me.”
The courtroom had begun to empty. People were filing out, murmuring amongst themselves, casting disgusted glances at Reed, a few pitying ones at me. But none of it mattered.
Because then—she looked at me.
Amber.
Our eyes locked across the courtroom, and the pain that bloomed in my chest was sudden and searing. She didn’t look at me with hatred. Not exactly. Just… quiet devastation. Like someone who’d been let down one too many times and didn’t have the strength to rage anymore.
But still… she looked.
And in that split second, I mouthed the words that had been beating like war drums inside my skull since the truth came out:
“I’m keeping my promise, Amber. He will be punished. I’ll make sure of it. I swear to you—I’ll make everything right.”
She didn’t speak. Didn’t smile. But she gave the smallest, faintest nod.
And it was more than I deserved. More than I expected.
That single nod kept me from falling apart.
I didn’t need forgiveness. I wasn’t stupid enough to hope for it. But that nod… that was hope. Maybe not for me. But for Evalie. For Amber. For the future I would kill myself to protect from now on.
Reed was still beside me.
Still.
Frozen like a marble statue. Pale as a corpse. Hands trembling as they gripped his slacks, his eyes glued to the floor and head bowed so low in shame it looked like he was trying to disappear into the floor.
He hadn’t said a word.
Not since the evidence played. Not since his lies crumbled in front of the entire room.
I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t.
He was right there. Inches away. But to me, he no longer existed.
The man I once adored, once kissed under moonlight, once promised a life with—he died the day he plotted against Amber. The day he sent those men. The day he let me crawl into bed beside him, oblivious, still thinking he was the center of my world.
He let me love him.
While knowing what he’d done.
And now… there was nothing left between us but rubble and ash.
Letting go of him—of everything we’d been—would be the hardest thing I’d ever done.
But not impossible.
Because now I knew the truth. I saw what he was.
I saw what I’d become, loving him.
And I couldn’t keep feeding a relationship that was built on betrayal and obsession. Not when it cost me my mate. My child. My soul.
As I stood up, my legs trembled slightly beneath me. My heart tightened, and my lungs felt like they were about to collapse. It took everything I had not to fall back into that chair and break down in front of everyone.
But not here.
Not now.
Just a little longer. Hold it together a little longer.
Then I could go home.
Lock the doors.
Fall apart in the dark.
Cry until I couldn’t breathe, until I emptied out every last emotion burning holes through my chest.
I hated crying. But I needed this one. I needed this release or my heart would shatter under the pressure. It already was.
I had so much to mourn.
Amber. Our broken bond. The child I never got to know.
But most importantly, losing Reed. The relationship I'd nurtured for eleven years.
Five years dating. Six years married.
Gone.
Just… gone.
He’d been in my life since I was ten years old.
And now… I had to let him go.
I remembered my mother’s voice—cutting and sharp and right. She’d told me once that Reed and I were toxic. That what we had wasn’t love, it was codependency dressed in pretty words and obsession.
I hadn’t wanted to hear it.
But now?
Now I understood.
We were never fated.
Never meant to be.
It was time… to finally let go.