Chapter 21: The Replacement
“You’re still here?” Logan asked as Luna walked back into the hall.
Luna stopped by his table, she picked up the champagne flute on it and downed its contents in one gulp.
“Yep,” she turned to Logan and gave him a dry smile, “it’s like I want to deliberately punish myself, you know?”
Logan smiled, the crease between his eyebrows showed, reminding Luna of how she always loved to see him smile. She had never seen that crease on Justin’s face, because he had never smiled. At least not that she knew of, and definitely not to her.
“I’d be the first person to say my family’s not easy,” Logan said. “I’ve always admired your fairness and grace when talking about Justin and Moira to other people, considering they’re the two people who made your life miserable for years.”
Luna shrugged and gave a wry smile. “Well, if I had said negative things about them, I surely would have paid for it in tenfold now, wouldn’t I? It would definitely find a way to come back and affect me, she always found a way.”
Suddenly needing a drink again, Luna looked around the crowded room, her eyes scanning for a server.
“Maybe you stop the drinking tonight,” Logan suggested gently.
Luna turned her head to look at him, she looked down at his hand over hers around the stem of her glass. She had been tapping restlessly against it. Luna knew her drinking regimen, first, she got tipsy after having a couple of glasses of wine, then, she became restless and fidgety after taking more. And then, if she still went on ahead to take more after that, she graduated to flat-out drunk.
She smiled a little at Logan. “Yeah, maybe I should. Thanks,” she added.
Logan smiled too and patted her hand, and then his eyes went to something behind her. Luna turned to look, and her back immediately went up when she saw Moira, and a woman beside her.
Moira’s eyes dropped down to Logan’s hand on hers, they went back up to meet Luna’s eyes. Luna looked right back at her.
“I want to introduce you to someone,” Moira said, still maintaining that eye contact.
Moira rarely used her name, when she was married to Justin, and apparently, a tradition she is still continuing. And Luna knew, had always known, it was a tactic- one of Moira’s many ones- to undermine her. To make her feel less than a person, less in the sense that her name was not even worth mentioning. And it grated.
Luna fisted her free hand beside her, she turned to look at the woman standing beside Moira. She was tall, around a couple of inches taller than her, she looked to be around her age and she was beautiful. She had auburn hair, curled richly to fall down around her shoulders and frame her face. And what a face too, Luna noticed. Bold, enigmatic and exotic, it was a face Luna knew instantly that men would fall for in a heartbeat. While women envied her.
Luna didn’t, she told herself, she never judged a woman, or a person, by looks. A person, yes, but mostly a woman. Because she, very personally, knew what it was like to wear a façade that didn’t match who she truly was on the inside, on her face. For survival.
So Luna didn’t envy the mystery woman Moira was introducing to her, but she was curious. She looked back at Moira, who smiled at her.
“This is Honor Kosarin,” she said and paused intentionally. She held Luna’s eyes as she added, “Justin’s fiancé.”
The smile, which had been the predecessor to the arrow to her gut, spread on Moira’s face. Luna stared, she didn’t want to, and if she had had even an inkling about what Moira had been about to say a second before she said it, she would have been prepared.
But she hadn’t been expecting it, she hadn’t been expecting it all.
So she stared, she could feel Logan’s hand on hers. Warm, strong and friendly. It tightened a little, no doubt at Moira’s open callousness, and Luna didn’t have to look at his face to know that he was giving his wife a disapproving look. But Logan’s support didn’t take away the mental punch to her stomach.
“Well, since Luna has decided to be rude,” Moira said after the stretch of silence that had followed her announcement, her tone is scornful, “I’ll introduce her. Honor, dear, meet Luna Jones.”
She didn’t add ‘Justin’s ex’ as Luna had thought she would, but then again, she knew it was just like Moira’s philosophy about her name. If she didn’t call Luna Justin’s ex, then Luna might never be Justin’s ex. In her mind, of course.
And even though Moira didn’t say the words, everybody standing there knew it. Even Honor.
She turned to look at her just as Honor’s gaze slowly trails down from her head to her toes. Oh yeah, she knew.
“Nice to meet you,” she said.
She didn’t stretch out a hand towards her for a shake, and her face remained bland.
“You are going to be seeing each other quite a lot, Honor is also on the board for the gala event,” Moira added.
She didn’t give that as an excuse for why she had introduced Honor to Luna. Moira didn’t believe in excuses, and she certainly didn’t believe she owed anybody one for anything, ever. So Luna concluded she had only said it to bring Luna’s attention back to hers.
Luna looked back at Moira, and Moira gave her the same look she had always given her in the past. The look that told Luna she was not a part of the elite society, that she had never been, and that she would never be. And Moira was dedicated to making sure she never forgot it.
“Come, let’s go meet our guests,” Moira said, her eyes still on Luna, but clearly referring to Honor.
The two women turned and walked away, leaving Luna still just staring.