Chapter 780:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

Luna looked at the doll. She babbled and waved the toy, her hand brushing the doll’s leg near the Zusanli point. It was clumsy, accidental to any objective observer, but to Aurora it was a sign.

Elias sat up and lifted Luna into the air. “She has the Vance blood. The Healer’s touch. It’s dormant, but it’s there.”

“It skipped a generation with me,” Aurora said, smiling as tears pricked her eyes. “I learned it. She knows it. It’s instinct.”

It was a moment of pure, unadulterated magic. A legacy secured. A future bright with promise.

“If only Ximena could see this,” Aurora said softly, her smile fading. “She always said she wanted to be the cool aunt.”

“She chose her family,” Elias said, his voice hardening slightly. “Speaking of which…”

He picked up his tablet. “Security just flagged an incident at the entrance of the Kensington Foundation Charity Gala.” He tapped the screen and projected the feed onto the wall.

It was live footage from the entrance of the gala.

𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Xander Tate was there, wearing a tuxedo that looked rented. His cast was gone, replaced by a flimsy wrist brace. He was shouting at a security guard.

“I’m family!” Xander screamed, waving a crumpled business card. “Aurora Vance is my cousin! I’m on the list!”

“Sir, you are on the blacklist,” the guard said impassively. “Please step back.”

“This is a mistake!” Xander grabbed the velvet rope. “Call her! Tell her Xander is here! I have a business proposition!”

Two large guards stepped forward. They didn’t speak. They simply lifted Xander by the armpits and carried him away from the red carpet like a bag of trash. Cameras flashed, capturing his humiliation.

“Let me go! You’ll regret this!” Xander wailed.

Elias turned off the feed.

“He’s getting desperate,” Elias noted. “The money must be gone.”

“He’ll go back to Ximena,” Aurora said, her face grim. “He’ll take his anger out on her.”

“We can’t intervene,” Elias reminded her. “Not until she asks.”

Aurora looked at Luna, who was happily chewing on the toy needle. “I hope she asks soon. Before there’s nothing left of her to save.”

Xander didn’t go home immediately after the humiliation at the gala. He went to a dive bar and spent the last of his cash on whiskey. As the alcohol burned in his gut, a plan formed, a nasty, vindictive one.

He knew Aurora’s schedule. He had bribed a cleaning lady at the pediatric clinic where the triplets had their checkups. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.

The next morning, Xander waited in the parking lot of the clinic. He looked disheveled. He hadn’t shaved. He wore the wrist brace prominently, rubbing it as if in agony, like a costume of grief.

A black SUV pulled up. Marcus stepped out and scanned the perimeter. Then Aurora emerged, radiant in a cream coat, sunglasses shielding her eyes.

Xander lunged from behind a parked car. “Aurora!”

Marcus was there in a blur of motion, his hand on Xander’s chest, stopping him dead five feet away.

“Back off,” Marcus growled.

“I just want to talk!” Xander shouted, looking past Marcus to Aurora. “It’s Ximena! She’s sick!”

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