Page 262 of His Sunshine Baby

I bet. It probably disrupted her evil plans a lot.

“It was quick, though. First, that bastard struggled a bit, but, well, your man didn’t come alone, so he didn’t have a chance to run. The Black blondie was furious, and wanted a duel with him, probably to make him suffer a long death.”

“That fight never happened,” I say. “Diego’s body was fine; he was just shot in the head.”

“Yeah, well, your boyfriend didn’t see it coming either, from the face he made. His brother arrived.”

I stay speechless for a few seconds. His brother?

“Liam?”

“No, not the brat, the King. He showed up out of nowhere. From the look on his face, your man didn’t expect him. And just like that, the King took out a gun. The two brothers argued for a while. Your man wanted a fair fight or whatever, but the King said that he didn’t deserve any chance. Something like he didn’t have any pity for rapists. And just like that, he shot Diego right in the head.”

I’m… I did not expect that at all.

Damian Black. Nora’s husband killed Diego. Not to help Nathaniel, but because the King wouldn’t allow a rapist on his territory. I suddenly remember Nora’s past. She never really went as far as giving me details, but something like that happened to her; in her previous pack, someone attacked her.

No wonder the King was so cold-blooded as to kill Diego. For him, it wasn’t a murder, it wasn’t a crime. It was theexecution of a criminal. Because I went through what Nora barely avoided, and Damian Black knew. And he wouldn’t allow someone like that in Silver City. Did Nate tell his brother about what happened? There are so many ways Damian could have found out, back then. He was watching me because of my relationship with Nate, I bet he got a hold of my criminal record too.

“Shit,” whispers Chris.

“Yeah, that doesn’t make the situation better at all,” sighs Levi.

Indeed, this is a problem. Nathaniel or Damian, either of the brothers killing Diego doesn’t change anything. A member of the White Moon clan was killed by one of the Black brothers, that’s all our pack members are going to see. This is such a mess! Even if he is the King, even if Diego was formerly banished, Damian Black had no right to execute him; he was part of another clan, not his.

We exchange looks, but this is a real situation. If we can’t get the White Moon to change their opinion…

“Oh, please,” suddenly says Iris with a dramatic sigh. “You guys are such idiots, aren’t you?”

“Iris, you better have something smart and useful to say following that sentence,” growls Levi, just as irritated as I am.

Chris glares at her too, but his sister just shrugs.

“There’s one simple way to resolve this, isn’t there? Tell them the truth.”

I stay silent, unsure about what she means, and Levi and Chris look just as confused. Iris sneers.

“Just tell them the truth, Elena, what happened nine years ago. The real reason Diego and you fought. The White Moon will change their minds if they know what Diego did.”

I slowly understand. That’s right. I stayed silent about what had truly happened back then. Aside from a handful of people,no one knew that I stabbed Diego because he raped me, and that I lost a baby. I didn’t want to talk about it, so I let people make their assumptions about the real reasons for the fight, and Clark was the only judge for it. I went to jail, Diego disappeared, and no one brought it up again. People thought we had always been an electric, unstable couple that suddenly crossed the line. For werewolves, especially alphas, it didn’t seem so crazy.

However, it wasn’t so simple. Iris is right. People would change their minds if they knew the truth about Diego. No one would cry or even mind the death of someone like him. Actually, they might even think it was justice. He committed the worst sin possible for a werewolf. The one thing our kind can never, ever forgive.

Killing a werewolf pup.

“I can’t decide if it’s a crazy idea, a genius idea, or the shittiest one ever.”

I take a deep sigh. We have been debating Iris’ suggestion for a while now, and this isn’t getting any better. We’re back at Clark’s house with everyone, including Isabella and Orpheus. Daniel came back from work too, but Chris stayed behind with his sister to talk after Levi and I left.

“I’m positive the pack will be mad at Clark for keeping this whole thing quiet,” says Orpheus. “It’s too big.”

“Agreed, but I think they have every right to be,” announces Isabella, who has been glaring at Clark non-stop since we told her everything. “Really, Clark, what were you thinking?”

“It was my choice,” I explain. “Back then, I was perturbed a lot, Isa. Losing my unborn child threw me into depression, and I was convicted too. I begged Clark and my parents to not tell the pack what had happened. I didn’t want to hear about it anymore, and I thought if I was gone for a while, and Diego too, I would be forgotten.”

Thinking back, it was also probably the only way for me to truly end my abusive relationship with him, by pretending nothing happened. I didn’t care that I was convicted for attempted murder, compared to the loss I had suffered. As long as Diego was out of sight and far from me, I knew I’d be able to recover someday.

Isabella takes a deep sigh.

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