Chapter 139 The Truth on Paper

Mrs. Jones found the folder exactly where Eira had told her to look: tucked away in the bottom drawer of Eira’s home office desk.

She picked it up and headed for the door. Halfway down the stairs, the folder slipped. Papers scattered everywhere.

"Damn it," Mrs. Jones muttered, crouching down. She began gathering them, eyes fixed on putting everything back in order.

Then one page caught her eye. A bank statement. Large transfers. Alpha Alpha Sebastian’s name. Serena Winthrop.

She froze. The figures were impossible to miss. She picked up another page. Then another.

By the time she finished, her face was red with anger.

Mrs. Jones placed the papers back in the folder, closed it, and continued to Stone Park. Eira had asked her to deliver the file to Luna Margaret. She hadn’t said what was inside, but now Mrs. Jones understood.

When she reached the gazebo, Luna Margaret looked her up and down. "And who exactly are you?"

"I work for Miss Crawford."

"A housekeeper?" Luna Margaret sniffed. "What makes you think you can look down on me?"

"You’re right, ma’am. Nothing wrong with being a housekeeper." Mrs. Jones straightened. "But I don’t raise spoiled brats who think the world owes them a living."

Luna Margaret’s face darkened. "Are you calling my son a brute?"

"Did I say that?"

"Watch your mouth. Say one more thing and I’ll wipe that smirk off your face."

Eira stepped forward. The file was what mattered, not a public shouting match.

But Mrs. Jones was already fired up. She planted her hands on her hips and stepped closer until Luna Margaret instinctively took a step back.

"Before you start making threats, read what your golden boy has been doing with his money."

Luna Margaret snatched the folder. "Fine. Let’s see what garbage you’ve cooked up."

She opened it. The first page silenced her.

Her eyes moved across the figures. Confusion. Then her hands began to shake as she flipped through the documents.

"This is fake," she whispered. "It has to be."

But the records were clear. Year after year, Alpha Alpha Sebastian’s money flowed into Serena Winthrop’s accounts. Hundreds of thousands at a time.

"I think you understand it perfectly," Eira said, her voice calm. "Alpha Sebastian and I were married for four years. He gave me three thousand dollars a month. I paid the rest of our household expenses with my own salary. When Isabella wrecked her car and ended up in the hospital, your family expected me to cover the settlement. How was I supposed to do that on three thousand dollars a month?"

Luna Margaret’s lips parted, but no words came out.

"While Serena was overseas, she drained three hundred thousand dollars a month from Alpha Sebastian’s accounts," Eira continued. "The day she came home, he bought her a Bentley. Then he bought her a luxury penthouse."

She nodded toward the folder.

"That penthouse is worth twice the value of your entire neighborhood. Yet you spent four years calling me a gold-digger and accusing me of ruining your son."

Eira’s voice remained steady.

"The truth is, Alpha Sebastian penny-pinched everywhere else just so he could give Serena whatever she wanted. He starved himself, his wife, his parents, and his sister so he’d never have to say no to the woman he really loved."

Luna Margaret stared at the documents.

"The five-figure handbags Serena carried, the designer clothes, the jewelry worth more than most people’s homes. Your son paid for all of it."

Eira paused.

"Alpha Sebastian used to tell me that money should be saved or invested. He kept me on a tight budget, and I accepted it because I knew he loved Serena, not me."

Her gaze hardened.

"But he lied to you too. He let his own family believe I was the one wasting his money. He let you blame me for his choices."

The words hit Luna Margaret harder than any insult.

She had adored Serena. Now she was seeing the truth.

Serena had been bleeding Alpha Sebastian dry long before she ever became part of the Hale family. She had not been the devoted woman everyone thought she was. She had been draining his accounts while the family blamed Eira.

"Serena," Luna Margaret whispered. Her breathing grew fast and uneven. "That little snake..."

Then her knees gave out.

Eira rushed forward and caught her before she hit the ground. She lowered Luna Margaret carefully onto the bench.

Mrs. Jones pulled out her phone and called 911. "If she collapses here, Miss Crawford will be dragged into another mess," she muttered.

The paramedics arrived within minutes and took Luna Margaret to the nearest hospital.

Eira and Mrs. Jones followed in Mrs. Jones’s car.

Neither of them had expected the truth to affect Luna Margaret so badly.

--

When Luna Margaret came to in her hospital bed, Eira and Mrs. Jones were gone. Her husband and son were the only ones waiting at her bedside, both looking worried.

"Mom, you’re awake." Alpha Sebastian was on his feet the instant her eyes opened. "What happened? Why’d you collapse?"

Alpha Roger leaned in too. "How are you feeling, honey?"

Luna Margaret thought of the file. Every word Eira had said. The fury clogged her chest all over again, a red haze behind her eyes.

She lifted a trembling finger and pointed at her son.

"You tell me the truth right now. Where did all your money go these past four years?"

Alpha Sebastian’s breath caught. Panic flickered through his eyes, quickly replaced by a blank mask.

Alpha Roger frowned. "Why is that the first thing out of your mouth, Margaret? Wasn’t Eira handling the finances all along?"

"The hell she was!" Luna Margaret’s hand shot up like she meant to slap him, then thought better of it.

Her voice broke with a raw grief that shattered the usual composure of a Pack Luna. "Tell me. Look me and your father in the eye and tell me. Your salary, your dividends, your investment returns. All of it. Where did it go? Why were you hiding it from us?"

Alpha Roger read her expression and felt his stomach drop. He turned on his son. "Are you tangled up in something you shouldn’t be, Sebastian?"

"No." Alpha Sebastian’s mouth flattened into a hard line.

"Then what is your mother talking about?"

Luna Margaret couldn’t hold it back. "He gave it all to Serena!"

Her voice was a cracked whisper. "He couldn’t spend a dime on this family—not on his wife, not on his parents, not on his sister—but he could pour a fortune into some outsider with no name, no ring, no claim to us!"

She looked at Alpha Sebastian, her voice rising. "Did you ever buy me jewelry worth six figures? Did you ever buy your father a car that expensive? Did you shower Isabella with designer bags? Do you even own anything valuable yourself?"

Alpha Sebastian took the tongue-lashing without a word.

Alpha Roger looked at his silent son, then at his wife’s bloodless face. "Where did you hear all this, Margaret?"

"Where did I hear it? I didn’t have to hear anything. Eira threw the proof right in my face." Her cheeks still stung from the public humiliation.

"Eira? You went to see Eira?" Alpha Sebastian’s head snapped up. All he wanted to know was how his mother had gotten near her.

Luna Margaret’s head was pounding, but her mind was locked on one thing: the money, the betrayal, the shame of it all.

"Roger, ask your son yourself. Is it true or not? Sebastian, tell your father, am I lying?"