Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again. - Chapter 310

Chapter 310: Parting ways, bitterly.
With eyes that were shadowed with fury, Moon stared at Linda and hissed angrily. “Your engagement is none of my business.” Her gaze shifted to her traitor of a father. “We need to talk away from the hussy you have entangled yourself with.”

Dustin chuckled, taking a sip of the tea. “Listen child, there is nothing you cannot say here, Linda is going to be your mother soon and I hope not to hear this hussy talk, or any other insulting language when speaking to her or about her.”

Before Moon could respond, Linda reached for Dustin’s hand and kissed his cheek. Her head tilted slightly. “It’s okay darling, she is just a child. As the grown up here and her future mother, I won’t make things difficult for her. I will leave you two to it.” she said smoothly.

A serpent-like smile teased her lips as her eyes met Moon’s just as she stood up. She walked away slowly, her own eyes burning with a rage she had hidden away.

When the door closed behind her, the silence felt heavier than a giant stone.

Moon inhaled slowly and started as she figured there was not a moment to lose. “Father, we need to go to crosstown now. That was the plan.”

Her father sighed. “Moon….” He began but she cut him off, knowing well that he was going to bring up the engagement.

“NO!….no more excuses,” she shouted. “You have stalled long enough. The roads are clear. The storms have passed. We can make it in a week if we do not encounter obstacles.”

Dustin put his cup down and looked into her eyes. “Moon, I am not going anywhere.” He exhaled, having finally told her the truth.

For a heartbeat, she thought she hadn’t heard him right. But she could see it in his eyes that he was no longer stalling or stringing her along, he was finally telling her what his decision was.

“W-what do you mean?” She asked him. Did he mean for now or forever?

“I am not leaving Greenhill academy unless it falls and we are all forced to find a new home,” he said firmly this time. “There is food here, warmth, safety. Why would I leave it for a promise land I am not sure exists?”

Moon slammed both palms against the table. The plates rattled, the tea and mead spilled. “Good life!?” She spat. “Or is it that woman you are fucking every night?”

Her father’s eyes hardened. He stood abruptly, chair scrapping against the floor. He leaned over the table, finger pointing right at her face. “Watch your mouth, you spoiled brat!” He warned. “Don’t you dare insult my future wife. Linda was right about you; all you care about is your wants and needs. Life is not all about you Moon, I am a person too and I am allowed to decide what I want for myself.”

She laughed_a bitter, trembling sound that cracked through the room. “That bitch has really screwed with your mind. Do you even remember that you just became a widower? That my mother’s body could still be out there somewhere, rotting under the snow or hanging on the walls of Zenith? You do not even know whether she was buried or eaten by wild beasts! For all we know, she survived somehow and is waiting for us to grow stronger and return for her. Yet here you are, spreading another woman’s legs and selling yourself to her like a five dollar a night whore.”

The slap came before she could breathe.

It cracked through the air_sharp, heavy and final. The force knocked Moon sideways. She hit the ground as the chair fell back, her ears ringing, her cheeks burning with more heat than an ordinary slap ever could result in.

Disbelief shredded her bones; tears spilled from her eyes. Her father had never raised his hand on her, and she had said worse things to him than this. She blamed that witch that had wrapped him around her finger, toying around with him.

When her vision and hearing cleared, her father’s loud voice pierced her ears.

“You do not think I remember your mother?” He bellowed. “You think I don’t see her face every time I close my eyes? I remember that look of shock and betrayal in her eyes. Do you think I don’t know what happened that day?”

Moon pushed herself up slowly, her cheek throbbing. “What are you talking about?” She shouted.

“I know when Rowena tells a lie, she did that day when you claimed she poisoned Aliana.” He went on, voice shaking with rage. “There is no way Rowena could have killed that girl. She cried when Sunshine slaughtered her pig.

There is only one reason why she confessed….you. She must have done that to save you because she loved you more than her life itself. She took the blame for your sin! And you blamed her….you even shamelessly looked me in the eye and continued to lie about it. You killed your own mother, but you stand here and say such crap to me.”

He looked up and roared, flames rising to the air from his hands. “I am the only one mourning her between the two of us.”

The words hit harder than his hand.

He pointed at her, his face red. “I’ve kept quiet all this time, in denial of the truth because your mother would not want to see us fighting. But not anymore. I cannot keep pretending that I don’t know that she is dead because of you. She was my wife…not just your mother but my wife.” His voice rose even higher as he finished, heaving and boiling with fury.

Moon stared at him, lips trembling from where she’d bitten, it was now clear that her father was not the fool she thought him to be.

Slowly, she stood, chin raised, defiance in her eyes. “Accusing mother was not my intention.” She said to him, hoping he would understand. “Things did not go as planned, mother and I planned to make the girl a little sick but she died instead. Did you want both of us killed for the crime? One of us had to survive and mother had lived her life at least…..I am just starting out. And she would not have wanted me to die along with her…I am sure that you feel the same way too.”

Dustin’s jaw tightened. “You are living a second life so you have lived already. And stop with the lies, Rowena was not your accomplice. That is impossible!”

“But it’s the truth!” Moon insisted, getting more desperate. “Listen father…..we are the only family each of us has left. Let us stick to our plan.” Moon said, voice breaking. “Mother would have wanted us to go to Crosstown.”

Dustin remained quiet.

“With or without you I am leaving the academy today.” She threatened.

He crossed his arms and replied coldly. “Then be my guest.”

For a moment, neither of them moved. Fresh smells of beans came from the kitchen, outside the wind began to moan again, sweeping frost against the windows.

Moon blinked hard, angry tears spilling down her face. She turned away before her father could see them. Without another word, she walked out of the room, went to her room and packed whatever food she could take in the suitcase they had brought with them when they arrived.

Her fingers trembled, not from the cold but from everything breaking inside her. Her relationship with her father was broken and nothing would ever fix it.

When she was done, she slung the bag pack over her shoulder and pulled the suitcase. Slowly, her lone figure left the gates of Greenhill and ventured into the snowy white world.

Linda watched from the wall, smiling cunningly. She gestured to the superhuman beside her and said, “Follow her for a while then grab her and keep her somewhere. Find out all she knows about this apocalypse.”