The Luna Choosing Game

Chapter 0583

Julian immediately took another step backwards, adding more space between him and me. We both nervously glanced at Nicholas who mostly seemed confused by his own reaction. He cut off his growl with a sharp grunt.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't worry," I replied.

"It's my fault," Julian said.

"No," Nicholas quickly corrected. "I don't know what came over me."

"I knew this game was a bad idea," Bridget says, rising from the couch. "I tried to warn everyone, but no one takes me seriously."

I distinctly remembered Bridget championing the idea for charades so much that she took to mostly organizing it herself. Now, suddenly, when something had gone wrong, she didn't want anything to do with the idea?

"We should definitely stop," Bridget continued, "I, for one, am out totally." She looked around at everyone, expecting them to agree.

Maybe she wasn't wrong in this instance. The joyful mood I had been attempting to cultivate seemed utterly at waste now, with only thick tension in the air.

Jessica worried her bottom lip. Veronica looked down at her lap. Julian apologized. Nicholas said, "I'm the one at fault."

Everything really did seem like it was falling apart.

Then Elva raised her head, looking up from her coloring books. She spotted the empty spot between Nicholas and Jessica on the couch.

"Can I be on Nick-lass's team?" she asked.

And just like that, the entire mood shifted. The tension broke and everything brightened. Jessica laughed. Veronica's lips twitched in an almost smile. Julian smiled outright. So did Nicholas.

"Of course you can," Nicholas said. He glanced at me. "If it's okay with your mom."

Elva turned her doe eyes on me. It would have been fine with me anyway, but having her look at me like that would have melted even my coldest moods.

told her, and she cheered.

said. She placed her hands on her hips. "This unbalances the teams." "I don't

now have four, compared to your team's three." "My team' she says," Julian scoffed. "Didn't you just tell everyone that

to take your place," Nicholas

thought we were quitting the game," Bridget

of a child," Julian told her. "Just sit this one

of them, even Elva. I sidestepped into her line of sight, blocking her from seeing my child and looking at her that way. Elva was innocent in all this. If Bridget wanted to be mad

me.

she pushed me off that boat was the moment she forfeited any right to my feelings. I should have stopped caring what she thought long ago. When she left me in that pit on the jungle island? Or maybe even

a long time. It was past

she turned at stormed off towards

she was gone, the

next, so she hopped to her feet and rushed to the bowl to pick out her word. I decided to stay with her, while Julian returned to his seat beside Veronica. Neither of them seemed to care that I was

think,

of paper with a word and looked at

to act out. But Elva seemed confident about what

took her place in front of her team. I

"Timer!" she called.

from three, then said,

over to me and hugged me. Tears welled in my eyes at once, but I blinked them back. I dropped down to one knee and immediately hugged her

called.

her noodle arms around my neck, then she let me go.

in time to catch Elva's hug. He wrapped his arms around her

"Family," Nicholas said.

shook her head a

Nicholas considered.

asked, slightly taken

seemed to click within Nicholas. An understanding

"Home," he said.

heart hammered in my chest. How had

"You got it,