The Chubby Luna The Alpha Mock Rescued Him From Death

Chapter 3:The Debt I Owe

My feet ached with every step, but I couldn't afford a taxi tonight, not after what had just been taken from my pay, so I walked, my shoes scuffing against the cracked pavement as the sky bled orange into gray above me.

A car pulled up beside me, sleek and black, the kind of car that made people on the street stop and stare. The window slid down.

"Mercy." Frank leaned across the passenger seat, his smile easy, confident, the smile of a man who had never once been told no and believed it. "Get in. I'll take you home."

I kept walking. "No, thank you."

He rolled the car forward at a crawl, matching my pace like this was a game he enjoyed. "Come on. It's getting dark. Let me drive you home."

"I said no." I didn't look at him. I fixed my eyes on the road ahead and quickened my steps, though quickening anything after the day I'd had felt like wading through wet sand.

"You know I like you, right?" His voice dropped, softer now, like that would somehow change my answer. "I've liked you for months, Mercy. Why do you keep running from me?"

I stopped walking then, just long enough to face him directly. "I'm not running from you, Frank. I'm telling you I'm not interested. There's a difference between running away and not being interested."

His smile faltered for half a second before it clicked back into place. "Suit yourself then." The window slid back up, and the car pulled away.

I didn't mind him. I'm happy he is gone now. I just kept walking fast so I could get home and have a good meal because I was so tired.

By the time I reached our gate, my legs were trembling, and my mind was already miles away, replaying Alpha Ethan's voice, the laughter in the hallway. I didn't hear a car pull up behind me until a voice called my name.

"Mercy."

I turned, and there he was, stepping out of that same black car, parked right outside my house like he had every right to be there.

"Frank." I walked toward him fast, lowering my voice, glancing back at our gate. "What are you doing here? I told you—"

"I know what you told me." He closed the distance between us, his hands sliding into his pockets, that same infuriating calm on his face. "I don't accept it."

"You have to." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm not interested in you. I have never been. Please, just stop coming around."

"Mercy?"

My mother's voice cut through the evening air like a blade.

I turned to find her standing at the gate, one hand still on the latch, her eyes wide and fixed not on me, but on the car behind Frank. On the leather seats visible through the open door. On the watch glinting at his wrist even in the dying light.

I watched something shift in her face. The way her mouth softened. The way her spine straightened, like she was suddenly standing taller for reasons that had nothing to do with pride in me.

A car so expensive like that. A wealthy man like that running after mercy? I could see the thought moving behind her eyes as clearly as if she'd spoken it aloud. And beneath it, quieter, uglier:Why her, and not Mary? This man must marry my daughter Marry and not Mercy. I would do anything in my power to switch Marry to him.

She didn't say a word to Frank. She turned and disappeared back into the house without another glance at either of us.

"I have to go," I told him, already walking toward the gate.

"Think about what I said," he called after me. "I'm not giving up on you."

I didn't answer. I didn't look back.

Inside, my mother's voice carried from the kitchen doorway before I'd even taken off my shoes.

"Nathaniel." She said my father's name the way she always did when she wanted him to drop everything. "Please Come. You need to hear this.

I heard my father's chair scrape against the floor in the sitting room. By the time I stepped further inside, they were both standing in the hallway, and my mother's arms were folded tight across her chest, her chin lifted.

"What is this I'm hearing?" my father asked, before I'd said a single word.

"Hearing what?"

"Don't play games with me, Mercy." My mother's eyes narrowed. "A young wealthy man car outside my house?. Since when do you have rich men following you home?"

"He's not — I don't even want him, Mama. I met him at a shop months ago. He kept saying he wants to marry me. I've told him no every single time, I don't even encourage him, I—"

"Marry you?" My father's laugh was short and humorless. "A man like that wants to marry you?"

The way he said it, like the idea itself was a joke, settled somewhere cold in my chest.

"You're still young," my mother snapped, cutting in before I could respond. "You think marriage is the next thing on your mind? If anyone in this house is thinking about a husband right now, it should be Mary. She's the eldest. It's her turn, not yours."

"I never said I wanted to marry him," I said, my voice rising despite myself. "I've been telling him no. I don't know why you're upset with me about this."

"Because you clearly haven't been discouraging him enough," my father said, stepping closer, his voice hardening. "Do you know the debt we owe, Mercy? Do you have any idea what it costs to put your sister through university? The fees, the housing, the debts we are still paying off two years later?" He shook his head slowly, like I was something he couldn't quite understand. "And instead of thinking of ways to help pay that back, you're out here entertaining rich men and dreaming about running off and getting married?"

"I never dreamed of anything," I said, and my voice cracked despite my effort to hold it steady. "I work every day. I give you almost everything I earn. I didn't ask that man to follow me. I told him no. I've always told him no."

"Enough." My mother's hand cut through the air between us, and the word landed final and heavy. "I don't want to hear another word about it." She turned toward the kitchen doorway, not even looking at me as she spoke. "Go and prepare something for us to eat. Now!. Your sister has been at her internship all day, she's tired and exhausted, and she needs a proper meal when she gets home."