Chapter 70
Maddox never admitted he stopped loving me.
Not once.
+8 Pearls
Not even now–when his hand released my shoulder like I was something that disgusted him, something unworthy of being touched.
My arms hung uselessly at my sides, trembling. My knees threatened to give. I felt like someone had hollowed me out and left nothing but skin.
“Maddox.” My voice cracked–hoarse, broken, full of the ache I could no longer hide..
But the moment I opened my mouth, everything spilled out at once. I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
“IT WASNT ME!”
The scream tore from my throat, raw and ragged.
But he didn’t believe me
None of them did.
Maddox’s eyes darkened–not with concern, but with judgment. Cold. Condemning. Like he wasn’t looking at the girl he used to call his mate, but at a criminal caught in the act.
Then–Kael.
His fingers seized the back of my head so roughly my neck jerked. He forced me to face the hospital bed.
–“Look!” he snarled. “Look at what you did, Riley!”
Tessa lay there like a ghost–her skin gray, her lips tinged blue, her throat covered in bruises.
“You want to deny this too?” Kael’s voice cracked with fury. “If it wasn’t you, then who left those marks on her neck? Scarlett? You really expect us to believe the same lic–again?”
His voice trembled with disbelief.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head, blinking through tears, “I didn’t–I didn’t do this-”
“You just woke up and tried to kill her?” he spat. “You couldn’t wait even an hour before trying to silence the only witness!”
Witness.
That word struck me like lightning.
Tessa was the only one who could clear my name.
And now they thought I’d tried to kill her.
Maddox’s jaw clenched. “Just like five years ago–you lured her into the Black Forest with that fake message, knowing the Rogues were hunting in the area. She’s been in a coma ever since. All because you were jealous of her friendship with
I flinched
My heart pounded so hard I could barely breathe.
Scarlett stood behind them, quiet, tearful, covered in scratches from our fight. Her eyes were red. Her voice trembled.
“I wasn’t me,” she whimpered, voice catching on a sob. “Riley just–just attacked her out of nowhere. I tried to stop her, that’s how the scratched me
She held up her arms, revealing my claw marks.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You liar.” I croaked. “You almost killed her–1”
But the room was no longer listening to me.
Kael, Maddox, Ronan–one after the other, they circled in, voices rising like a pack ready to tear me apart.
“She hasn’t changed.”
“She’s worse.
“She should’ve stayed locked up.”
I couldn’t take it anymore.
Their voices blurred into static. My ears rang.
+8 Pearls
It was just like five years ago. The same people. The same accusations. No matter what I said, no matter how loud I screamed
I was always the villain in their story.
I felt my head spin.
My legs buckled.
Suddenly, I was falling through time–back to that cursed night in the Black Forest. The smell of blood. The Rogues. The silence after the scream. And their voices, echoing like wolves howling in judgment–calling me a monster, a liar, a killer.
And now it was happening again.
Scarlett–the real monster–was crying pretty tears, and I was the one they wanted to see burn.
I barely felt it when Kael shoved me.
I barely registered the sting in my ribs when Ronan grabbed my arm and slammed me into the wall.
The wind was knocked clear from my lungs. My back screamed in pain. My vision flashed white.
He was shouting something.
Accusing, Cursing.
Then his hands wrapped around my throat.
Tight
Too tight.
My body jerked.
I clawed at his wrists, but I was too weak. Too slow.
My lungs seized, desperate for air.
“P—please_” I rasped, black dots dancing in my vision.
The room swam. My knees gave
Everything faded.
But I forced the words out, one last time,
“Get the dortor.”