Olivia’s POV


    I hit the floor hard.


    The gasps around me didn’t bother me. It was Chole’s words that echoed like a thunderp across the ballroom. She wasn’t just attacking me-she was trying to poison everyone’s image of me, make Ethan hate me beyond repair.


    But she had made one mistake,


    She knew too much.


    Iy there for only a second before I pushed myself up, ignoring the sharp pain in my elbow. The murmurs were al- ready spreading like wildfire.


    I met Chole’s wild eyes and gave her a cold smile. “Interesting,” I said, brushing imaginary dust from my dress. “You seem awfully well-informed for someone who wasn’t there.”


    Her lips parted. “I-someone told me!”


    “Who?” I stepped forward slowly. “Who told you what happened to mest night, Chole? You said I wasgang raped by rogues-words only someone on the inside would use. Were you there?”


    Chole paled, but her pride refused to let her back down. “Everyone knows you—”


    I didn’t let her finish. “Everyone knows what? Because until you shouted it here in a ballroom full of people, no one knewanything.” I turned to the guests. “Chole exposed herself before I could even press charges. That’s not just cruel -that’s stupid.”


    The crowd murmured louder. Shock was now folding into suspicion. I looked at Amelia next, who stood frozen be- side Madeline Windsor.


    “This,” I said, gesturing to the hysterical girl in white, “is your ideal Luna? This is your carefully chosen Alpha’s daughter?” My voice was thick with sarcasm. “She’s ndering her fiancé’s wife in public, after orchestrating a trap to destroy her.”


    Amelia trembled. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.


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    Ethan’s face was thunder. His fists clenched at his sides, I saw something shift in him. Rage, shame, and something darker. He didn’t ask Chole to deny it. He didn’t even look at her.


    Instead, he stepped forward and seized her by the throat.


    “What the hell did you do to her?” he growled, his voice like steel breaking.


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    13:30


    Chole iled, panicking, trying to pry his fingers from her throat. “Ethan-!”


    ‘Answer me!” he shouted.


    Felix shot forward and grabbed Ethan’s arm, forcing it down. “She’s your fiancée, Hawthrone,” he said with a strained calm. “Maybe Chole’s just upset and didn’t mean it. She might’ve just… said something out of anger.”


    Chole crumpled behind Felix, coughing and red-faced. But it wasn’t just her brother stepping in now.


    Be Windsor, third daughter of the Windsor Pack and always too eager to prove her diplomacy, walked into the cen- ter of the circle forming around us.


    “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Be said, smoothing her silk sleeve with calcted calm. “Even if what Chole said is truc-and that’s still uncertain-it doesn’t prove that she orchestrated anything.”


    She gave me a pointed look. “Perhaps someone saw Olivia with rogues and reported it to Chole. That would exin how she found out.”


    The room tensed again. Some guests exchanged nces. The tide was shifting again.


    Be turned toward me, her voice cool. “And if that’s the case, then maybe you feared the scandal would spread, and acted first. Before Ethan could find out, you came here ying the victim.”


    I almostughed when I heard Be speak.


    Of course she’de rushing in to y peacemaker, being the sister of Chole. Her subtle words coated in sweetness, but sharpened to cut. I could already see how the gears in Chole’s brain turned. Sure enough, shetched onto Be’s suggestion like a drowning woman to a raft.


    She staggered up from the floor, rubbing her throat, her expression shifting from hysterical rage to wounded inno-


    cence.


    “I swear,” Chole said tearfully, clinging to Ethan’s arm, “I would never do something like that. Ethan, you know me!”


    Ethan didn’t react. His jaw was clenched so tight I thought he might shatter his own teeth.


    “It wasn’t me!” she cried louder. “My friend told me she saw Olivia go into a hotel roomst night. And before that, she saw a bunch of men enter the same room-how would I know what happened unless someone told me?”


    I raised my eyebrows, amused. “Your friend? How convenient.”


    “I didn’t want to say anything,” Chole sniffled, ignoring me. “But the way she came barging in tonight, stirring up drama… I just thought, maybe I had to defend myself.”


    Then she turned to the crowd, her voiceced with practiced desperation. “Ethan and I—we’re in love. Everyone knows that. Olivia and Ethan might be married on paper, but they don’t love each other. She’s the third party here! I’ m the one who should be by his side. She should’ve stepped aside long ago.”


    There it was. The narrative she wanted the world to believe.


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    13:30


    Ethan’s eyes narrowed. His voice, when he spoke, was low and deadly calm. “So you’re saying you’re innocent.”


    Chole nodded rapidly. “If I’m lying, I’ll die right here-”


    “Be careful what you offer,” I said tly.


    She flinched.


    The Windsors stood in awkward silence. Madeline, ever the loyal mother, picked up where Chole faltered. “This is the behavior of a desperate woman. You’ve trying to be maniptive tonight, Olivia. That’s how you must have se- duced Ethan in the first ce. Now you’re acting like a martyr just because he moved on?”


    I didn’t even blink. Her words couldn’t reach me now.


    Amelia, on the other hand, was unusually quiet.


    That’s when I moved.


    I walked calmly to the center of the ballroom, ignoring the stares that followed me like searchlights. My heels clicked against the polished floor, echoing in the heavy silence. I pulled out my phone and lifted it.


    “Since we’re talking about evidence,” I said quietly, “why don’t we listen to what Chole had to say… in her own voice?”


    Then I pressed y.


    Her voice cut through the ballroom like a dagger.


    “He won’t answer you. You know why? Because he doesn’t care. He’s mine now.”


    “I set this up perfectly. The rogues will y with you all night and we’ll post it tomorrow. Let’s see who still calls you Luna after that.”


    “Don’t bother calling the police. Windsor runs this city and the Hawthrones will make sure you vanish without a trace.”


    “Tomorrow, Ethan and I will announce our engagement. And you? You’ll be a joke.”


    The room fell into a horrified hush.


    Every word mmed into the guests like a hammer. I let the silence stretch. I didn’t need to add anything. I didn’t need to shout or cry. Chole had done all the work for me.


    Chole’s face turned ghostly pale. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.


    Ethan’s eyes were glowing red now. Rage radiated off him in waves. His wolf was barely contained.


    Chole took one terrified look at him and scrambled backward.


    “Wait! Wait-!” she shrieked,tching onto Felix. “I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean any of it!”


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    13:30


    She was hysterical now, trembling all over.


    “It wasn’t me-it wasn’t just me—I didn’t n this alone!” she screamed. “It wasn’t my idea!”


    Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “Then whose was it?”


    Chole pointed a shaking finger toward Amelia.


    “She… she told me to do it!” she sobbed. “Luna Amelia ordered me to do it!”