Chapter 8

"Ugh, that's brutal. The pup was so young."

"Yeah. Selene Hart, I've seen her a few times. She's soft, quiet, never showy. I didn't know she'd been through so much."

"I heard she's already moved out of Kane Pack. She's overseas recovering."

"Poor thing. This upper circle life, the water is so deep."

They weren't loud. But every word drove in.

Fiona's face cycled green and white. Her fingers shook under the table. She couldn't take it. She slammed her cup down.

The porcelain hitting marble was jarring. Everyone at the surrounding tables froze.

Fiona went red, stood up fast, eyes wet. "Shut up!"

The women recoiled. One frowned. "Oh please. You do the thing and now no one's allowed to talk about it?"

"You don't even have the shame to know what you did? And you're still out in public?"

Fiona shook. She ran out.

But she could run from a room. She couldn't run from the whole circle.

The feeds had exploded. Kane Pack in trouble. The Kane daughter accused of killing a child. Selene Hart filing against her ex-in-laws for domestic violence and protecting the offender. One headline after another climbed the trending list.

Screen grabs, Council summons, victim medical records. All there.

No one was willing to believe Fiona's "innocent" act anymore.

She was the rat everyone was chasing.

Partners pulled away from her name. Brands quietly blacklisted her business contact. Even the beauty salon she always went to turned off the lights before she walked in and said they were "closed for the day."

No one wanted to be near her.

The circles that used to flatter Kane Pack were quietly drifting away. They were standing with Hart Pack now.

Some of the older wives' "sympathies" spread faster still.

"My daughter is friends with Selene. Her pup was so sweet. So little and already gone. They say her sister-in-law did it. These people don't treat lives as lives."

"Sel was always so considerate. She never made trouble for her family at her Marking. Who knew Kane Pack had this kind of venom in it."

Nothing in those words was cruel on the surface. Each one landed like a blade on Kane Pack.

Meanwhile my legal team was pushing hard to lock down the evidence. I was at every single strategy session. I was calm. In some ways I was more precise than the lawyers.

This time I would not leave any cracks.

What I wanted wasn't to win a legal process. I wanted to cut every last string.

The hearing was set for a month later.

The family worried I wasn't stable enough. They arranged for me to go abroad to recover for a while. I let them.

The evening before the flight, I stood on the balcony and watched the city lights move like water. There wasn't a trace of attachment in me.

I didn't want Damien's regret anymore.

I wanted the reckoning.

The afternoon of the day I left, Damien finally got to the Hart estate.

The gate was high, the walls imposing. Bigger than any place he could remember.

He'd been driving without sleep for hours. His breath was uneven. He paused on the steps several times before he could bring his hand up to knock.

The door opened. My father stood there.

One cold look and Damien couldn't speak.

"You have the nerve to come here?" His voice was heavy with fury.

Damien swallowed hard. "Father-in-law, I, I want to see Selene. She's misunderstood me. I want to explain."

"Don't call me that. Misunderstood?" My father laughed, biting. "What did Sel misunderstand? Are you here to perform, or are you here to die?"

Damien's face went white, but he kept going. "I know she hates me. But it's not what she thinks, between me and Fiona. I can swear on anything. I'll get on my knees. I'll do anything. Just let me see her once."

Before he could finish, a voice cracked through the hall like thunder.

"Enough."

My brother came down the steps, his eyes full of fury and disdain.

"Damien, you dare show your face? What right do you have to ask for Sel? She almost died. Do you know that? Her pup is gone. Do you know that? You're lower than an animal."

"I called you my brother. What did you call me? You held me over her like a threat. What, were you really going to put wolfsbane in my cup?"

Damien choked. "I wasn't… I didn't know she would…"

"You didn't know?" My brother let out a sharp laugh. He grabbed Damien by the collar, his eyes red. "You knew exactly how soft-hearted she was. That's why you used her again and again. You let your disgusting sister move in while she was pregnant. You left her alone in a medical wing beside her daughter's body. And then you went and got hot with someone else in that same ward. You don't deserve to be called a person."

Damien's lips trembled. He could barely stand.

My father stepped forward, reached up, and tapped my brother's shoulder, telling him to let go. Then he stepped in front of Damien, looking down at him.

"Damien, I always thought you were just cold. Now I know you have no heart. You think a few apologies and she'll soften and come back?"

"Where were you before? When she was burning up with fever at midnight, pregnant, alone in that house? When she'd just given birth and your sister was at her? Whose side were you on?"