Riley’s POV
Maddox never admitted he stopped loving me.
Not once.
+8 Pearls
Not even now–<b>when </b>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 <b>like </b>someone had hollowed me out and left nothing but <b>skin</b>.
“Maddox.” My voice cracked–hoarse, broken, full of the ache I <b>could </b>no longer hide..
But the moment I opened my mouth, everything spilled out <b>at </b>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!”
Tessay there like <b>a </b>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 <b>you</b>, then who left those marks on her neck? Scarlett? <b>You </b>really expect us to believe <b>the </b>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 <b>woke </b>up <b>and </b>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 <b>years </b>ago–you lured her into the ck Forest with that fake message, <b>knowing </b>the Rogues were hunting in the area. She’s been in aa ever <b>since</b>. 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, <b>that’s </b>how the scratched me
She held up her arms, revealing my <b>w </b>marks.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You liar.” I croaked. “You almost killed her–1”
But <b>the </b>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 <b>apart</b>.
“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 usations. No matter what I said, no matter how loud I screamed
I was always the viin in their story.
I felt my head spin.
My legs buckled.
Suddenly, I was falling through time–back to that cursed night in the ck 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 <b>real </b>monster–was crying pretty tears, and I was the one they wanted to see burn.
I barely felt it when Kael <b>shoved </b>me.
I barely registered the sting in my ribs when Ronan grabbed my arm and mmed me into the <b>wall</b>.
The wind was knocked clear from my lungs. My back screamed in pain. My vision shed white.
He was shouting something.
using, Cursing.
Then his hands wrapped <b>around </b>my throat.
Tight
Too tight.
My body jerked.
I wed at his <b>wrists</b>, <b>but </b>I was too weak. Too <b>slow</b>.
My lungs seized, desperate for air.
“P—please_” I rasped, ck dots dancing in my <b>vision</b>.
The room swam. My knees <b>gave </b>
Everything faded.
But I forced the words out, onest <b>time</b>,
“Get the dortor.”