Riley’s POV


    Finished


    Lucien Duskgrave’s lips parted slightly, and the sound of his voice rolled through the air–low, maic, edged with the kind of dominance only an Alpha prince could wield.


    “Riley. Sit.”


    My heart skipped a beat.


    That one word–Rileynded differently now. He didn’t call me Miss Vale anymore. Somewhere along the way,” dropped the distance, the formality. What reced it was something warmer…. and far more dangerous.


    he’d


    Every time he spoke to me now, it was with intention. He never let me hide. Always brought at him.


    me closer. Always made me look


    I swallowed. “A–Alpha Lucien…‘ is something wrong?”


    He didn’t look away. “Ronan Duskcliff’s parents just arrived–with Tessa.”


    The room went


    still.


    Thunder couldn’t have hit harder.


    I felt the blood drain from my face, my lungs freezing mid–breath. After all these years–five years of silence, of waiting, of enduring—the moment had finallye.


    Caelum had already uncovered the truth. I had the facts<b>. </b>The evidence. But none of it mattered… not until Tessa said it aloud.


    Tessa. The girl whose silence sentenced me.


    She was the only one who could free me now—with words that should’ve been spoken five years ago.


    Lucien’s hand found mine, grounding me. I let him guide me down beside him on the long leather sofa, my pulse drumming like war in my veins.


    He turned his head, voice calm andmand absolute. “Mrs. Beck. Open the gate. Let them in.”


    Outside, past the wrought–iron fence of the Duskgrave estate, I knew they were already standing there.


    Lady Duskcliff. Lord Duskcliff. Soaking in the cold rain.


    Tessa sat between them.


    They didn’t run Didn’t knock Didn’t beg.


    They just stood there, letting the storm hit them, as if that could somehow wash away the blood on their hands.


    I’d imagined this day a hundred times. A thousand. But not once did I picture them looking so… hollow.


    Tessa sat in her wheelchair–pale, quiet, stripped of all that arrogance she once wore like a crown Now, she looked like someone who had finally seen the wreckage of what she’d done


    Mrs. Beck opened the door. Her voice was calm, polur. You maye in


    The Duskelfly jolted. As if her words carried more <b>power </b>than any alpha’s howl


    and you say did mor


    Just yesterday twy were ready to shamar or again To strip me bars of diguay. Itury were still certain I was the vim


    Now!


    3:55 PM P P ·


    Finished


    Now they knew.


    I hadn’t hurt Tessa<b>. </b>


    I hadn’t lured her into the Forest that night.


    I hadn’t left her to bleed out under the ws of a rogue wolf.


    And I certainly hadn’t earned the five years of torment they saw fit to deliver.


    Tessa’s eyes flicked to her parents. Her voice, when it came, was steadier than mine would’ve been. “Let’s go. We owe her that much.”


    She wheeled herself inside.


    Lady and Lord Duskcliff followed like ghosts, their shadows stretched long and broken behind them.


    When they finally stepped into the living room–and saw me, sitting tall and still at Lucien’s side–it was like the floor was ripped out from under them.


    They dropped to their knees.


    Two Alpha–born wolves.


    Kneeling.


    “For what we’ve done…” Lord Duskcliff said, his voice cracking, “Riley, we are sorry.”


    Lady Duskcliff sobbed. “We thought you hurt Tessa.. We were wrong… So wrong..”


    Tears ran down her face, soaking the cor of her coat. She looked older. Frailer. Like time itself had punished her in my ce.


    Maybe it had.


    But even then–it wasn’t enough.


    Not for what I’d endured.


    I looked at them. My voice was steady, but there was fire beneath it.


    “A single apology?” I asked. “Is that all you brought me?”


    The silence was suffocating


    “Do you think that makes up for what happened to me in that prison?”


    I stood slowly, the words wing their way up my throat. “Every day, I was pped. Forced to kneel. Forced to drink <b>toilet </b>water like an animal. They stabbed me. Beat my legs until my bones shattered”


    Lady Duskcliff whimpered.


    Lord Duskcliff’s head dropped even lower


    1 didn’t stop


    “Do you want to know who paid the guards to do that? Who bribed the inmates to make my life hell I stared dirently as Trosa. To talved Alpha Daskchiff And your baber Konan”


    Leckerbies were whate fuis clenched tight at his sides


    They even stul <b>a </b>kidney an for,” I used “I went in brady Song Full of dreams. And i came out half check”


    Uit currydung My fundry My trendom May busty My diguity”


    Finished


    3:55 PM P P ?


    I could feel my voice breaking, cracking with years of buried pain. “And now you think a single ‘sorry‘ will fix that?”


    I turned away. The tears in my eyes weren’t weakness. They were fury–burning, vengeful, and pure.


    “You destroyed me,” I whispered. “All of you.”


    “And you’ll carry that with you for the rest of your lives.”


    Lucien’s hand found mine again, warm and firm. “You don’t have to forgive them,” he said, his voice low and rough.


    And I wouldn’t.


    Not today.


    Not tomorrow.


    Maybe not ever.


    Because some wounds weren’t meant to heal.


    And some scars were meant to be seen.