Third Person’s POV
Outside the estate gates, a deep, practiced voice suddenly called out.
“Alpha Lucien, are you home? I’m Scarlett’s father–Alpha ric. I came here to personallypensate you for the embroidery that was destroyed.”
+8 Pearl’s
Alpha ric’s lower body was useless now, his oncemanding frame confined to a wheelchair. Caden ckthorn stood behind him, pushing him forward with steady, deliberate steps.
The money in ric’s hands had been scraped together from selling thest property under his own name.
In truth, he shouldn’t have needed to part with it at all—every coin and asset he’d owned had long been transferred into Elira’s name. If she wished, she could have easily released enough to smooth the path for Scarlett.
But Elira was a woman of calcted greed. Once something entered her grasp, she never gave it back.
When she learned that Alpha ric still had a property in his name, she had leaned close, her voice dripping with persuasion.
“ric<b>… </b>once Scarlett <b>is </b>free, the three of us will leave Mooncrest behind and head overseas to join our son. That property will be of no use to us then. Better to sell it now–secure her release–and when she walks out, we’ll board the first ne. Won’t that be perfect?”
ric hadn’t even thought twice before agreeing.
When Elira received the news, she had been so pleased she celebrated with Caden in the back seat of a car in the hospital parking lot.
It was thest drop of value wrung out of Alpha ric.
No money, no home–nothing left.
Once they left the country, he would be left to wander the streets until the end of his days.
A fool to the very <bst</b><b>. </b>
And now, <b>that </b>sarne fool–shuffled around like a pawn–was being driven by Caden to the Duskgrave estate.
ric’s n <b>was </b>simple: pay the full <b>value </b>for the shredded National Bloom–two million–and ask Lucien Duskgrave to release Scarlett.
Just a little longer, Scarlett, he thought. Your father is about to bring you home..
He clung to that fantasy<b>, </b>a smug smile creeping onto his <b>face</b>.
After all, who could resist the lure of gold?
In his mind, Lucien’s anger was <b>easy </b>to exin–Scarlett had disrupted Matriarch Duskgrave’s birthday banquet, embarrassing him in front of the elite. But an Alpha prince was still a businessman, and businessmen always loved profit.
Once the money was in his hands, surely Lucien would let Scarlet go.
And when they were safely overseas, ric intended to hire someone to sabotage Lucien’s East Ridge project–make him bleed everyst coin until he was ruined.
ric was <b>never </b>the kind to forgive and forget. Anyone who crossed him had to pay in pain.
His self–satisfied smirk had barely formed when another car came tearing up the drive<b>, </b>screeching to a halt behind Caden’s.
The door was flung open, and a woman burst out–bandages wrapped around one eye, moving like a beast gone mad.
Her one remaining eye burned with venomous fury, locking onto Alpha ric the way a viper marks its prey.
+8 Pearls
“ALERIC-!”
Her roar tore through the air as she closed the distance and, without warning, delivered a resounding p that cracked against his face.
“You murdered my father, sent Kael Vale to prison, and stole Riley from me! And now–you dare sell the house I gave you to save that bastard–born whelp of a mistress? I’ll tear you apart!”
It was Luna Zara–though now she looked nothing like the poised Luna she once was. Dressed in a hospital gown, skin as pale as ash, her empty eye socket wept fresh blood, staining the gauze crimson.
Her entire face was twisted with rage, a creature risen from the depths of the Underworld.
She wed at ric, nails like talons raking bloody lines across his cheeks.
Trapped in his chair, ric couldn’t move fast enough to avoid her.
“Caden! Pull this lunatic off me!” he barked.
Caden, Scarlett’s biological father, lunged forward. The deal to save his daughter was finally within reach–he couldn’t allow Luna Zara to ruin it.
But before his hand could close on her arm, arger, stronger hand caught his wrist in a crushing grip.
Caden’s head snapped up–only to meet the cold, hard gaze of Theo.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Caden demanded.
Theo’s presence wasn’t coincidence.
When Luna Zara had discovered ric leaving the hospital, she had been desperate to follow. Theo had been the one to drive her, tailing ric’s car all the way to the Duskgrave estate.
And Theo’s eyes now burned with disgust.
Only yesterday, he had seen it–Elira and Caden together in the back seat of a car in the hospital parking lot and had sex like beasts. The image had seared itself into his mind, leaving him frozen in disbelief at their betrayal.
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