?Chapter 422:


    Molly kept her doe-eyed act. Her lips even trembled as if she were the one wronged.


    “Lily, we’ve only met a handful of times. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would I give you a ne?” Lily’sposure cracked. “Don’t lie! You know you gave it to me!” Her scream bounced off the walls, her hands trembling as she pointed at Molly.


    Unbothered, Molly simply turned her gaze to Leonardo, eyes wide with the feigned confusion of amb in the ughterhouse. “Your Majesty, I swear, I know nothing of this. Lily and I aren’t even close.”


    And then, with a sideways nce, she flung the mud in my direction. “Besides, Lily is Makenna’s maid. Could this all be Makenna’s doing? Maybe the two of them conspired against me. After all, I’m carrying Prince yton’s child now. Perhaps Makenna doesn’t want my baby to be born.”


    Bryan, standing beside me, let out a low, coldugh at those words. His sharp eyes locked onto Molly. “Are you implying… that I would use Makenna to harm you? For what? The throne?” He tilted his head slightly, his smirk cutting through Molly’s defenses. “You vastly overestimate your importance.”


    Molly’s face went pale. Her lips mped shut as if her very breath would betray her. The defiance that once flickered in her eyes dimmed, snuffed out by fear.


    Bryan turned to Leonardo. “Father, Makenna has no reason to conspire. If it weren’t for her sharp instincts today, she and the baby might have been killed. This needs to be investigated properly.”


    “Your Majesty!” Molly burst out desperately. “I didn’t do anything wrong, I swear!”


    Both sides stood their ground, and Leonardo—caught in the middle—looked thoroughly drained.


    He nced between me, pregnant, and Molly, equally so, as if weighing the future in his mind. Finally, he sighed, his gaze hardening as itnded on Lily. Poor, trembling Lily. His decision was swift, final.


    “Lily’s treachery cannot go unpunished. She will be flogged one hundred times and banished from Lycan territory. From this day forward, she will live as a rogue!”


    The best reads are at g?lnσν???s?c?m


    Makenna’s POV:


    As Leonardo’s words sank in, all color drained from Lily’s face. Her lips quivered, eyes wide with disbelief. “No… No…” she whimpered, trembling like a leaf in the wind. Her sobs grew louder, frantic, as if the world were crumbling beneath her feet.


    Suddenly, her tear-streaked gaze locked onto mine, desperate and pleading, the look of someone clinging to thest thread of hope. “Makenna! Please, save me! I didn’t mean it! Please, help me beg His Majesty for mercy!”


    With a burst of energy, she crawled to my feet, her fingers clutching the hem of my dress, her voice breaking with every word.


    But I stood there, cold and unmoving, watching her with a detached calm. Her pleas, her tears—none of it stirred me. I had given her more than enough chances. Each time, she’d squandered them. My mercy was spent.


    The heavy sound of boots echoed across the hall as the soldiers entered, their faces set in stone. They seized Lily, dragging her away with the ease of men used to enforcing such orders.


    “No! No, please! Don’t cast me out! I don’t want to be a rogue!” Lily’s screams tore through the air, filling the hall with her terror until the sounds faded into the distance, leaving an eerie silence in their wake. The chill of it crawled up my spine, though my face remained impassive.


    Leonardo shattered the quiet with hismanding tone. “Remember this—no matter what you do, you are not to harm the child in the other’s womb. If anything happens to either child, I will hold the other ountable. Do you understand?”


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