Riley’s POV

Maddox never admitted he stopped loving me.

Not once.

+8 Pearls

Not even now–bwhen /bhis 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 blike /bsomeone had hollowed me out and left nothing but bskin/b.

“Maddox.” My voice cracked–hoarse, broken, full of the ache I bcould /bno longer hide..

But the moment I opened my mouth, everything spilled out bat /bonce. 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 ba /bghost–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 byou/b, then who left those marks on her neck? Scarlett? bYou /breally expect us to believe bthe /bsame 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 bwoke /bup band /btried 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 byears /bago–you lured her into the ck Forest with that fake message, bknowing /bthe Rogues were hunting in the area. She’s been in aa ever bsince/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, bthat’s /bhow the scratched me

She held up her arms, revealing my bw /bmarks.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“You liar.” I croaked. “You almost killed her–1”

But bthe /broom 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 bapart/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 breal /bmonster–was crying pretty tears, and I was the one they wanted to see burn.

I barely felt it when Kael bshoved /bme.

I barely registered the sting in my ribs when Ronan grabbed my arm and mmed me into the bwall/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 baround /bmy throat.

Tight

Too tight.

My body jerked.

I wed at his bwrists/b, bbut /bI was too weak. Too bslow/b.

My lungs seized, desperate for air.

“P—please_” I rasped, ck dots dancing in my bvision/b.

The room swam. My knees bgave /b

Everything faded.

But I forced the words out, onest btime/b,

“Get the dortor.”