CHAPTER 125: BEG...

"You were right."

Emerald stared at him, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Her voice dropped. "Right about what?"

Rick’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, then dropped his gaze for half a second before meeting her eyes again. "Everything."

Her heart thudded once, hard, but she didn’t let it show. "I need specifics, Rick," she said coldly. "What exactly was I right about?"

He took a shaky breath. "About Alia. You were right. She lied. About... everything."

There it was.

She didn’t flinch; she didn’t blink; she just nodded once. "I know."

Rick’s brows twitched. "You... wait, what?"

"I always knew. I told you back then. But you didn’t want to hear it."

"I know," he muttered. "I didn’t want to believe it. I thought..."

"That I was jealous? Vindictive?"

He didn’t answer.

She waited a beat. "So how did you finally figure it out?"

Rick dragged a hand through his hair and walked a few steps across the room before turning back to face her. "I found a bottle in her drawer. Some medication or something, used to mimic the symptoms of a failed pregnancy."

Emerald’s jaw tightened. "She faked the pregnancy loss."

He nodded.

"She framed me," Emerald said, each word like a blade on her tongue.

"I know."

"And now you believe me."

"I didn’t have a choice." He paused. "The moment I saw that bottle, I just... knew."

Emerald exhaled, the sound almost like a bitter laugh. "Of course. You needed proof. Because Goddess forbid you ever just believe me when I told you she wasn’t who she claimed to be."

Rick flinched slightly, but she didn’t care.

He deserved it.

"You needed a bottle," she said, "but not the girl you claimed to know. Not the one you spent years with. Not who you called your mate"

He opened his mouth, but she cut him off.

"Why come to me with this now?"

He shrugged, glancing toward the floor. "Because you were right. I thought... you should know."

She noticed it right away. The way he stood was tense, with his head tilted slightly and his lips pressed together tightly.

He couldn’t even say sorry.

Still too proud.

Still too Rick.

Viola’s voice was a hiss in her head. "Would it kill him to just say the words?"

Emerald didn’t respond out loud or internally. Her gaze was still on Rick, watching the way he fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve.

"So that’s it?" she asked. "You show up screaming at my gates to tell me what? That you finally believe me?"

"I should’ve been smarter," he muttered. "Should’ve paid more attention. Things weren’t adding up, and I ignored it. The timelines, the manipulative words, the whole incident that led up to it. The way she never let me near her after the supposed miscarriage... I was blind."

"No," Emerald said. "You weren’t blind. You just didn’t want to see."

Rick rubbed the back of his neck. "She played me... played us both."

"Forgive me if I don’t exactly feel like kindred victims right now."

"I know you don’t owe me anything," Rick said in a quiet voice now. "But I thought maybe if I explained—"

"Explained what?" Emerald cut in. "That you were a fool? That she lied, and you believed her over me? That you were so eager to think the worst of me, you handed her the matches while she burned everything down?"

He had no answer for that.

She didn’t need one.

Viola stirred again, her voice silkier now. "He’s squirming. Let him. He deserves it."

Emerald didn’t argue.

She could already feel that darker part of herself rising, the one that Ares had told her about, the one he loved, how it removes weakness, and she savoured it. The one that didn’t forgive easily.

She took a step forward.

"So what is it you want from me, Rick?" she asked, tilting her head. "You think telling me all this earns you something?"

"No," he said quickly. "I just... If things escalate with her, and I know they will, I don’t want my pack dragged into it. She lied to both of us. Whatever war comes, it shouldn’t fall on my people."

Emerald let out a cold laugh. "Of course. There it is. The catch."

"It’s not like that."

"Isn’t it?"

Rick ran a hand through his hair again. "I just... don’t want to lose everything over something I didn’t know."

"No," Emerald said softly. "But you’ll lose something."

He looked up sharply.

Because in all the time she’d spent tracking Alia’s alliances, one thing had become painfully, disturbingly clear. The baby, if there ever was one, had been Rick’s.

That had always been the reason he took everything so personally, why her supposed loss wrecked him, why he could never quite hate Alia even when he should have.

And even if she’d carried the child to term, Emerald had no doubt Rick would’ve found a way to stay loyal. Maybe not forever, but long enough to forget Emerald in the process.

What she still didn’t understand was why Alia did it in the first place. Why set it all on fire when she already had what she wanted?

Control.

Power.

Rick.

"Your mistake," Emerald said, "was assuming she ever needed to keep you."

He flinched again.

She could see the layers cracking now. Alia had already wounded his pride, dismantled it with just one truth he discovered amidst her numerous lies. And Emerald could easily finish the job.

She should’ve walked away.

But she didn’t.

Because she could feel it in her bones, crawling under her skin, that familiar coldness. The part of her Ares loved. The part that didn’t need gentleness to feel strong.

"Let me ask you something," she said quietly. "When you came here... did you think I’d thank you?"

Rick didn’t answer.

"Did you want forgiveness? Redemption? Mercy?"

Still, no answer.

"Or did you just want to clear your own conscience and leave the rest of the damage behind?"

He shifted, uncomfortable. "I just didn’t know where else to go."

Emerald took another step closer.

"You should’ve thought of that before you burned my name in front of your entire pack. Before you looked me in the eye and believed her over me. Before you made me the villain in a story you never bothered to understand. Before you beat, rejected and banished me!"

Rick didn’t meet her eyes.

"You’re not going to walk in here and find absolution, Rick," she said. "You want my help? You want my protection when this all turns to shit? Then you’re going to earn it."

She turned to leave.

But he called out behind her.

"Wait... what do you want?"

Emerald paused in the doorway.

A smile tugged at her lips. She turned just enough to glance back at him over her shoulder and uttered a single word. "Beg."