Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 277

Chapter 277: Chapter 277

Elara’s POV

"What do you want to do?" Kaelen’s voice was soft. Only for me. "This is your choice."

I looked at his hand—steady, warm, wrapped around mine. I squeezed it once. Drew a slow breath. The damp air tasted of iron and mildew.

Then I turned toward the left cell.

Gareth pressed himself against the wall as I approached the bars. His one good eye went wide. The shackles rattled as he tried to shift his weight, tried to make himself smaller—or perhaps larger. It was hard to tell with a cornered animal.

"Elara." His voice cracked on my name. "Elara, listen to me. I know what they told you. But you have to understand—it wasn’t all me. What we had... what I felt for you back then, it was real! I swear it! But Isolde—she manipulated everything. She was the one who pushed me toward Seraphine’s blackmail. She threatened to ruin me if I didn’t cooperate. I never wanted—"

"Stop."

One word. Flat. Final.

He stopped.

I studied him through the bars. The swollen eye. The split lip with its dark crust. The filthy remnants of what had once been fine fabric. He looked nothing like the prince who had stood in a candlelit garden and told me I was his future.

"You want to blame your wife," I said. "How convenient."

"It’s the truth! Isolde—she’s vicious, you know what she’s like—"

"Isolde is dead."

The silence that followed was absolute.

Gareth’s mouth hung open. His good eye blinked. Once. Twice.

"W-what?"

I tilted my head. Let the words settle between us like stones dropped into still water.

"I killed her," I said. "The same poison she and Malak used on Kaelen. I poured it down her throat and watched her choke on it." My voice didn’t waver. Didn’t rise. "Then I dragged what was left of her into the forest and left her for the beasts."

A sound escaped him—small, strangled, barely human.

"She helped Malak plan the ambush that nearly killed my husband. She helped him wage war against this empire. She tried to have my son murdered." I leaned closer to the bars. "It was retribution for everything she did to me years ago, and for helping Malak. So I ended her. The same way she tried to end us."

Gareth’s chest heaved. His shackled hands trembled overhead.

"You’re—" He swallowed. "You’re a monster."

I smiled bitterly. It felt cold on my own face.

"Am I?" I said softly. "Tell me, Gareth. Who drugged his own brother? Who helped Seraphine crawl into his bed while he was unconscious? Who fabricated a pregnancy to destroy a family?" I paused. "Who looked me in the eye and promised me love while bedding my sister behind my back?"

He flinched at each question as if struck.

"If I’m a monster," I said, "you built me. Piece by piece."

His composure shattered. Tears slid down his bruised face, cutting tracks through the grime. His body sagged against the shackles.

"Please," he whispered. "Please, Elara. I’ll do anything. I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again. I swear it—"

"Enough."

"We’re family! Kaelen—" He twisted, straining toward the shadow behind me. "Kaelen, I’m your brother! Your blood! You can’t let her—"

"Half-brother." Kaelen’s voice came from behind me. Cold. Precise. Like a blade laid flat against skin. "Bastard half-brother, to be exact. And I gave this authority to my Empress. Speak to her."

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