Scarlett (Second Edition) by Karima Saad Usman novel Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Scarlett’s POV

They led me to the center of the great hall, and I felt the weight of every gaze upon me as i stood there in chains, exposed and vulnerable. The hall was filled with people, some looking at me with judgment, others with indifference, and a few with a hint of concern. I searched for the familiar faces of my mates, hoping for some reassurance, but they were nowhere to be seen.

“They have distanced themselves from you,” Tasha’s voice came from behind me, cold and final. “Until you are proven innocent, you are no longer their mate.” Her words sank like stones, and I felt a pang of despair as I realized the depths of my isolation.

At the front of the hall was a raised platform with five tall chairs. Each chair was occupied by an elder, their faces lined with age and hardened by years of judgment. Tasha took her seat on the far left, and in the center sat an older man whose resemblance to Lucian was uncanny, though his eyes were far colder, filled with a harshness that unnerved me. I realized then that he must be Lucian’s elder relative, the root of Lucian’s strength but without his warmth.

“Do you know why you are here, Vladislav?” the man in the center asked, his voice booming through the hall. I managed to shake my head, though fear constricted my throat.

“You are here,” he continued, “because you slept with a guest and sought his help in leaving our territory, abandoning your mates and the people you swore loyalty to as their Luna. This is an insult to your mates, an affront to the North, and an act of dishonour.”

The accusation hung in the air, heavy and damning, pressing down on me like a physical weight. I fought the urge to protest, knowing that my words held

little power here, and instead clung to the small hope that somehow, some way, I’d be given a chance to prove my innocence.

The elder leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “You have a choice. You may confess to your crimes now. If you do, you will be stripped of your Luna status permanently. You may remain with your mates as a lover due to the mark, but your children, should you bear any, will be regarded as bastards. They will live among us but without the privileges of legitimate heirs.”

The crowd murmured, their whispers rippling through the hall as I tried to process the gravity of what he was saying. Even if I admitted to something! hadn’t done, my children would bear the stain of my supposed betrayal, forever labelled, forever cast into the shadows of society. But I could remain close to my mates, even if only as a shadow of what I had once been.

The elder’s gaze sharpened, and his voice turned colder. “If you claim innocence, we will proceed with the trial. However, if you are found guilty, you will be permanently cast aside. Your mark will be severed, and you will be exiled, stripped of any connection to the Alphas, left to survive as an outcast.”

The final words landed with chilling clarity. To be cast aside, to lose my mates entirely, was an unthinkable punishment. The thought of being cut off, unloved, without purpose or place, filled me with a hollow dread. But confessing would mean admitting to a betrayal I had not committed, and I would carry that shame for the rest of my life, even as I stayed near Lucian, Clay, and Maxwell.

The silence stretched as the elder waited for my response, his eyes watching me as if he could see straight to my soul, eager for a sign of weake

I took a deep breath, my heart racing as I tried to summon the strength to speak, to choose my path. Every option was tainted, filled with consequences. couldn’t bear, yet I knew that this decision would define the rest of my life.

“What if I am proven innocent?” I asked, my voice shaking as I clung to the last sliver of hope. The elder at the center threw his head back and laughed cold, hollow sound that echoed in the hall.

“I doubt that will be possible, given the overwhelming evidence against you,” he said with a smuk. “But d, by some unlikely chance, visu are provee innocent, then you’ll be free to go His words were deliberately vague, leaving me with no assurance of what “freedom truly want. I could feel the weight of his judgment, his amusement at my pain, and I knew this trial was not dicant to be tail

Scarlett