The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 310

Chapter 310: Every Truth Bomb Has A Blast Radius

Guinevere Ashford stood. "I would like this court to explain something to me."

She looked at the room the way a woman looks at a stage she intends to burn down.

"Agnes Viremont. Now Agnes Darkhowler. Poisoned Serena Frostborne multiple times. Documented. She drugged a Crown Prince. She faked a pregnancy. She conspired with her father, a man this entire court knows is a traitor, to replace Serena as Dexmon’s mate. She systematically destroyed a matebond."

Guinevere held up her manacled hands.

"She got a crown."

Four words that hit the courtroom like a battering ram. An elder in the front row shifted in his seat. Another looked at the floor. A third looked at Tiberon, and Tiberon looked at nothing, because Tiberon had already done the same math and arrived at the same answer a long time ago.

Dex’s breathing changed. Serena felt it through the matebond, the way his lungs tightened, the way his pulse spiked and then forcibly flattened itself, the specific rhythm of a man hearing something that had been bothering him for months.

Agnes got a get-out-of-jail-free card because of Garret Darkhowler. Dex was not only a victim, he also had to clean up the wreckage.

The courtroom stirred. Hale’s jaw tightened, but he did not interrupt. He didn’t interrupt because she was right. That was the part he would never say out loud, the part he would carry home with him tonight.

"I threw a teacup and chased a man naked. She poisoned a princess and manipulated a prince into a false mating, and she is sitting in Darkhowler right now wearing silk and eating breakfast." Her voice climbed. "I am getting a sentencing. She got a king. Explain that math to me. I would love to hear the legal framework that makes Agnes Viremont’s crimes a love story and mine a capital offense."

The silence that followed was uncomfortable in a way that settled into bones.

Tiberon’s expression did not change. Bellatrix’s teacup paused midway to her lips for a fraction of a second before completing the journey.

"Agnes Viremont’s crimes were adjudicated under Darkhowler jurisdiction," Hale said, his voice level. "Her case was reviewed, charges were considered, and the outcome was determined by the Alpha of that territory. This tribunal has no authority over proceedings that occurred in another kingdom, and the accused’s objection to a separate verdict in a separate court is noted but irrelevant to the charges before her today."

"Irrelevant," Guinevere repeated. "She tried to kill Serena with poison. Multiple times. I hit her with a teacup. One of us is getting executed and it is the teacup girl."

"Agnes Viremont’s sentencing is a matter between Darkhowler and its Crown," Hale replied. "This court will not retry another kingdom’s decisions to justify or reduce your own."

"I am not asking you to retry her. I am asking you to acknowledge the hypocrisy of killing me for ten percent of what she did."

Hale held her gaze. "The court acknowledges your frustration. The court does not consider it a defense."

Serena’s chest was splitting. Because Guinevere was right. The comparison was ugly and lopsided, and the truth of it sat in the room like a stain that every person present could see and no one could clean. Agnes had done worse. Agnes had done calculated, premeditated, sustained worse. Agnes had nearly killed her.

And Agnes was free.

The tears that Serena had been fighting since Gavriel walked in broke loose in earnest, because the woman in front of her had just said the one thing that no one in this room wanted to hear, and it was true, and the truth of it was going to live in Serena’s chest long after this trial was over.

Elara’s hand tightened on her knee. Not comforting. Anchoring. The grip of a woman who could feel her friend fracturing beside her and knew that the only useful thing she could do was hold on and not let go.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify