The Beta's Rejected Daughter (Fiona) novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I didn’t move.

She hit the landing with controlled force, curling into herself just enough to look broken without being broken. Tears arrived instantly, her loud sob filling the room.

“She pushed me!” she whimpered, pointing upward with a trembling hand. “She wants to k!ll me!”

Every gaze snapped to me but I stood still, hands at my sides, happy that the distance between us was clear and undeniable enough.

Fury filled their eyes like poison, everyone believing her words immediately.

Father barked my name and Mother wailed for help. Servants rushed and Guards tensed near the walls while I slowly moved to the spot the phone was and secretly dipped it into my pocket.

For a moment, the scene mirrored the vision I had so perfectly that my skin tingled with phantom flames. But this time, I smiled just slightly because the little black eye in the vase had seen and captured everything.

Chaos rippled through the hall, voices colliding, orders shouted and Lydia sobbing into Mother’s arms while Damon demanded doctors and Lance barked at servants to move faster.

The next minute I was ambushed by the guards, rough handled and dragged to face the alpha like a criminal.

“She’s wicked.”

“She really tried to k!ll her.”

“I always knew something was wrong with that girl.”

Their accusations came like stones thrown at me and I wondered how my fate would have been sealed again if I didn’t have any evidence.

Even the Alpha’s guards watched me as if waiting for permission to cut off my head.

“I didn’t touch her,” I said clearly. “There’s no proof I did.”

The Alpha’s gaze hardened but my father stepped forward and landed a slap on my face.

“Proof? She was on the floor, you evil girl!”

“And I never touched her.”

Lydia lifted her tear-soaked face. “You threatened me upstairs,” she whispered. “I only wanted peace and the next minute you pushed me down.”

Her voice cracked perfectly and I watched as the whole room leaned toward her in support.

I looked at the Alpha. “Do you want truth or anything she says?”

Luna Mara’s glare sharpened but she didn’t say anything.

“Prosecution hall Now.” Alpha Kane ordered and I could see they were really going to punish me without any hesitation.

In the hall, Lydia was seated, bandages wrapped around Lydia’s wrists and her lower lip kept trembling like she was about to cry as she sat beside Mother like a fragile ornament.

My father stood behind them, already certain of my guilt. My brothers flanked him—Damon rigid, Lance amused, and Jake silent but judgmental.

Elder Rovan spoke first. “Fiona Jenson. You stand accused of attempted murder. Speak now.”

“She staged the fall,” I said flatly.

Gasps fluttered from the little crowd. Mother scoffed and Damon’s shoulders tensed as they got angrier, thinking I was still denying and accusing Lydia of faking the fall.

Lydia shook her head weakly. “I only asked for peace,” she murmured. “She shoved me when I turned.”

Then she revealed her weapon—a small voice recorder.

“I was scared,” she whispered, then played the recording after it was connected to the sound system.

Her gentle voice filled the hall, warm and pleading from the moment she stepped into my room talking about peace with me. My clipped blunt replies followed so to them, it sounded like hostility which confirmed I actually hated her enough to k!ll her.

Mother folded her arms in disgust. “You see? She was kind while this girl was burning with envy and hatred.”

Father glared at me. “How could you try to k!ll your sister?”

I felt anger, not at them but at the version of myself who once loved and took these people as my family, thinking I would one day buy their love by being their slave.

I gently pulled the phone from my pocket.

“I don’t care enough about her to k!ll her,” I said. “But she cares enough to frame me.”

Damon frowned. “That’s my phone.”

“I borrowed it. Sorry I didn’t tell you, but I was in a rush to set up the camera after suspecting Lydia has a plan to ruin me, and luckily, I was right..”

One of the guards collected the phone and connected it to the screen then played the video.

It began to show when we were at the staircase and Lydia was standing in front of me but with a clear distance.

That was when she took steps backward then the glance before her deliberate slip with no push, no contact, no sign of accident.

Just a stunt to deceive everyone.

Silence fell like a curtain when the video ended and seeing their faces reaction, I couldn’t help laughing.

Alpha Kane looked at Lydia. “So you were not shoved.”

Her lips parted and tears flooded down her face instantly.

“I… I panicked,” she whispered, her voice breaking in emotions. “And that made me think she pushed me.”

Mother quickly embraced her and even Damon nodded in relief, believing her words. Lance also exhaled and Jake looked away, no one shunning or scolding her for such an accusation on me.

“After being caught, you suddenly twist everything ” I said sharply and laughed again, the sound echoing through the hall uncontrollably.

It was so ridiculous how they had believed she didn’t intentionally accuse me. Now they excused everything as sheer panic just like that.

It took only her tears to erase truth, and as I watched them gather around her again with love and care, I understood something colder.

The evidence might have saved me from my death, but it didn’t change what they feel about me at all.

I stared at my own father; silence finally swallowed everything else.

“You all are really unbelievable. But at least I was smart enough to have this evidence, or none of you would have thought to defend me and I would be jailed for something I didn’t do. I am really disappointed in you all.” My voice wasn’t shaky, even with my father’s glare that always frightens me.

“We weren’t going to punish you without proper investigation. Stop being so dramatic.” Luna Mara chipped in with a deep frown on her face.

I shook my head as flashes of the vision returned. The moon goddess really gave me a chance to change my fate, and I was glad I did it. My only regret was ever loving these people as family. I hate my former self for thinking I would ever get them to love me.

My eyes roamed around the hall, and I could see the elders’ faces, now softened, and the initial urge to prosecute me had suddenly disappeared.

No one looked at the phone in my hand anymore as the truth meant nothing again because it was now against their precious girl, and obviously they couldn’t afford to punish her.