TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 120

< CHAPTER 38 THE WORLD WAS ENDING–1

CHAPTER 80: IF THE WORLD WAS ENDING–1

EMBER’S POV

The crowd murmurs agreement, curiosity rippling through the room.

Knox extends his hand toward me.

“Ember. Come here.”

Every eye in the ballroom turns to me.

My legs feel like they’re made of water. My heart is trying to escape through my ribcage.

But Knox is waiting, his hand outstretched, and I think about all the years I spent shrinking. Making myself smaller. Quieter. Less.

I think about dancing on tables at clubs. About screaming without caring who’s watching. About being unafraid and unashamed and unapologetically alive.

L

Knox makes me feel like I can be everything and anything I want to be.

So I walk.

The crowd parts for me too, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m with Knox or because they can see something different in my face.

My heels click against the floor, each step a small act of defiance against the voice in my head that sounds like Gale telling me to sit down, shut up, stop embarrassing him.

Knox takes my hand when I reach him. His grip is steady and warm. Grounding.

“Breathe,” he murmurs, low enough that only I can hear. “I’ve got you.”

He leads me to the piano and settles onto the bench. I stand beside it, my fingers resting on the glossy black surface, trying to remember how to breathe.

Knox adjusts the microphone stand so it’s positioned near me, then looks up expectantly.

The room is silent. Waiting.

I lean toward the microphone, and my voice comes out smaller than I’d like.

“I, um.” I clear my throat. “I’m going to sing something. It’s called ‘If The World Was Ending.‘ It’s a song. about… about wondering if someone would choose you. If everything fell apart. If nothing else mattered.

I glance at Knox. He’s watching me with an expression I can’t read.

“I used to sing all the time,” I continue, the words spilling out before I can stop them. “When I was younger. Before I married someone who told me my voice was annoying. Before I learned to make myself quiet and small and invisible.”

CHAPTER BR 4 THE WORLD WAS ENDING T

A murmur runs through the crowd. I see faces shifting – curiosity, sympathy, recognition. They had all witnessed the case with the council, no doubt.

“This week, I stood in front of a council and said things out loud that I’d buried for years. I talked about a baby I lost. A marriage that was really just a prison with nice furniture. Kadmitted that I stayed because I thought the bruises were my fault. I never even saw them.” My voice cracks, but I push through. “And I’m tired of being quiet. I’m tired of being small. So tonight, I’m going to sing. Even though my voice shakes. Even though it’s terrifying. Because I spent eight years letting someone else decide who I was allowed to be, and I’m done.”

I take a breath.

“This is for everyone who’s ever survived something they thought would break them. You’re still here. That

means you won. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Knox plays the opening notes, and the sound sinks into my soul.

I close my eyes. Find my breath. And sing.

My voice wavers at first. Thin and uncertain, swallowed by the size of f the room.

But Knox adjusts his playing, softening to meet me, creating a space where my voice can exist without

drowning.

‘I was distracted, and in traffic… I didn’t feel it when the earthquake happened…‘

I open my eyes and find his. He

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