TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 79

CHAPTER 50: THE HYPOCRITE EXPOSED-2

My breath stills. I feet the trap getting ready to snap shut around me.

“No,” I admit, and I can feel the case slipping away with that single word. “I-I didn’t think about documentation. I still considered him my husband. I-I didn’t want to make him angrier. He- I loved him-”

“So there’s no physical evidence,” Elder James interrupts. “No third-party verification. No testimony from medical professionals who treated your injuries. We have just… your word.” There is a small chuckle in the

last part.

“Yes, but the word of someone who survived-”

‘The word of someone who has already been proven to lie,” Elder James cuts in, and his voice sharpens into something cruel. “The word of someone who fabricated a fated mate claim to deceive this council. The word of someone who entered into a transactional sexual arrangement and then tried to dress it up as destiny. Given that context, Omega Crawford, why should anyone in this chamber believe anything you

say?”

The question hangs in the air like a guillotine blade.

don’t have an answer. I don’t have anything except my truth, and my truth isn’t worth anything anymore.

‘Perhaps,” Elder James continues, settling back in his chair with the satisfaction of a cat playing with prey, ‘we should hear from someone who knows you better than anyone. Someone who can provide context for your… behavioral patterns.”

A figure stands in the gallery.

My mother.

Her expression is carefully constructed concern, the kind of maternal worry that looks genuine if you don’t know her well enough to see the conniving snake underneath

“After her diagnosis, I struggled with how to help her,” Devika says, and her voice is perfect-just the right amount of maternal anguish. “I eventually made the difficult decision to establish some distance between us. Tough love, I suppose you’d call it. I hoped that forcing her to stand on her own would make her confront her mental health issues. But it didn’t work. When I learned about the Summit scandal, I knew I had to intervene. Not to punish her. But out of genuine concern for my daughter’s wellbeing.”

She’s selling it beautifully. The council is buying every word. I can see Elder Catherine’s expression shifting from sympathy to concern.

Even Elder Rothschild, who looked moved by my testimony, is now studying me with clinical assessment. ‘I believe,” Devika concludes, “that Ember would benefit from a comprehensive psychological evaluation before being allowed to make any major life decisions. After all, if she’s not mentally competent, her choices might not be entirely valid. She may have latched onto the Lycan King not out of genuine feeling, out as an escape from her own psychological difficulties. It’s a pattern I’ve observed throughout her entire ife-seeking validation from powerful men because she doesn’t have a stable sense of self.”

‘This testimony is completely fabricated,” Knox says, on his feet before Elder James can stop him. “Devika Aragon disowned her daughter eight years ago. She has had zero contact with Ember since. She’s not a concerned mother-she’s an opportunist who appeared the moment Ember became associated with someone powerful. The documents she’s presenting are forgeries designed to-”

‘The Lycan King will refrain from interrupting witness testimony,” Elder James snaps, and his voice carnes the kind of authority that makes even Knox pause. “Or he will be removed from this chamber.”