TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 81

CHAPTER 51:1 LOST THE BABY

EMBER’S POV

Devika turns toward Knox with an expression of hurt understanding.

“Knox, I know you care about my daughter,” she says gently. “I can see that. And I appreciate that you want to protect her. But this is exactly what I’m talking about. Ember latches onto powerful men who make her fee! safe, and then she becomes completely dependent on them. It’s not her fault–it’s a symptom of her condition. And the fact that you’re defending her so aggressively, that you’re willing to accuse her own mother of forgery… it suggests to me that perhaps you’ve been drawn into her patterns without realizing

it.”

It’s masterful manipulation. She’s turned Knox’s defense of me into evidence that he’s been fooled.

“I cut off contact because I thought distance would help her,” Devika continues, addressing the council now. “I was wrong about the method. But I wasn’t wrong about the problem. When she married Gale, I hoped a stable partnership would give her the structure she needs. I was hopeful for a time. But clearly, the underlying issues were never addressed…”

She trails off, leaving the council to imagine all the ways I disappointed her. All the ways I failed.

“The council will consider this testimony,” Elder James announces, and there’s something in his voice that sounds almost gleeful. “As well as the recommendation that a comprehensive psychological evaluation be conducted on Mrs. Crawford.”

A psychological evaluation.

Conducted by people who don’t believe me. Who’ve just heard that I have a history of instability and lying and emotional dependency.

They’ll find exactly what they’re looking for because they’ve already decided what they want to find.

“Given the lack of physical evidence supporting the abuse allegations,” Elder James continues, and he’s not even trying to hide his satisfaction anymore, “and given the concerning testimony regarding the defendant’s psychological history, the council is prepared to rule that Ember Crawford be returned to the custody of her lawful mate, Alpha Gale Crawford with no room for contesting the council’s decision or filing for divorce. The grounds of infidelity have been ruled to be sorted between the pair.”

The words hit me brutally. Right at the heart of my worst fears.

Returned to Gale.

Legally. Forcibly. Back to that house. Back to those punching hands. Back to flinching, hiding, smiling through every fucked–up pain.

Back to watching the door for his shadow, back to calculating every word before I speak it, back to making myself smaller and smaller until there’s nothing left of me but a shell that knows how to smile on

CHAPTERS LOST THE BABY

command.

I stand before I can stop myself.

The movement is desperate and unplanned, and Elder James’s face goes purple with fury at the

interruption.

+25 Points

“Omega,” he snaps, his voice cutting brutally enough to my knees want to buckle. “You have already given your testimony. You will sit down immediately, Omega females do not interrupt council proceedings. You will be silent and accept the council’s judgment with the dignity appropriate to your status.”

The dignity appropriate to my status.

The status of property. Of something to be transferred between owners based on their decisions, not

mine.

My legs shake. My whole body shakes. But I don’t sit.

“There’s something I never told anyone,” I say, and my voice comes out desperate and broken in ways I can’t control. “Something I buried so deep I almost convinced myself it didn’t happen.”

“You will be silent-” Elder James starts, rising from his seat.

“When I was twenty–three, I was pregnant.” The words tear out of me like they’ve been clawing to escape for years. “Gale’s baby. I was terrified but hopeful. I thought maybe a child would change things between us. I thought maybe he’d stop hurting me if there was something we both loved.”

The chamber goes completely still.

“I told him.” My voice cracks and I don’t try to stop it. “He was furious. He said a baby would ruin everything. He said I was trying to trap him. We fought. He pushed me down the stairs.”

I can see faces in the gallery–some shocked, some skeptical, some calculating what this means for the

outcome they’re betting on.

“I lost the baby.” Tears are streaming down my face now but I don’t wipe them away. “I nearly bied to death. Seattle General Hospital, December of that year. The records exist. You can call them right now. You can verify every word I’m saying. This isn’t a lie I’m telling to save myself. This is the truth I’ve been carrying for two years. The thing that broke something inside me that I don’t think will ever heal. The reason I stayed so long after that night–because after I lost that baby, I didn’t think I deserved to leave. I thought maybe he was right. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I really was as worthless as he said I was.”

The silence stretches.

Elder James’s expression has hardened into something that looks like contempt.

“Convenient as always, Omega. Exactly the kind of desperate fabrication we would expect from someone with the psychological profile your mother has just described. Another manipulation designed to generate

sympathy when the evidence has turned against you.”

CHAPTERS LOST THE BABY

+25 Points

“Elder James.” Elder Catherine’s rises for the first time. “I want this verified. Before any ruling is made.”

James turns toward her with barely concealed fury.

“Elder Catherine, the council has heard sufficient testimony to-”

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