23 Chapter 23 Woman Betrayed
Roxanne’s eyes, which normally filled with those phony innocent tears, turned cold. A dangerous glint flickered in their depths. A slow, maddening smile curved her lips. 1
I expected to feel guilt first, but instead, a massive weight lifted from my shoulders.
Three figures appeared in the doorway, their faces shifting from worry to complete shock at the scene before them.
He slowly released Nolan, who continued glaring at me, seething with helpless rage. “What happened here?”
Interesting how I hadn’t even mentioned stealing, yet she was already defending against it.
He turned his gaze to me, his golden eyes sweeping over my shaking, furious form, then to Roxanne’s tear-filled, shocked face, finally resting on the vivid red mark blooming on her cheek.
“Nolan!” He thundered, his voice carrying an alpha’s undeniable command, cracking like lightning. “That’s enough! You will respect your Luna, and I hope I misheard you, because if you truly called my mate a witch, then you and I will have serious problems.”
The air crackled with unspoken questions, with suffocating tension.
Roxanne’s head snapped to the side, her eyes wide with stunned disbelief, a bright red mark appearing instantly on her pale skin. She gasped in pure shock.
Seraphina’s POV
Time seemed to freeze when you do something completely out of character, and that’s exactly what happened.
My voice came out as a hoarse whisper, rough with rage and shock. This had to be some twisted nightmare.
I wanted to scream that this was all his fault. Everything I did somehow connected back to him. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten involved with him from the start, he and Roxanne could have had their perfect ending.
A fury I couldn’t describe consumed me.
I couldn’t understand his devotion to Roxanne, but I feared his hatred for me might
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23 Chapter 23 Woman Betrayed
destroy his life.
They hadn’t just given my gifts away. They were erasing my memories, my value, my very existence. They were mocking my suffering, validating her betrayal, laughing at my pain.
“Seraphina! How dare you accuse your sister of such nonsense? These beautiful pieces were gifts from us, selected especially for Roxanne. To suggest she stole them, or that they were ever yours, is disgusting slander! What’s gotten into you?”
Before anyone could respond, before Mother could shriek, the living room door, already cracked from Roxanne’s earlier dramatic entry, burst open with a furious crash.
I saw Roxanne’s smug expression, the stolen jewelry sparkling, and something inside me broke.
Julian entered first, followed closely by my father, the eternally stoic arrogant fool, then Nolan, whose usually easygoing features were now twisted with rage, his lips curled in a snarl.
“These?” She cooed, her fingers stroking the smooth moonstones around her neck, deliberately savoring my torment. “Mom and Dad gave them to me. A late birthday present, they said. They know how much I love special jewelry.”
But Julian quickly blocked his path. His hand shot out, gripping Nolan’s arm with iron strength. Julian’s eyes, usually warm, were now cold, deadly, burning with unspoken
menace.
I couldn’t believe I’d been grateful that my room seemed untouched when I returned. The only reason I hadn’t noticed missing items was because I hadn’t looked carefully enough.
“You witch! What the hell did you just do to her?” His voice dripped venom, possessed with fury. He stepped forward, fists clenched, ready to destroy me.
Roxanne had always managed to gaslight me or manipulate me into feeling stupid and worthless, but this time felt different.
The lie filled the air like poison, twisting the blade deeper into my already torn heart. Before I could process her cruel boldness, Mother stepped forward. Her face was a stone mask of righteous fury.
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My hand shot out without thought, pure instinct, a cry made flesh. The sharp,
satisfying sound of my palm striking her cheek rang through the stunned silence like thunder.
Nolan, spotting Roxanne holding her reddened cheek, immediately fixed his gaze on
As usual, I was the villain. The envious sister causing trouble again. “Roxanne,” I said again. “Where did you get those? They’re not yours.”
Naturally, they would help her hide her theft instead of supporting me.
I didn’t blame her. I was equally amazed that I was capable of such action.
“Seraphina,” he said, his voice surprisingly steady despite the storm in his eyes, a strange calm amid the chaos.
I could spot those pieces from miles away. It felt insane because I wanted nothing to do with the man who’d given them to me, yet they remained among my most treasured possessions. I wasn’t sure if Julian even remembered these specific gifts, but they meant everything to me. I would never hand them over to anyone.
Her words cut through me like knives. Every old hurt, every dismissal, every cruel comparison, every moment of feeling worthless, erupted inside me. The breath I couldn’t catch earlier now felt like a crushing weight behind my eyes.
My parents? The same people who’d never given me anything that wasn’t purely functional? Who’d never bought me jewelry that wasn’t some worn-out
hand-me-down? The parents who watched me suffer, watched me break, and always chose her side?
My vision exploded in blinding red. The quiet, wounded girl I’d been, the one who tried to reason, tried to understand, tried to be perfect, disappeared. In her place stood a woman betrayed.
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