(Victoria’s POV)
This couldn’t be happening. I fumbled for my blackcard with shaking hands, trying to process the transaction myself.
“Declined,” the machine beeped mockingly
The staff who had once bowed to me now watched with barely concealed satisfaction, Security guards flanked my wheelchair, their expressions professionally neutral but their eyes cold.
“Ma’am, you need to leave,” one of them said timely.
“You can’t do this to me!” I shield, but my voice cracked with desperation.
They wheeled me toward the et despite my protests Other shoppers stared as I was forcibly removed from the store.
Outside Shadow Creek Mall, they unceremoniously dumped me–wheelchair and all–on the pavement. The wheels caught on the curb, nearly tipping me over.
A passing Good Samaritan approached, offering help. I lashed out at him in my humiliation, screaming obscenities until he backed away in shock
I was left to crawl and beg for assistance, my pride shattered Olists and James emerged from the mall with their purchases, witnessing my complete degradation. Their eyes held to pity, only cold satisfaction. They walked past me as if we
dinvisible.
I managed to call a taxi, my hands still trembling with rage and shame. At least I still had Rosewood Haven and my accumulated luxuries.
The villa would be my sanctuary until I could figure out how to regain Ethan’s favor.
But when I arrived at Rosewood Haven, honor awaited me, oving trucks Uned the driveway, and workers carried my possessions out in boxes.
Maxwell Chen supervised the operation, his expression professionally detached. He looked up as my tax pulled in.
You are not the owner,” he said flatly when I demanded an explanation. “The villa’s ownership has been transferred to Olivia Winters.”
“You’re nothing now,” he added with brutal honesty,
I was evicted from my own home, left with nowhere to go bot the shabby old apartment I’d once centeil for Connor Blaclihom. The contrast between my former luxury and current destitution was crushing
My phone rang as I sat in the dingy apartment, staring at the peeling wallpaper. Crescent Moon Academy’s number flashed on the screen
“Mrs. Frost, Emma has been badly beaten by other wolf pups,” the teacher’s voice was carefully neutral.
Initially, I felt nothing but irritation. The realization struck–this could be an opportunity.
At the school, angry parents surrounded the principal’s office. Their voices use in unified demand. Emil’s expulsion
The feciorized our children for years,” one mother declated “We only tolerated it because of Alpha Stone’s protection.”
“That protection is gone now,” another parent added coldly.
Ukdown had finally retaliated against the girl who once balled them micilessly. Ena sat in the use’s office, her face swollen and her unitons born.
I took my ingmed daughter away in silence, my mind already calculating. At Stone Pack Enterprises, I instructed Emma carefully-
“Go to your Daddy,” I whispered “Show him how much you need him.”
famma threw herself at Ethan’s feet in his office, her small body wracked with sobs.
Daddy,” she cried, the word a desperate plea that night soften even the hardest heart,
Especially one that had truly loved her
Mard penson’s MM.
As Ethan Stone besitated, just as Victoria First expected, he was moved by Emma’s tearful pleas and stopped to look down at her feeing hisattention, Emma’s framsintensified, her swollen red eyes filled with longing and dependence as she clung to Plum’s leg
the near find out to him with her small hands, her vnice breaking with desperation.“Delly, Exuma really knows she was wrong, please don’t abandon Emma.”
without Daddy, my classmates bullyme. Look, they beat me all over, Daddy, it hurts so much.” Her woll pup whimpered pitifully beneath her skin, projecting distress plemenones that would normally trigger any Alpha’s pintective
The scent of her fear and pain filled the air around them, had always received from him
Cumall body tumbiled as she pressed closer to Ethan’sleg, seeking the comfort and protection the
Laking hands. The revealed the tattered Crescent Moon Academy unifor
When than did not immediately comfort her, Emma pulled open her jacket with shaking
demeath and the bruises and wein marring her pale skin.
These visible wounds were her trump card. She remembered how, in the past, whenever she was bullied, her father figure would defend her fiercely.
He would punish those who hurt her and their families through his Alpha authority. She recalled the tenderness with which he had once soothed her after an
He had promised to acknowledge her as his true daughter despite the lack of blood bond. Having truly experienced Ethan’s fatherly love and protection, she simply
could not believe he would cast beraside.
The grave desecrations incident was just a childish act of jealousy against Lily, who was already gone. She convinced herself her Alpha father was only acting out of anget, and he would soften upon seeing her loud.
“Please, Daddy,” she whispered, her voice barely audibile. “Emma needs you.”
Ethan’s amber eyes darkened as he took in the severity of her injuries. His wolf stimed with conflicted protective instincts, the sight of a wounded pup triggering ancient Alpha responses,
He asked in a low, controlled volce, “Why did your classmates beat you?!
without hesitation, Lima replied, “Because they saw that Eroma had no daddy to protect her, so they bulled me for no reason.” Her voice carried the praction innocence of a child who had learned to manipulate adult ciuntions.
His gaze turned frigid, his Alplus aura growing cold. He realized that she was completely unaware of her own culpability, presenting only the side that could gain
was ignoring the fact that she herself was also a perpetrator. With a cold expression, Ethan pulled his leg away, his wild ejecting the false bond.
Emma collapsed to the ground with a small cry of pain. The marble floor was cold and undergiving beneath her bruised body.
“Daddy.. dr looked up in confusion, berwold pup’s distress calls going unanswered. She was unable to understand why he showed no concern for her injuries and did no help lerup.
Dilim’s perception of her lad fundamentally changed since the previous night. When he learned the truth abour Lily’s death and the grave desecration, everything
He now saw that his past indulgence had made him the unwitting shield for her bullying. She had tommented her classmates with impunity using his Alpha status.
blr, once a victim bersell, had turned into someone who would hear apart others‘ umbrellas rather than offer shelter. The accounts he heard from her teachers
tad braken classmatechdoody, forced them to lowel and subunit like meiegas. How she made them crad under her legs, and even shoved someone’s head
Hetedized he had enalded a fine master. The one he hated lauself for las past leniency, the more be loathed Emma standing before him.
was so skilled al petruse, just like her motları Victori
Cadilly, Kalian ondered the Silvercrest Security Grunds, “Don’t let these two appear at the company entrance apain, i don’t want to see them.”
His Alpha romansand carried the wright of absolute authority. The quand straightened immediately, recognizing the Linality in their Alpha’s tone
De rimed and strode away, his powerful pai ncr radiating tejection Each stepecmed theonglet
able lobby like a dratli liell
Tirana, panicking, fried desperately to grab his leg again. Her woll pup howled in abandonneet, the sound piercing and desperate.
could not catch up to the Alpha’s long Mildes Hersmall legs couldari match his pace, and her injuries slowed her further
The guards, who remembered bow Blam used to date on kamina, besitated to act muglly againd a pup. They leated future repercussions from their Alpha if his feelings changedagain.
Their uncertainty was palpable at they watched the sinall girl chase after the retreating Alpha King
Marbell Chen, receiving a subtle signal from Ethan through their pack bond, returned with puportul steps. He instructed the guards with clear authority that
