THE LIE

PAULINE

I spent the next few days in a strange, quiet bubble. Ricardo was nowhere to be seen. He didn't come to our room at night, and he didn't join me for meals. It was as if I had become a ghost in his house. The maids were professional and polite; they brought me my meals and made sure I took my prenatal vitamins every morning.

"Here is your water, Madam," one of the young girls said, handing me a glass. "The Alpha has given strict orders that you are not to be disturbed. You must rest for the baby."

"Thank you," I replied, but I felt a knot of anxiety in my chest. This silence felt like the calm before a storm.

Then, Maria came home.

She returned to the house to "recover" from her loss. I expected the atmosphere to turn violent. I expected Ricardo to see her pale face and finally take his ultimate revenge on me—to send me back to Leo’s house or worse. But he didn't. He stayed in his office, and Maria stayed in her wing of the house, surrounded by flowers and grieving relatives.

One afternoon, I was walking past the sunroom when I heard a voice. It was Maria. She sounded sharp, energized, not at all like a woman who had just lost a child. I pressed my back against the wall, my heart hammering.

"I told you, it worked perfectly," Maria said into the phone. She laughed, and the sound chilled me to the bone. "Ricardo is ready to kill Leo for me. And Leo? He’s so riddled with guilt he can barely look at me. He actually thinks he killed his own seed."

I gasped silently, covering my mouth with my hand.

"Of course I wasn't pregnant!" Maria continued, her voice dripping with malice. "The doctor at the clinic is an old friend from my club days. He forged the papers for a price. I needed a way to bind Leo to me forever, and when that didn't work, I needed a way to make him the villain. The 'push' was nothing. I tripped on purpose. There was no miscarriage because there was no baby."

I felt the world tilt. My brother wasn't a monster. He hadn't hit a pregnant woman. He had been framed by a woman who was more than just a liar, she was a predator. She was a psychic in the way she read people's weaknesses and used them to destroy their lives. She was dangerous, and my brother was her prey.

I didn't cry. For the first time in months, the tears dried up completely. I walked back to my room with a cold, hard clarity.

I have to save Leo, I thought. And I have to save myself.

If Maria could lie about something as sacred as a child, what else had she lied about? All those stories she told Ricardo—about Leo slapping her, locking her out in the rain, treating her like trash—were they all fabrications?

I looked at my own stomach. My pregnancy was real. My child was real. And I was not going to let this evil woman use my brother as a punching bag for her fantasies anymore.

That evening, I didn't wait for the maids. I walked straight to Ricardo’s study. I didn't knock. I threw the door open.

Ricardo was sitting behind his desk, a glass of amber liquid in his hand. He looked terrible. His eyes were sunken, and his beard was overgrown. He looked up, his gaze cold.

"I told the staff I didn't want to be disturbed, Pauline."

"We need to talk," I said, walking right up to his desk. "And you’re going to listen to me as an Alpha, not as a grieving brother."

He leaned back, a bitter smirk on his face. "You have a lot of nerve coming in here after what your brother did."

"My brother did nothing," I snapped. I leaned over the desk, staring him down. "I heard her, Ricardo. I heard Maria on the phone today."

Ricardo’s grip tightened on his glass. "What are you talking about?"

"She was never pregnant," I said, the words coming out fast and sharp. "She lied. She paid a doctor to fake the tests. She staged the fight with Leo. She tripped on purpose so she could blame him for a miscarriage that never happened. She’s using you, Ricardo. She’s using your love for her to destroy a man who never wanted her."

Ricardo stood up so fast his chair hit the floor. "You’re lying. You’re trying to protect Leo."

"Why would I lie about this?" I yelled. "I’m carrying your child! If I wanted to protect Leo, I would have run away days ago! I’m telling you this because your sister is sick. She is dangerous. She is tearing two packs apart for a lie!"

"Maria wouldn't..." he started, but his voice trailed off. I could see the doubt flickering in his eyes. He remembered her past. He remembered the clubs, the scandals, the way she had always been "dramatic."

"Call the pack doctor," I challenged him. "Not her friend. Our doctor. Bring her in here and have her examined right now. If I’m lying, you can do whatever you want to me. But if I’m right... you owe my brother an apology that blood cannot pay for."

The confrontation in the living room an hour later was the most professional and terrifying moment of my life. Ricardo had summoned Maria. She came in draped in a black silk robe, dabbing at her eyes with a lace handkerchief.

"Ricardo, why am I here?" she whimpered. "I need my rest."

"Sit down, Maria," Ricardo said. His voice was different now. It wasn't angry; it was hollow.

Our pack doctor stood in the corner, looking uncomfortable.

"Pauline tells me something interesting," Ricardo said, pacing the floor. "She says you were never pregnant. She says the miscarriage was a show."

Maria’s face went white. She looked at me, her eyes filled with a murderous hate I had never seen before. "She’s a liar! She’s jealous because I’m the favorite!"

"Then let the doctor examine you," I said, stepping forward. "If you lost a baby a few days ago, your body will show it. There will be physical evidence. Why are you shaking, Maria?"

"I won't be humiliated like this!" Maria screamed, turning to run.

The atmosphere in the room shifted from a moment of truth to a theater of shadows in a heartbeat. As the words left my lips, Maria didn’t crumble. She didn't confess. Instead, she let out a piercing, hysterical wail that echoed off the high ceilings of the study.

"How could you?" she screamed, her eyes streaming with tears as she looked at Ricardo. "How could you believe her? She’s a Silver Fang! Her brother hates us! She’s making this up to tear us apart so Leo can leave me and take our baby to the grave!"

"Maria, stop," I said, my voice firm despite the shaking in my hands. "I heard you on the phone. I heard you say the pregnancy was a lie."

"You heard what you wanted to hear!" Maria shrieked. She threw herself at Ricardo’s feet, clutching his knees. "Ricardo, look at me! I am your blood! I am the sister you protected when we had nothing! Are you really going to trust this girl—this stranger—over me? She wants to destroy our legacy. She wants you to hate me so her brother can be free to hurt me again!"

Ricardo looked down at her, his expression wavering. The cold, logical Alpha was being replaced by the protective older brother. I could see the conflict in his eyes. The bond of blood was a powerful, blinding thing.

"She says there was no baby, Maria," Ricardo said, his voice low and uncertain.

"Because she wants to erase my pain!" Maria sobbed, her face buried in his trousers. "It’s not enough that I lost my child, now she wants to take away my dignity! She’s psychic, Ricardo! She’s playing with your head! She’s trying to weaken the Blue Sky Pack from the inside!"

I stepped forward, desperate. "Ricardo, just let the doctor check her. If I'm wrong, I’ll leave. I’ll sign whatever you want. Just one medical exam."

Maria let out a choked gasp, looking up at Ricardo with wide, terrified eyes. "You would let a man touch me? Now? After what I’ve been through? You’d subject me to that humiliation because she told a story? If you do this, Ricardo, you aren't my brother anymore. You’re just another man who doesn't believe women."

That was the final blow. Ricardo’s face hardened. He looked at me, and the warmth I had seen earlier vanished, replaced by a wall of granite.

"That’s enough, Pauline," he said coldly.

"Ricardo, please—"

The silence that followed was heavy and suffocating. Maria stayed on the floor for a long time, her sobs turning into soft whimpers. Ricardo didn't look at me. He didn't even acknowledge I was in the room.

"Go to your room, Pauline," he said quietly.

"Ricardo—"

"Don't speak to me tonight," he snapped. "You tried to use a fake story to exile my sister while she’s grieving. I don't care if you're carrying my child; I won't have you attacking my family."

I walked out of the room, my head held high even though I felt like I was dying inside. As I passed Maria, I saw it. Just for a split second, she looked up from her "tears." She didn't have a look of sadness. She had a look of pure, twisted triumph. She winked at me—a quick, mocking flutter of her eyelids—before returning to her sobbing act.

I went to my room and locked the door. I sat on the edge of the bed, my hands resting on my stomach.

"I won't let her win," I whispered to the dark. "I won't let her destroy your father, and I won't let her kill your uncle."

I realized then that words were useless. Ricardo was blinded by a lifetime of protecting Maria. To him, she was the innocent little sister who had been chewed up by the world. He couldn't see the predator she had become. If I was going to save my brother, my marriage, and my child, I couldn't just tell the truth.

I had to prove it.