LOGINChapter 284ElowenThe relief in the courtroom was a living thing, thick and suffocatingly sweet. For thirty-five years, these men had hidden behind their wealth, their pristine suits, and the suffocating silence they had bought with hush money. But Kian had dismantled them. Piece by piece, entry by entry, he had forced their own arrogance to convict them.As the judge announced a brief recess before the defense began its final arguments, the heavy tension that had anchored my shoulders for months finally snapped.Matteo helped me guide my heavy, pregnant body out of the row, his hand steady against the small of my back. Caroline was right beside us, her face flushed with a mixture of tears and triumph."We need to get you off your feet," he murmured, his eyes scanning my pale face with that familiar, protective intensity. "You've been sitting in that rigid chair for three hours."Before we could cross the threshold of the courtroom doors into the buzzing corridor, his phone vibrate
Chapter 283ElowenAs we were about to leave the court room that day, Anna walked up to me.I thought she wanted to say something about how she was saying the truth. But surprisingly she hugged me immediately we got close and started crying.I froze not knowing what to do with that. Didn't know why she was this emotional.My hands that limped by my side uselessly moved up round her back. I tapped on it slowly."Do not worry about the case, Kain will win it. I promise." She cried more not letting go.At first I told myself it was just a hug but then it stopped feeling that way and started feeling like something more."I failed you. "I heard her say between sobs. "You went through all that and I wasn't there for you. I was wallowing in self-pity when you were going through all this." Ohh that was what she meant."I'm fine now, you do not need to..." I tried to pull away but she held me tight."I'm so sorry. This selfish woman that thought about herself and didn't for once think about h
Chapter 282Elowen I opened my mouth, then closed it. Because he was right about one thing... Anna had abandoned me. And I still didn't fully understand why, even after everything she'd told me."That child," Pembroke said quietly, letting the words sink in, "was you, Ms. Voss. You were abandoned by Ms. Ferretti. And now she's telling you a story about being raped, and you're believing every word of it without question. You're funding her legal battle. You're testifying under oath on her behalf. Doesn't that strike you as potentially problematic? Doesn't that suggest that your judgment might be clouded by your own desire to understand why she abandoned you?""She was trying to survive.""Or perhaps she was running from something else," Pembroke suggested. "Perhaps she's been running her entire life, reinventing her story to suit her circumstances. Perhaps she abandoned you because she was unstable. And now, when she needs money, when she needs to explain her life, suddenly there's
Chapter 281Elowen I took a step back and stared at my hand in disbelief.Not knowing what was going on. Different thoughts ran through my head.What If I had a deadly disease? But deathly diseases don't heal wounds.Or what if I was a vampire or witch? But this is real world and not movie. Such a thing can't exist.I should tell kane and Matteo but I can't, they're going through a lot of stress because of me. And they'll want me to drop whatever is going on if they feel I was stressing myself.Maybe it's stress. Yes, that's it. I came to the realization that I was stressing myself and needed to rest well. So, did what I wanted to do slowly and then went back to bed.I'll be fine after the whole thing Is settled. Nothing is wrong with me. ......By the third day of the trial, all four men were present in the courtroom.Richard Stratton sat next to James Ashton—a man in his mid-fifties with slicked-back dark hair and cold eyes that reminded me of a reptile. Marcus Bellamy was acros
Chapter 280ElowenThe courtroom was smaller than I expected.I'd built it up in my mind as something grand and imposing, with high ceilings and an echo that would make every word feel weighted with consequence. Instead, it was a functional space with beige walls, wooden furniture that had seen decades of trials, and fluorescent lighting that made everyone look slightly washed out and tired.I sat in the gallery behind the prosecution table, with Matteo on one side and Caroline on the other. Her hand squeezed mine periodically like she was checking that I was still breathing, still present, still holding on.Anna was in a side room, waiting to be called. The other six witnesses were scattered throughout the building, protected and separate until they testified.And then there was James Ashton.He sat at the defense table with his legal team, looking exactly like his photograph... gray hair, expensive suit, the kind of casual confidence that came from a lifetime of believing conseque
Chapter 279ElowenThe week before the trial, everything felt like it was moving in slow motion and fast forward simultaneously.Days stretched into nights filled with anxiety and preparation, while the hours seemed to disappear in a blur of final meetings with lawyers, last-minute testimony reviews, and the kind of nervous energy that came with knowing your life was about to change fundamentally.I was six and a half months pregnant now, my belly round and prominent, my body no longer my own. Every movement felt deliberate, every breath conscious. And underneath it all, there was something else...that strange, growing awareness of strength I didn't fully understand and wasn't ready to examine too closely.The cup incident hadn't been the last incident.I'd been holding a ceramic mug while thinking about James Ashton, about what it would be like to sit in a courtroom and see his face, to hear him being called my biological father in front of the entire world. The mug had simply... cr
Chapter 32Elowen He did it again, brought me right to the edge with his mouth and his fingers, let me get so close I could taste it, and then stopped and left me desperate and aching and begging incoherently for release that he refused to give me.Three times.Four times.Five times he brought me
Chapter 33Elowen "Red," I whispered testing the word."Good," he said. "You know it, now let's see if you can last without using it."He pushed inside in one brutal thrust that made me scream because he was right, it hurt, hurt so much worse than anything else had hurt.But underneath the pain wa
Chapter 17ElowenI woke to the feeling of hands on me, gentle hands trying to clean my face, and for a moment I didn't understand where I was or why there were two men sitting on either side of my bed looking at me with concern that felt like a cruel joke.Matteo and Kian, the two men who'd used m
Chapter 20Elowen He stared at me like he was seeing a stranger, and he was, because the woman who'd knocked on his door two nights ago broken, desperate and hoping for kindness was dead."I don't have all the time in the world," I continued, glancing at my watch with deliberate casualness. "I st







