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Chapter 14: Poisoned Roots

Author: JDHWS
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-06 19:40:03

The story broke at 6:45 a.m.

Elara’s phone lit up with a flood of notifications before she even opened her eyes. By the time she sat up in bed, the damage had already been done.

“Whistleblower or Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?”

— A headline splashed across Garden Metro’s largest news blog, complete with a heavily edited photo of Elara sitting at a committee lunch beside Valerie Monroe.

“An anonymous source has revealed that Elara Quinn, current face of the Monroe Foundation’s Youth Empowerment initiative, once received funds from the very system she now claims is corrupt. Is her crusade for justice genuine, or a calculated smear by a bitter former insider?”

She dropped her phone on the bed and covered her face with her hands.

They had done it.

Cassidy—or her mother, or maybe both—had framed her as part of the very machine she was trying to destroy.

Not just to ruin her.

But to discredit the entire movement.

Thirty minutes later, the war room buzzed like a hornet’s nest.

Marcus paced like
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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 64: Stepping Into the Light

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 63: Shattered Glass, Steady Flame

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 62: Whispers in the Air

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 60: Smoke Before the Fire

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