บททั้งหมดของ Dear Ex Mate, You're Mine to Ruin: บทที่ 131 - บทที่ 140

Lillian’s POVAiden’s hand caught my arm before I could follow the slap with anything further, pulling me back with firm steady pressure while one of the female guards moved to the other side of the table. Miranda had both hands pressed to her face and was producing the kind of crying that filled a room, loud and sustained and designed to make whoever was responsible for it feel monstrous.Nobody in the room looked moved by it.Dorian pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat down with the particular deliberate calm of a man who had made a decision about how this conversation was going to go and was not going to be pulled off that decision by tears or performance or anything else Miranda had available to her. He looked at her across the table and waited until she had quieted enough to hear him.“Confess,” he said simply. “Everything. Start from the beginning and do not leave anything out.”Miranda lowered her hands from her face and looked at him with her eyes still wet

Lillian’s POVThe elder council room felt different with Miranda locked up and her father unaccounted for. The remaining elders filed in one by one and took their seats around the long table with a careful movements. I stood to the side of the room rather than at the table, and I felt every set of eyes that moved to me and moved away again quickly, the way eyes move from something that makes people uncomfortable.The seat Elder Carter normally occupied was empty.Dorian called the room to order without preamble and laid everything out with the directness of a man who had run completely out of patience for careful language and diplomatic framing. He told them about the potion and what it had been used for. He told them about Jephthah and the rope and what Jephthah had confessed to in the dungeon. He told them about the falsified pregnancy documents and the manufactured scene and the scheme that had been running inside this pack house for months with Elder Carter’s direct involvement

Dorian’s POVI walked out of the office becayse she will clearly not give an answer and moreover because there was no answer I could get that would not cost me something, and I had already spent enough of the evening bleeding from various directions without opening a new wound voluntarily. I went to my room and sat on the edge of the bed in the dark for a while, just sitting with the weight of the day and everything it had contained, letting the quiet do whatever work quiet could do on a night like this one.Aiden knocked and came in without waiting long enough for an answer, which meant whatever he was carrying was not something that could wait for proper social timing. He crossed to where I was sitting and held out an envelope, thick paper, formal seal. “It was waiting when we got back,” Aiden said. “I held it until things settled down enough for you to read it without it getting lost in everything else.”I took it and broke the seal and read it.Then I read it again because the f

Lillian’s POVThe morning felt brighter than it had in a really long time. I put Celeste in her favorite yellow outfit and told her we were going somewhere special. She asked about fourteen questions before we even got to the car. That told me she was completely back to her normal self, and honestly, that alone made the whole day feel like a win.The shop Dorian sent us to was in a fancy part of the city, but it was quiet about it. It was the kind of street where the stores didn’t need big, loud signs or flashy window displays to get attention. They were just confident. There was a clean storefront, a heavy brass door handle, and the faint smell of expensive clothes that hit us before we even stepped inside.The receptionist was very polite and immediately apologized. She explained that the stylist was just finishing up with someone and would be right out. She pointed us toward a seating area with soft cream couches and a little table with drinks and snacks, telling us to make ourselv

Aaron’s POVI turned the corner and kept moving without looking back. I walked away from the ice cream shop at a steady, calm pace, making it look like I knew exactly where I was going even though I didn't. I kept my hood pulled up until I was two blocks away and completely sure no one was following me. Finally, I pulled the hood back, let the fresh air hit my face, and took a second to think about what had just happened.She had seen me. I had been so careful, way more careful than usual but she still caught me in that split second when we passed each other. Avoidance had been impossible. I had always underestimated how sharp Lillian was back when we were together, and I had spent a lot of time lately regretting that mistake.But the more I thought about it, my frustration turned into something closer to satisfaction. Lillian seeing me wasn't actually a disaster. In fact, it kind of worked in my favor. She would go straight home and tell Dorian. Dorian would tighten his security, a