Alle Kapitel von Pregnant With the Northern Alpha’s Six Heirs: Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 18

On the day of the hearing before the House of Nobles, the Church brought three document cases. One held medical records, one held photographs, and one held the relinquishment form bearing my half thumbprint.The Silver Cross lawyer began. "Miss Hart, do you acknowledge that you experienced a panic attack inside the rescue carriage?""I do."He clearly had not expected such a quick answer. "Do you acknowledge that you refused physician-prescribed sedatives?""I do.""Do you acknowledge displaying hostility toward medical staff wearing white?""I do."Murmurs spread through the gallery.Beatrice rose. "We do not deny the trauma," she said. "We only ask one question: who inflicted it?"She called the first witness: Edgar Wells, the old miner from Gloom Valley. He leaned on a cane, the scar from the guards' beating still visible on his head."Six children saved twenty-seven people," he said. "The mine owner threatened us with unpaid wages and our housing to keep us silent."Garrick's lawye

On the night of the winter ball, I did not wear the Blackwood crest. I wore a dark gray dress with my pharmacist's badge pinned to the front. The newspapers still called me "the pauper mother of the wolf pups" on the front page. I folded that paper and carried it into the ballroom.Octavia stood beneath the crystal chandelier, flanked by the young lady chosen by the pureblood families. She began by announcing that the North needed a stable political marriage, then declared that the six children should receive "an education befitting heirs." Finally, she had a servant bring out a contract."Elowen Hart knew the reproductive risks all along," she said. "She hid the children only to demand power when the time was right."The nobles looked at me.Lucian stepped forward, but I raised a hand to stop him. My name was the one on trial.Octavia, however, did not give me the chance to speak. She had a photograph displayed showing me shackled in Saint Oran, then read the panic attack diagnosis al

On the winter solstice, the human special tribunal and the Moon Council opened sessions simultaneously. Octavia sat on the left of the defendant's bench. Archbishop Malrek sat on the right. The clerk collected both their crests and placed only numbered placards in front of them.The presiding judge first asked the prosecution, "Can every charge be tied to a witness or a piece of evidence?"Beatrice stood. "They can."Dr. Grey was the first to testify. She presented the diagnostic form from three years ago, pointing to the custody column that had been filled in before the examination began. Edgar then took the witness stand and described how the six children had saved twenty-seven miners, and how Garrick had used unpaid wages and housing to silence the workers.Agnes placed the birth register on the table. Corwin submitted the sponsor list. The bookbinder took apart the forged contract, identifying the new paper, the old thread, and the resealed wax. Theo pressed two pieces of lead type

In the spring of 1892, the old pharmacy in Gloom Valley reopened. Next to it stood a new two-story building. The sign read: Hart Moonlight Clinic.Three wooden boards were nailed to the clinic entrance.The first listed examination risks. The second stated that children could not be forcibly separated from their primary caregiver. The third stated that declining an examination would not cost a patient continued treatment.On opening day, seventeen families were already sitting on the steps. Some had fled Silver Cross wards and still hid their consent forms in their shoes, afraid that handing them over meant never getting them back.I did not ask about bloodlines first. I let each family decide whether to close the door, whether to have someone stay with them, and whether to allow physical contact. Dr. Grey opened each drug vial in front of the patient. Agnes sat at the table, reading complicated clauses out loud, sentence by sentence, for mothers who could not read.A nurse wrote "decl