Framing Her For The Ring

Framing Her For The Ring
Sylvia's POV

Without any further complaint, I moved back to the garden where I searched for the ring again. Moments later, the rain began to pour and there was nowhere to hide.

That made me continue searching for the ring in the rain as I knew Vivienne would have nothing of it if I returned to her room again to tell her I couldn't find it.

But I could swear I've searched through every corner of the garden, but the truth was, the ring was just not there.

While the rain poured heavily, I returned to my room, my body shivering in the cold as my hands and lips trembled.

When I got into the room, my gaze landed on my blanket which was on the floor and my gaze furrowed.

“How the hell did I leave the room like this?” I thought, seeing my room a bit scattered though I remembered cleaning it a little bit.

I quickly prepared a hot bath for myself as I drowned myself in the water, feeling relieved a little bit.

Still, I was still feeling cold.

I wrapped myself in a towel, preparing hot coffee after which I stared out the window, sipping the coffee while watching the raindrops on the window glass.

It was still morning, but it fell like the day had ended already.

My phone buzzed and when I checked, it was a message from Alpha Damian.

I sighed, dropping the phone as even I couldn't find an answer to the reason why I didn't reply to his message.

He was only looking out for me, asking me how I was doing, but only the moon goddess knew why I didn't want to reply.

I sat down on my bed, looking through my phone for what to do except for reading and replying to messages, but found nothing.

I slammed the phone onto the bed with a groan, realizing how boring my life must have been.

The rain soon stopped, the sunlight crawling its way back onto the sky.

I had totally forgotten about Vivienne and her ring when someone knocked on my door.

I had thought it was the headmaid who had come to fetch me for Vivienne, but was quite surprised to see a maid from the penthouse hall standing at my door.

“The council members require your presence in the hall immediately” she said, bowed slightly and then walked away.

My gaze trailed her back as I watched. The council members? Not Vivienne? Not Valen?

I decided not to think much about it as I moved back into the room, quickly going through my drawer for a dress.

I slid one on, and headed to the hall as the maid had said. When I got to the hall, Valen was seated, and beside him was princess Fiona.

The council members stood in row, their gazes cascading over me in disgust as I moved closer to them. And then my gaze sighted Vivienne who was standing at the centre of the room, turning to face me the moment I entered.

“Greetings, Alpha” I bowed my head and lifted it almost immediately, turning to the council members who stood at the right hand side of the room.

“Greetings, Elders” I bowed slightly to them also.

“You called for me?” I asked, trying to sound polite as much as I could.

Valen was the first to speak. “Because of you, Sylvia. I was brought out here in this cold weather to overlook a matter despite how busy I was in” Valen said, his voice stern like he was scolding me. 

My forehead creased in confusion as I tried to figure out what I had done wrong this time but couldn't think of anything.

Every time I visited this hall, it was always to be scolded, framed or have a verdict passed upon me.

And now I couldn't stop anticipating what everyone here has in stock for me today. I knew something had definitely gone wrong with the way Valen spoke to me just now.

“You were called here because of the ring you stole, Sylvia” Vivienne said, turning to face me with her darkened gaze.

My gaze squinted as I tried to process her words. Ring? Stolen?

I didn't need Vivienne to explain further before I realized that she was trying to frame me by telling the court I took her ring, a ring which I had never set my eyes on.

“What are you talking about, Lady Vivienne?” I asked, trying to act like I hadn't figured out what she was trying to do with me at the moment.

She didn't respond to me, instead, she turned to Valen.

“Alpha, two days ago, I had lost the ring you gave to me while I was in the garden, and today, I had begged Sylvia to search for the ring but she reported to me that she couldn't find the ring” Vivienne paused.

“I had begged her again to go back and look for the ring, as I was sure that I lost it there, but she only challenged my authority, saying a mere concubine of the Alpha can't give her orders” she added.

I almost scoffed at the word ‘begged’. Surely that was Vivienne's interpretation of begging; wanting to slap me just because I said the truth.

“So, what happened?” A council member asked, his voice hoarse.

“She went back, and only came back with the same news. But a maid had seen her stealthily putting the ring into her pocket.” Vivienne said. 

Even though I anticipated this, my eyes blinked.

“And how do we prove this?” Another council member asked.

“I sent maids to search her room after she had finished searching for the ring, and inside the cloth she had taken off earlier this morning, we found the ring” Vivienne said, and like programmed machines, three maids entered, one of them carrying a silver tray that had the silver and diamond ring on it.

The ring was beautiful, worth the framing show Vivienne was staging.

She had framed me smoothly, effortlessly.

The ring was filled with mud, Vivienne having designed it as though I had taken it deep inside the mud, but she was so stupid not to have known that the rain drenched me when I returned to my room. Henceforth, the ring would have been washed clean. 

My gaze was forced to lift to the Alpha as I knew the verdict was in his hands. He stared at me, his face expressionless as I didn't know what to expect, but whatever it was, I knew I would be able to handle it.