Chapter 43: The Unraveling
Chapter 43: The Unraveling
Everyone was gathered in the council chamber now, the formal room where pack business was conducted and where important decisions had been made for generations before this moment, and my heart was beating so fast I thought it might burst right out of my chest while I waited for Lucian who’d gone to fetch Roslyn.
The afternoon light streamed through the tall windows, casting long shadows across the polished oak table where Dad sat at the head with Mom beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder in that way she did when she needed to feel grounded, and Thomas stood near the window with his arms crossed while Elder Minerva and two other council members filled the remaining seats around the table.
I glanced at Fiona who sat across from me, actually looking pissed to be here judging from the way her jaw was clenched and her fingers kept twisting that silver bracelet she always wore, and when she caught me staring she glared at me with such anger in her blue eyes that it made something hot and furious rise in my chest.
How could she be angry after what she did, how dare she sit there looking at me like I was the one who’d wronged her when she was the one who’d—
I cut that thought off before it could finish, hands clenching into fists under the table while I forced myself to look away from my sister’s glare.
The door opened then and Lucian entered with Roslyn trailing behind him, and my heart twisted when I saw how terrified she looked with her face pale as death and her hands trembling so badly she had to clasp them together to hide it, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but here in this room with all these eyes watching her.
I felt for her despite everything, despite the secrets she’d been keeping and the way she’d been acting strange, because whatever Lucian had found must be bad enough to make gentle Roslyn look like she might collapse.
Lucian moved to stand before the assembled council while Roslyn stayed near the door like she might bolt at any second, and he took a breath before speaking in that calm healer’s voice of his that somehow made terrible news sound less terrifying.
“We found shadow-lily residue,” he said simply and the room went dead silent with everyone staring at him. “Hidden in a very compromising position, concealed so well that it took extensive searching to find it.”
Dad stood up so fast his chair scraped against the stone floor with a harsh sound that made several people flinch. “Where?” he demanded, his voice carrying that Alpha command that made everyone in the room straighten automatically. “Where the hell did you find it?”
Lucian glanced at Roslyn then, something like sympathy crossing his handsome face, and he gestured for her to speak while she looked like she might actually faint from the attention suddenly focused on her.
“I…” Roslyn’s voice came out barely louder than a whisper, so quiet we all had to lean forward to hear her. “I found it in someone’s room. Someone in this room.”
“Who?” Dad’s voice cracked like a whip. “Stop dancing around it and tell us who!”
Roslyn’s whole body was shaking now, tears streaming down her face while she raised one trembling finger to point across the chamber, and I followed that finger with my eyes to see where it was aimed even though some part of me already knew, already understood what was about to happen.
Her finger pointed straight at Fiona.
“I found shadow-lily residue hidden in her room,” Roslyn said, the words tumbling out in a rush now like a dam breaking. “In Fiona’s room.”
The silence that followed was so complete I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.
Then Dad exploded.
“What!!!” He slammed his hands down on the table hard enough to make the wood crack, his face going red with fury while his gold Alpha eyes flashed dangerously. “What kind of sick joke is this? Explain yourself right now!”
Fiona had gone completely pale, all the color draining from her face as she stood up on shaking legs, and she looked genuinely shocked like she couldn’t believe what was happening, her mouth opening and closing without sound while her eyes went wide with something that looked like panic or maybe terror.
“What the hell is all this?” Fiona’s voice came out high and strained, nothing like her usual confident tone. “This is insane, you can’t seriously—”
“You need to explain,” Mom said, looking confused.
Roslyn was full-on crying now, her words coming out between sobs. “I was going to keep quiet, I swear I was, but Fiona has been hurting people in this pack because of jealousy!” Her voice broke on the word, raw and desperate. “She hurt Chloe, I don’t know about Derek and Jorik, I don’t know if she did something to them too, but I’m sure she hurt Chloe!”
“That’s not—” Fiona tried to interrupt but Roslyn kept talking, the words pouring out like poison that had been festering too long.
“I found the shadow-lily in her room when Lucian and I searched it, I know it was wrong to search without permission, I know the political implications are terrible, but I had to!” Roslyn was shaking so hard I thought she might collapse. “I’ve been strange these past days because I didn’t know what to do, I thought I was going crazy, but then everything started making sense!”
“Roslyn, breathe,” Lucian said gently, moving to support her with a hand on her arm while he took over the explanation in that calm voice of his. “i noticed she was off a few days ago, clearly distressed about something, and I initially thought she was ill when she started avoiding me and acting nervous.”
He glanced at Fiona who was still standing there frozen like a statue, her face now white as bone. “When I finally convinced her to tell me what was wrong, she broke down completely and confessed her suspicions about Fiona.”
“What suspicions?” Thomas demanded from his position by the window, his weathered face dark with anger and confusion.
“She noticed Fiona’s behavior changed dramatically after Marcus and I arrived at Night Pack,” Lucian explained, his brown eyes serious. “Strange anger, mood swings that didn’t match her usual personality, and then Roslyn remembered something from the night Chloe was attacked.”
My hands clenched so tight under the table my nails bit into my palms, because I knew what was coming next, I’d seen it in my recovered memories even if I hadn’t wanted to believe it.
“That night when Chloe lost her memories, Fiona had been strangely happy afterward,” Lucian continued while everyone stared at him in shocked silence. “Roslyn thought nothing of it at the time, assumed Fiona was just relieved her sister survived the attack, but looking back with everything else…” He trailed off meaningfully.
“This is bullshit!” Fiona’s voice suddenly rang out, loud and furious and nothing like the girl I’d grown up with. “This is complete and utter bullshit and surely no one here believes this insane story!”
The profanity shocked everyone into silence, because Fiona never cursed, she was always proper and polite and well-mannered, the perfect lady that Mom had raised her to be.
Dad looked like someone had punched him in the stomach while Mom had both hands pressed to her mouth, tears streaming down her face at seeing her daughter like this which was rare because Mom was always the stern one, always the one who kept her emotions locked away tight, but now tears were streaming down her face while she stared at her younger daughter with something like horror
Thomas just stared with his mouth slightly open, clearly unable to process what he was witnessing, and the guards positioned around the room all looked uncomfortable and surprised like they didn’t know where to look.
Fiona seemed to realize her mistake then, seeing all those shocked faces staring at her, and she tried to backtrack immediately. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I didn’t mean to curse like that, I’m just so shocked by these accusations—”
“Enough.” Dad’s voice cut through her stammering apology like a blade. “Fiona, I’m going to ask you one question and I want the truth.” He paused, his hazel eyes boring into hers with an intensity that would have made most people confess to anything. “Are these accusations true?”
The pain in his voice was so raw it made my chest ache, because this was his daughter, his baby girl who he’d loved and protected her whole life, and now he was asking if she’d tried to destroy her own sister.
Fiona heard that pain too, heard it and something broke in her face as fresh tears started streaming down her cheeks. “So you won’t believe me?” Her voice cracked on the words. “Your own daughter, and you won’t even give me the benefit of the doubt?”
She spun to face Mom then, one hand reaching out desperately. “Mom, please, you know me, you raised me, surely you can’t believe I would do something like this!”
But Mom just shook her head slowly, tears still falling while she looked at Fiona like she was seeing a stranger.
Fiona turned to Thomas next, her blue eyes wild and pleading. “Thomas, you’ve known me since I was a child, you know I’m not capable of this!”
Thomas didn’t respond, just stared at her with that same shocked expression.
Then finally Fiona’s desperate gaze landed on me, and for a second I saw the sister I’d grown up with behind all that panic and fear, saw the girl who used to braid my hair and steal cookies from the kitchen with me and defend me against anyone who said mean things.
“Chloe,” she whispered, and my name on her lips sounded like a prayer. “Surely you don’t believe all of this, surely you know your own sister better than to think I could hurt you like this.”
The whole room held its breath waiting for my answer, and I felt the weight of everyone’s attention pressing down on me while my heart twisted painfully in my chest because this was my sister, my blood, the person who’d been my best friend before everything went wrong.
But I also remembered now, remembered everything the attack had stolen from me, remembered what I’d seen that night even if I’d tried so hard to push it away and pretend it wasn’t real.
“Yes,” I said, and my voice came out steady despite the tears streaming down my face now. “Yes, I believe it.”
Gasps echoed around the chamber at my words, shock rippling through the assembled council and guards.
“I remember everything now,” I continued, looking straight at Fiona while she stared back at me with something like horror dawning in her eyes. “All my memories came back, every single one of them, so you can stop the act.”