Chapter 44: Shattered Illusions
Chapter 44: Shattered Illusions
Everyone was staring at me now, surprised written across every face in the council chamber as my words hung in the air between us.
Mom was the first to break the silence, leaning forward in her seat looking totally confused about everything as she wiped her tears stained face. “What do you mean by that, sweetheart? What are you saying?”
I took a breath, feeling my heart hammer against my ribs while I forced myself to meet each pair of eyes watching me, ending with Fiona who’d gone completely still across the table. “I mean exactly what I said. My memories came back, all of them, everything that happened that night when I was attacked.”
The words felt strange on my tongue, like admitting to something I’d been hiding even though I hadn’t known myself until yesterday, and I watched Fiona’s expression shift from shock to something that looked almost like relief which confused me because of what I was about to say next.
“I had been going to meet Marcus that night,” I continued, my voice steady despite the emotion threatening to choke me. “We’d made plans to run away together and I was on my way to the grove to give him my answer when someone ambushed me on the forest trail.”
Dad’s hands clenched on the table so hard the wood creaked more under the pressure, his hazel eyes darkening with fury at hearing his daughter had been planning to abandon everything, but I couldn’t stop now, couldn’t let guilt derail what needed to be said.
“It was that man,” I said, struggling to pull the name from memory even though I could see his plain face so clearly in my mind. “The one who was with the cloaked figure leading those strange wolves at the festival, the one who—”
“Garrett,” Dad said quietly, his voice rough with anger and something that might have been grief. “His name was Garrett.”
“Garrett.” I nodded, letting the name settle. “He attacked me on the trail and we fought, really fought, I got some good hits in but he was stronger and more experienced, and when I stumbled on a root he got the advantage.” I paused, seeing it all play out again behind my eyes with crystal clarity now. “But someone helped him that night, someone else was there in the shadows waiting.”
The room had gone so quiet I could hear my own pulse thundering in my ears while I raised one shaking hand to point across the table at Fiona, watching as her face drained of all color and her blue eyes went wide with something that looked like genuine betrayal.
“I saw you,” I said, and my voice cracked on the words because this was my sister, my blood, the person who’d been my best friend before everything went wrong. “I saw you help him before I lost consciousness, saw you standing there with something in your hands that you pressed against my chest.”
“What?” Fiona’s voice came out strangled, barely above a whisper. “Chloe, I don’t understand what you’re saying—”
“What did you put on my chest?” I demanded, tears streaming down my face now because I didn’t want this to be true, didn’t want my sister to be the person who’d destroyed me. “What did you use to make me lose my wolf?”
The chamber erupted in shocked murmurs and gasps, council members whispering to each other while guards shifted uncomfortably and Thomas cursed under his breath so quietly I almost missed it.
“Chloe, think carefully about what you’re accusing your sister of,” Mom said, but her voice had lost that usual commanding tone, replaced by something hollow.
“I’ve thought about it for days,” I said, looking at Fiona while she stared back at me with horror written across every feature. “Despite not wanting to believe it was true, despite pushing the memories away every time they tried to surface, there’s only one thing in this pack that could sever a wolf bond so completely.” I paused, letting the weight of it settle. “The Moonheart Crystal.”
Fiona stumbled backward like I’d physically struck her, one hand pressed to her mouth while the other gripped the table for support, and she looked around the chamber with wild desperate eyes seeking someone who would defend her against this accusation.
“So you all won’t believe me?” Her voice broke on the words, raw and pleading in a way that would have moved me if I didn’t know what she’d done. “You’re going to take her word over mine? I’m your daughter, your sister, and none of you will give me the benefit of the doubt?”
She turned to Dad first, tears streaming down her face now. “Dad, please, you raised me, you know me better than anyone, surely you can’t believe I would do something like this to my own sister!”
Dad’s jaw worked like he was physically chewing on words he couldn’t get out, his whole body rigid with tension while one hand gripped the back of his chair so hard the wood groaned under the pressure.
Mom had gone completely still, her face blank in that way it got when she was processing something too terrible to show emotion about yet, and Elder Minerva was staring at Fiona with an off expression like she was seeing the girl for the first time.
Thomas looked between Fiona and me with confusion written across every line of his weathered face, like he couldn’t reconcile the girl he’d known since childhood with the person being accused of such betrayal.
But Fiona’s emotional display only made rage burn hotter in my chest, made something cold settle in the pit of my stomach, because she was still pretending, still acting like the victim when she’d taken everything from me.
“Stop it!” The words exploded out of me louder than I’d intended, making several people jump. “Stop pretending like you’re the one who’s been wronged here! Did you do something to Jorik too? What did you do to him to make him that way, to turn him into someone who would try to murder me?”
Fiona’s eyes went wide at the accusation, her mouth opening and closing without sound while she gripped the edge of the table hard enough to make her knuckles go white.
“Who was Garrett really?” I pressed, moving around the table toward her while she backed away step by step. “And who was that masked man at the festival, the one leading the feral wolves?”
“Fuck!” Fiona’s voice cracked like a whip through the chamber, making everyone go silent with shock because she never cursed, never lost control like this. “Fuck all of you for not believing me! You’re going to blame me for things I didn’t do?”
She was shaking now, her whole body trembling while fresh tears poured down her face, and when she spoke again her voice was thick with emotion that sounded genuine even though I knew it couldn’t be. “Yes, I felt jealousy toward Chloe sometimes, is that what you want to hear? Yes, I was jealous of how easily everything came to her, how Dad always chose her first, how she was the golden child while I was just the spare!” Her voice broke on a sob. “But I would never hurt her, never, I love my sister even if she doesn’t believe that anymore!”
The words should have moved me, should have made me question what I remembered, but all I felt was rage and disgust swirling in my stomach like poison, making me want to scream at her for still lying when we all knew the truth.
“Then what were you doing that night with Garrett?” I asked, my voice cold and hard as stone, each word precisely enunciated so there could be no misunderstanding. “What were you doing on that forest trail helping him attack me?”