Chapter 15 LIAR
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | LIAR
DAMIEN
“Do you believe she was the one who did it?” I asked my brother two days after Lyra had been taken into custody.
There was just something about the whole situation that was missing. Like a huge chunk or piece that we had forgotten about. I knew for a fact that something was wrong somewhere, I just didn't know what or how to explain it.
“Isn't the truth clear?” my brother hissed.
He was still fuming because of everything that had happened, and honestly, I understood him. He had already fallen for Lyra, even with everything that happened and the circumstances that brought them together. He was so disappointed that she would go as far as trying to kill us for freedom.
“I just feel like we're missing something vital. She had more than enough chances to kill me… to kill us, but she didn’t. She could have stabbed me before you guys walked in, but she didn’t. Why? And how did Hailey know what she was planning?”
Damian didn’t listen to anything I was saying. He had already made up his mind about Lyra and didn’t want anything to change it. And for one, I knew he was deeply hurt by her actions.
“What punishment are we going to give her?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.
I had already decided that the best thing was to let her go. Since she was desperate for freedom and would go as far as trying to kill her own mates for it, then it was high time we let her go. Maybe when she leaves and realizes that she’s wanted, she would come back herself and cherish the protection we’re offering her.
“I’ll be releasing her,” I sighed.
I knew Damian didn’t expect me to go easy with the punishment. He was thinking I’d do what I did to others, but she was my mate… our mate, and I couldn’t hate her even if I wanted to.
“You can’t let her go, Damien. She’s wanted across three packs. She has a bounty over her head,” he hissed. “I think we should just explain everything to her. Right from the night you guys met till this moment. She needs to stop living in the dark about her situation. Once she knows… maybe, just maybe she would come around and… and—”
He trailed off, heat crawling up his face at his own words.
“And love us,” I completed the words he was too ashamed to admit. Even with her murder attempt, all he cared about was her loving us. I couldn’t even blame him when I felt the same way. That was just how the mate bond works.
“That is the best thing to do. Obviously, we can’t kill our mate. And we can’t let her go without punishment. The maids and guards might become audacious if we let her go, thinking we’ve gotten soft. We have to make sure they think she’s punished.”
He nodded in understanding but paused when we heard movement coming from the door.
Someone had been spying on us. I picked my gun up. Whoever it was would be dead and gone. I pulled the door open with so much force that the spy fell in. I rolled my eyes when I saw it was Hailey.
For whatever reason, she had been getting on my nerves lately. I couldn’t point out why, but everything she did now seemed excessive and fake.
“What were you doing there?” Damian asked, assisting her up while I went back to my office chair.
I stared at her as Damian cleaned her up, squinting my eyes in suspicion. Whatever she was hiding, I was going to figure it out.
She sighed. “I was only trying to make sure Lyra got a light punishment. You know she’s pregnant. For the sake of her child, even if you’re not the father, please, go easy on her.”
Every muscle in my body went stiff at her statement. My breath hitched, and flashes of that night we had together came back to my mind.
The night I had taken her innocence in disguise of her first mate.
I was the father of that child, but Hailey didn’t need to know that. No one needed to. But I’d give her something to think about.
I was going to test her to know if she was actually telling the truth or lying about everything.
“We have decided to let her go unpunished. We understand where she came from and the desperation she felt for herself and the child. We’ve decided to forgive and forget,” I simply stated, going back to the files on the table.
“What! Why would you do that? I thought—”
“You thought what?” I cut her off. “Weren’t you the one pleading for clemency on her behalf a few seconds ago? She’s been pardoned now, why the sudden change of mind?”
My eyes were assessing her every movement as she spoke. And I didn’t need rocket science to know that she was hiding something. Not only was she lying, she was hiding something very big.
“Of course, I’m glad. I’m just kind of surprised that you’d actually let her go.” She shuffled on her feet for a while before adding, “I’ll go give her the afternoon meal now.”
When she left, my brother, who had been silent since I dropped the forgiveness bomb, finally spoke. “She’s lying. You saw it, didn’t you? Was that the reason you lied?”
I nodded my head, turning on my laptop to view the CCTV in the cell. I wanted to find out what she was hiding.
It took Hailey more than five hours to get the food she was supposed to give Lyra, which only heightened my suspicions. And when she got there, she kept looking back like something was chasing her or someone was watching her.
Damian and I watched as she begged Lyra to eat, afraid that she might hurt the baby, but Lyra brushed her off. What was strange was even after Lyra told Hailey that she should leave her alone since she had gotten what she wanted, Hailey didn’t look shocked. Which meant that it wasn’t an accusation.
Hailey moved closer to her, whispered something into her ears for a while. They had a conversation, but we couldn’t hear anything since they were whispering.
I was sure Hailey knew nothing about the CCTV being fixed. I made sure Damian installed it instead of hiring a handyman, and I did it when she wasn’t home.
“What do you think she’s telling her?” Damian brought me out of my thoughts.
“I have no idea, but whatever it is, it doesn’t seem good. She’s obviously hiding something. We might have just gotten the wrong information.”