Chapter 289
Chapter 289:
Victoria Hyde let out a sob, her hands covering her face. She looked at Dallas, then at me, and found no mercy in either pair of eyes.
“We wanted the land,” she whispered, the confession tearing out of her throat. “The Everett territory had the water source we needed. Your father wouldn’t sell. When we heard the Rogues were moving south, Marcus said to let them pass. We thought they would just scare him into selling p>
I felt as though I had been punched in the gut. “You let them in? You let them slaughter my family for a creek p>
“We didn’t know they would kill everyone!” Victoria cried, hysteria rising in her voice. “It was supposed to be a raid! We didn’t know you would come back early from the trip! We didn’t know about the car acc p>
“Shut up!” Braydon barked, cutting her off sharply.
My head snapped up. The air in the room shifted, the sour smell of fear spiking to a nauseating level.
𝖶𝗵𝗮𝗍 𝘦𝘃erуо𝗇𝘦 𝗂s 𝘳𝘦аdi𝘯𝗀 𝗼n
“What?” I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs. “What did you just say? The car accident p>
Victoria’s eyes widened in horror, her hand flying to her mouth as if to physically stuff the words back in. She looked at Braydon, panic written across every line of her face.
“Nothing,” Braydon said quickly, stepping between me and his mother. “She’s hysterical, Adella. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. You have the truth now — they killed your parents for greed. I saved you. That’s what matters p>
“No,” I said, pushing myself up from the pillows and ignoring the dizziness. I looked past Braydon, locking eyes with the woman who had made my life a living hell. “She said ‘the car accident.’ My parents died in a fire. The only car accident was the one I was in — three years later p>
I looked at Dallas. His expression was unreadable, but his muscles were coiled tight, ready to strike.
“Victoria,” Dallas said, his voice a dark promise of pain. “Finish your sentence p>
The command hung in the air, heavy and suffocating, like the calm before a tsunami. Victoria’s mouth opened and closed, her eyes darting frantically to her husband, but Marcus was still frozen in the chair, paralyzed by the Lycan King’s order.
“Speak,” Dallas growled, the sound vibrating through the floorboards and into my bones.
Victoria crumbled. She sank to her knees, sobbing into her hands. “It wasn’t an accident. We didn’t touch the brakes, I swear. Marcus hired a blood-witch. An exiled Rogue p>
The world tilted on its axis. The sterile white walls of the hospital room seemed to stretch and warp.
“A blood-witch?” Dallas repeated, the disgust in his voice palpable. “You used dark magic on a child p>
“She carved a rune into the chassis of the car,” Marcus rasped from the chair, his voice strained against Dallas’s invisible hold, sweat pouring down his face as he confessed. “A compulsion hex. It was meant to make the driver hallucinate — to drive off the bridge. It was supposed to look like a tragedy. Clean p>