Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 240: Brink of death.

Leilani.

The noise in the crowd had increased so much, it was making it quite impossible for me to even hear my voice, and as I waited for the electrical team to start setting up the projector, I turned to Maya, my voice soft and apologetic as I whispered;

"I’m sorry."

"What for?" She asked sharply, but before I could respond, before I could tell her that I was sorry for crashing her party or whatever this was and causing so much mayhem, she tugged at my arm and muttered;

"She came for you first..."

"But I took it too far," I bit back.

However, I stopped talking when she gave me the side eye, her voice cold as she hissed. "She asked for it," and with that, she turned to the young men setting up the projector and spat; "Hurry up!"

Hurry up?

A small smile tugged at my face as I watched her order them here and there; But do you know what I found even more endearing?

The fact that Gavin was one of them!

He was part of the crew setting up the damning evidence I had against Chalice.

I felt my body tremble slightly as they began to pull it upward, and as the lights of the projector turned on and everyone turned to me as if silently asking me to go on with it, I suddenly felt my feet become heavy.

Zevran seized that opportunity to lean closer, his breath fanning the side of my face as he drawled; "You can show us now."

And at first, I couldn’t ascertain if he actually meant that or not. I wasn’t sure he wanted me to publicly humiliate his wife either so I turned to him and cocked my eyebrows.

"Do it." He ordered in a hush tone. "She deserves it."

I froze.

And maybe that was all the permission I needed. Maybe that was all I needed to push me into walking forward to the front of the hall where I climbed the podium; And as my eyes roved around the now quiet hall, I sighed;

"Ladies and Gentlemen...."

"Get off there now, Leilani!" Chalice suddenly barked at me, causing everyone, including her husbands to turn to her in surprise.

Her face was a mask of pure arrogance but I didn’t miss the slight tremor in her hands. I didn’t miss the way she bounced from foot to foot, or the way her eyes flashed with panic mixed with something comical before she schooled it back into the look of absolute ignorance.

She seethed; "I am your Luna!"

"And I am not a member of your pack!" I hissed back, causing the already hushed crowd to fall even more silent.

Goddess, with the way this hall was quiet now, it was quite possible to hear the sound of a pin dropping in the distance.

"Do not disobey me!" She yelled, but truth me told, I was already tired of listening to her gibberish.

I was done giving her chances to become better. A maniacal kind of glee filled my heart as I walked over to the team head, handed my my phone containing the video to him and took a step back to join the crowd.

I then folded my arms across my chest as I waited for the video to begin to unravel itself but just then...

"Do you want to get back at all of them for hurting you in the past?" Maya’s voice filled the air, echoing all around us like the sounds of a tragic fate.

It was a conversation that we’d both had a long time ago. One that she had made of me even before I boarded the place to return to NYC.

I watched as my hands trembled on the screen. I watched the less confident version of myself sigh and then I said; "No. I just want them out of my life for good."

Zevran stiffened beside me, and maybe that was what snapped me out of that memory as I soon waved my hands over my head, my voice hoarse as I screamed; "Not this one!"

"Oh, oh! I’m so sorry!" The engineer yelled back before moving on to a different video then another... and another until I yelled;

"Stop!"

And he stopped just then, my breath hitching in my chest when the video I wanted began to play on the screen. It contained the lovey-doveyness I’d caught between Chalice and her lover, Louis, at the boutique and the entire conversation that followed afterwards.

As we watched it in silence, save for the occasional ’ohhs!’ and ’ahhhs!’ that excited echoed here and there whenever Chalice said something stupid, and when it got to the point where she said the words: "The mages," everyone froze.

Chalice looked like she wanted to dig up the ground and bury herself whole in it. She looked so fluttered, she began to stutter uncontrollably.

All the color drained from her face as she staggered towards Kael and slammed her knees on the floor. With her head bowed and her fingers digging deep into his pants, she hiccuped;

"I can explain."

"Can you explain kissing one of the guards? Can you explain the things we’ve all just heard and seen?"

"Babe. Baby... it’s not what it looks like!" She continued, screaming like a banshee. "There is nothing... absolutely nothing going on between I and my bodyguard..." she began to say but stopped when her eyes darted from his face to mine, and when they landed, they hardened. She seethed; "The video is fake!"

And as soon as she said that, the crowd that were already in my favor began to appear conflicted. While some people nodded in agreement, others looked like they were simply disgusted at the turn out of events and simply wanted it all to end quickly.

I was one of those people.

I frowned deeply and asked her; "Really? It is fake?"

She nodded quickly, her hands trembling violently as she pointed to me. And in a voice so dark, it made goosebumps spread across my skin, she yelled;

"It is fake!"

"Okay then," I drawled, folding my arms, and smiling when Agnes waltzed into the hall, clad in the bougie pink dress I’d gotten for her just yesterday.

My first thought had been to make her tell the crowd the things she knew about Louis and Chalice, so you can imagine my surprise when Zevran clapped his hands and a moment later, two burly bodyguards stepped into the hall...

But they were not alone.

They were dragging a confused looking Louis into the room like some damn criminal— which he was by the way.

I couldn’t help it in that moment and turned to look at Chalice, and if looks could kill, maybe I would be dead by now.

But I wasn’t.

If anything, it seemed to me that she was the one on the brink of death.

So I did one crazy thing, I mouthed the word: ’Dead’ to her and waved discreetly, and I couldn’t help but feel my chest swell with warmth when her face crumbled and when she broke down completely, sobbing like the entire world was against her.

I didn’t care.