Chapter 186
-Ava’s POV-
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It felt like the ground had been ripped out from under me. Myngs refused to draw in air as her words echoed in my mind, sharp and unrelenting like shards of glass.
Maria reached out, as if to steady me, but I took a step back, shaking my head. “No,” I whispered, my voice hoarse, trembling under the weight of disbelief. “He wouldn’t–he couldn’t have meant that.”
But the look on her face told me she believed otherwise.
My wolf stirred inside me, a low, agonized growl escaping from deep within. It wasn’t anger–it was pain. Grayson’s words, delivered through Maria, felt like a rejection that cut deeper than any wound I’d ever endured. I took another shaky step backward, my head shaking harder now as if sheer denial could make this nightmare unravel.
He didn’t mean that.
I didn’t do this.
This was just… a misunderstanding.
Suddenly, it felt as though the entire world had frozen. Conversations hushed, and every gaze was heavy with pity, their eyes searing into me. The walls seemed to close in, suffocating me with the weight of judgment.
It was all too much. The stares. The whispers. The words.
I turned, desperately searching for something–or someone–familiar, and my eyes landed on Isabella. She stood there, her gaze soft yet piercing, filled with that glaring pity I despised.
I swallowed hard, forcing words out before she could speak. “Everything is going to be fine. He didn’t mean it. Please, just go home. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Lilian.”
I didn’t even realize I was crying until my hand instinctively reached up to wipe at my face. “I’ll call you tomorrow, Bels.”
I didn’t wait for her reply. I turned on my heel, ignoring the heavy silence that followed me, and made my way back to the mansion. My feet carried me to his room like they were on autopilot.
The second I entered, the faint scent of him hit me–warm and comforting. It lingered on everything. I picked up a pillow from his bed, the scent clinging to the fabric, and hugged it tightly to my chest. My knees buckled, but I forced myself to sit down instead of collapsing entirely.
I didn’t think. I didn’t blink. I didn’t even allow myself to prepare for the storm I knew was coming.
I just… stared.
I don’t know how long I sat there, paralyzed, before the knock on the door jolted me from my trance. My movements were sluggish as I stood and dragged myself to the door, opening it to find Brianna standing there, her head bowed low.
“I just thought you should know that His Highness just returned
My heart stuttered, hope clawing its way into my chest. “Where is he?”
2010 Sat, rep
Chapter 186
“His study
Ididn’t waste a second. My feet moved faster than my thoughts, carrying me down the hall toward his study. But as I neared, something made me stop dead in my tracks.
The air was frigid, oppressive, as if his anger and hurt had seepe through the walls and manifested into something tangible. My wolf whimpered, but I steeled myself.
It was Grayson. My Grayson.
I inhaled deeply, summoning every ounce of courage I had, and crossed the remaining distance. My trembling hand pushed the door open.
There he was. Standing by the window, his back to me. The tension in his shoulders was palpable, a fortress I wasn’t sure I could breach.
“I told you to leave,” he said suddenly, his voice devoid of warmth.
It wasn’t the words that froze me–it was his tone. It wasn’t icy or furious. It was void. Empty. Hollow. And somehow, that was worse than any anger he could’ve directed at me.
“Grayson,” I whispered, taking a hesitant step
forward.
“Ava, leave.”
But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Another step forward. “I didn’t do this, Grayson. I swear. I didn’t tell anyone. Not even Isabella. You have to know that I wouldn’t do this. I didn’t do this.”
He turned then, and my breath caught.
When I first met him, his gaze had been distant, cold. But now… now, it was something worse. Detachment so absolute that I felt like a stranger, something insignificant, beneath him.
I shook my head again, my voice trembling. “Grayson, please don’t do this.”
He looked away, walking to his desk and sitting down with a grace that only amplified the distance between us. A faint, empty smile ghosted his lips. “You didn’t do this? Then who did?
He shook his head, almost as if mocking himself. “I trusted you. told only you because I trusted you. I let you in. I never let anyone in, but I let you in, Ava.”
Hearing my name fall from his lips, once a melody, now a dagger, broke something inside me.
Still, I took another step forward, refusing to give up. “You know that I didn’t do this. You’re only trying to find a reason to ruin what we have.”
“We have nothing, Ava.”
His words struck me like a physical blow. I flinched, but I didn’t retreat. “I know everything feels like it’s falling apart right now, but we can fix it. They have no proof that you lost your wolf so you can deny it, and everything will be fine, and we can
“Of course you have a way to fix it,” he cut in harshly. “Just like you have a way to fix everything else. But you want to know why things never stay fixed? Because things cannot be fixed by the source of the problem.”
20:16 Sat, Feb 1
Chapter 186
The pain in his voice was like thunder, reverberating through me But I stood firm, even as my chest tightened.
He grabbed his phone and threw it toward me. It hit my leg before clattering to the floor. My hands trembled as I picked it up, the screen glowing with the message he wanted me to see.
The words glared back at me, taunting me, and he spoke again, his tone like a knife slicing through my chest. “You still didn’t do it?”
“Grayson,” I breathed, trying to take a step toward him, but he came off sharply.
“Don’t come near me.”
I froze, my feet rooted to the spot, every inch of me trembling.
“I told you to leave. Don’t make me do something we’ll both regret. Get your things, and the things I bought are not included and get out of my life.”
His words hit me harder than any physical blow ever could. I looked back down at the screen in my hand, my vision blurring with unshed tears, then back up at him. “I didn’t send this message, Grayson. I don’t know where it came from. Someone hacked your phone. Someone could have done the same to mine. I would never do this to you. You know it.” My voice cracked, desperate for him to hear the truth.
He let out a bitter laugh, devoid of warmth. “Do you know what makes this even worse?” His words were slow and deliberate, – each one laced with venom. “The fact that I wanted so desperately to believe that that was exactly what happened. So I had it checked. And do you know what I found? Every message you have sent out, right up to before we met. Right up to the start, before I even met you, and Dylan planned this. How you two staged that whole scene on the day I met you so you could work your way into my life. This is why you always defend him. Why, no matter what, he always finds his way back into your life. And do not even let me begin with how you have been feeding your parents information. All I have to say is congratulations–it worked, and like a fool, I fell for it.”
What the hell was he talking about? The words didn’t even make sense.
He stood abruptly, and I took a step back, my body reacting instinctively to the storm radiating off him. His voice dropped low and cold. “You were supposed to be different. You were supposed to be the one good thing that happened to me.” He shook his head, his lips curving into a smile that was anything but kind. “You were supposed to be…”
I swallowed hard, my voice barely a whisper. “Grayson-”
“Turn around and walk out of here.” His empty eyes bore into mine. “Don’t let me say it again.”
“I didn’t do anything you just said, Grayson.” My voice was shaky now, my chest heaving as the weight of his accusations crushed me. “I don’t even understand how you could believe that I planned it when you were the one that brought me here in the first place and offered me a contract.” My anger bubbled to the surface, fueled by my hurt. “I know you are angry, but stop making up things and taking it out on me.” I wiped away the tears streaking my face, my hands trembling. “I didn’t do anything. And speaking of the contract, you cannot kick me out. It holds for a year.”
I didn’t even realize I had said that last part until the air shifted around him. He moved so fast I barely registered it, his towering form looming over his desk as he grabbed a stack of papers and shredded them right in front of me.
The sound of ripping paper filled the room, sharp and jagged like the pieces of my heart breaking in his hands. I stared at the shredded remains on the floor, my vision tunneling. He believed it–whatever lies he had seen, he believed them.
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop myself. My gaze lifted back to him, trembling with the weight of everything I couldn’t say. “You said you loved me. You said-”
20:16 Sat, Feb 1
Chapter 186
“Will you just shut up, Ava!” He exploded, his voice roaring through the room, his anger crackling like a wildfire. “I trusted you. I fucking trusted you, and you have been betraying me righ from the moment we met!”
I closed my eyes, letting the tears fall freely this time. I begged silently to anyone, anything in the universe that could hear me, for his anger to subside, even just a little. If he would just listen, if he would just see me, maybe he could understand that all of this wasn’t true.
But when he spoke again, his words were ice, freezing me to my core. “Ten seconds. That’s all I’ll give you to leave this study. Only ten seconds.”
