Herman asked, "How can you be so sure?"
"Because he owes me a promise," I said quietly. "He hasn't kept his word yet. He hasn't even started trying. I believe he won't give up easily. He will wake up."
I turned my gaze to the man lying behind the glass. Herman said nothing more. The three of us stood there together in silence.
Elias Vernal, can you hear me?
I spoke to him silently in my heart.
You'd better wake up soon.
Because I won't wait forever.
Two months later, I walked into the visitation room of the territory prison.
The metal door closed behind me. Liv was brought into the room on the other side, her wrists and ankles in restraints. We faced each other through the glass. She looked terrible. Every aspect of her once carefully maintained appearance was now disheveled, with no trace of her former innocent act.
But the moment she looked up, I knew she hadn't changed. Her eyes still burned with the familiar malice.
"I thought prison life might make you reflect on what you've done," I said through the intercom.
"I didn't do anything wrong." Liv glared at me viciously. "It was you. You're the ones who took everything from me!"
"How can you even say that?" I genuinely couldn't understand her logic. "Elias is my fated mate. The Vernal pack chose me as his bride. No matter how you look at it, you're the one who tried to steal my mate."
"Before you showed up, Elias was going to marry me!" Liv snarled.
I responded calmly to her fury. "Maybe so. But that's because you impersonated the person who saved his life. He only agreed out of gratitude, didn't he? In the end, you were still the one deceiving everyone."
She froze. She stared at me in shock. "How do you know… No, that's not true!" She recovered quickly, still trying to lie. "I know. Elias told you, didn't he? But let me tell you, I am his savior. He can't deny it! He's nothing but an ungrateful man!"
She laughed wildly. "I heard Elias is in a coma now and might not wake up. See? This is his karma! All because he chose you instead of me. He should have died that day!"
BANG!
I slammed my fist on the table.
"Let me tell you the truth, Liv." I stared at her coldly. "The girl who saved Elias back then was me. Stop lying!"
Shock flashed across her face before twisting into jealousy and hatred. "You again. Why is it always you? You're just a lowly Omega. Why do you always get everything? I'm smarter than you. I have better blood. But Elias's fated mate isn't me!"
"So you admit it." I ignored her ranting. "I've been curious, Liv. How did you learn every detail about that day? How did you use that to impersonate his savior and gain his trust? When we escaped, it was just the two of us."
Liv clenched her teeth in silence.
I held her gaze, refusing to let her escape. "Let me guess. You were actually there that day, weren't you? Now that I think about it, something always seemed off about that day. Why wasn't anyone guarding Elias when I found him? Even if the vampires had left for some reason, they wouldn't leave their captive completely unattended?—"
She screamed. "Shut up!"
I pressed on. "Unless they really did leave someone to watch him, but that person was hiding for some reason and never showed themselves?—"
"I told you to shut up!" Liv screamed hysterically. Her voice echoed again and again through the visitation room.
"Liv." I looked at her with disgust. "Betraying the pack to work with hunters wasn't actually the first time you did somethinglike this, was it? Long before that, you'd already betrayed werewolves once—you collaborated with vampires. That's how they were able to capture the young heir of a major pack, isn't it?!"
By the end, my accusation had become a roar.
Liv panted, glaring at me with pure hatred. "Fine! So what if I did it!" She laughed. "Are you going to run and tell Elias? Too bad—he's never waking up. He'll die soon! And without him, you're nothing! You think anyone in the pack will believe an Omega like you? I'll tell everyone I'm locked up because you framed me. I'll say you're the one who killed the Alpha. Elias died because of you! And then no one will be on your side!"
