Free Web NovelChapter 248: Chapter 248
Nathan’s POV
The impact of the slap snapped my head to the side.
For a heartbeat, the world rang before my wolf surged, claws raking the inside of my skin. Heat flared across my cheek, and I tasted blood where my teeth had cut into my lip. The mark burned, but it was nothing compared to the shock ripping through my chest.
The nurse who had just arrived froze in the doorway. I could hear her pulse hammering, smell her fear blooming thick in the air.
She saw it.
She just witnessed Aria slap me.
Under the weight of my presence, she chose the only path left to her.
“I—I’ll clean this up!” she blurted, her eyes darting away.
She rushed in, her hands shaking as she gathered the shattered glass into a tray. Water pooled on the floor, ignored as she fled like prey sensing a predator’s focus. The door shut softly behind her.
Silence fell.
I straightened slowly, every muscle in my body taut, veins standing out at my temples as my wolf slammed against its restraints. Aria’s cold, distant eyes met mine, they were rimmed with frost.
“Get out,” she said.
My wolf roared.
For a split second, I wanted to destroy the room, to remind her who stood before her, to assert and dominate. I was her Alpha and mate. But one glance at Lana trembling in her arms stopped me cold. The child’s fear hit my senses like a blade. freёwebnovel.com
I turned and left.
The door slammed behind me, the sound echoing down the corridor like a gunshot.
The moment I was out of her sight, I pulled out Aria’s phone.
It was locked. I tried her birthday. It didn’t unlock. I tried mine, still nothing.
I exhaled slowly, my jaw tightening. Just as I considered handing it off to Collins, a memory surfaced.
I entered Lana’s birthday and it immediately unlocked. I had gotten the date of her birth from the hospital register when I was signing her paperwork.
Something in my chest twisted. I forced myself to focus as I scanned Aria’s emails, my eyes moving quickly and efficiently. There were no suspicious messages, no outgoing threats, no leaked photos. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
I still remembered her breakdown, the way she had been wounded and shaking in those photos Francis sent me. If those photos resurfaced... I didn’t finish the thought.
I locked the phone again and stopped a passing nurse.
“Put this back on my wife’s bedside table after she falls asleep,” I said, my voice low and commanding. “Don’t let her notice.”
The nurse startled, nodded quickly. I left without looking back.
By the time I returned to Hemsworth Group, my wolf had gone cold.
The office felt suffocating. The tech team stood rigid, the air thick with dread. No one spoke, all eyes shifted to Collins.
He swallowed, stepping forward. “Alpha Nathan... Lana might have been referring to the nanny at Hemsworth Villa.”
He handed me a tablet.
The footage played silently, it was clear as day. The nanny, her face pale, accepting a large sum of money from a disguised figure. Her hands trembled only after the exchange was done.
My temperature dropped another degree.
“What about the disguised figure, who is it?” I asked.
Collins shook his head. “We have no leads on that, Alpha.”
The tablet remained in my hands. I didn’t blink.
A soft snap cut through the room as the pen in my fingers shattered. I dropped the broken pieces into the trash.
“Any footage of the nanny feeding Lana? Mistreating her?” I asked.
Collins shook his head again. “Since Luna Aria’s return, all villa cameras were deactivated.”
I leaned back, rubbing my temples as my wolf paced restlessly beneath my skin. Someone had planned this carefully and patiently.
Just then, my phone rang.
“Alpha Nathan,” the receptionist said cautiously, “a woman named Amelia Joseph is here to see you.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Let her in.”
The words left my mouth before I fully examined the unease stirring in my wolf. For a brief second, confusion flickered through my eyes.
Amelia Joseph?
The name alone tightened something in my chest. She was the judge handling that case that caused Aria to be dragged to filth. What business did she have in my territory? My wolf shifted beneath my skin, uneasy and suspicious. I quickly masked the depth of my thoughts, schooling my expression into calm indifference.
I turned to the men standing stiffly before my desk. “Go check again. Luna Aria is not at the villa at the moment. Turn on the cameras,” I said coldly, my voice carrying the authority of an Alpha, “but don’t alert anyone.”
I waved my hand dismissively.
Relief washed over the room like a retreating tide. They bowed slightly and filed out, careful not to meet my eyes.
“Knock, knock...”
“Come in.” I said.
Amelia stepped inside wearing a crisp white shirt and black trousers, her hair pulled back neatly. She carried herself like someone used to standing between life-altering decisions, her spine straight, her gaze steady.
“Alpha Nathan. This is the order given to me by my superior before the trial,” she said evenly, placing a document on my desk. “I compiled it for your review.”
The room seemed to dim as I took the file. My wolf leaned forward, alert. As I read, my jaw tightened. Every page reeked of rot...bribes, pressure, premeditated outcomes.
Someone had given notice before the trial.
Francis was meant to lose from the beginning.
I closed the file slowly and lifted my gaze. “And you didn’t go along with it.”
Her expression didn’t change, but I caught the smallest pause in her breathing. “No.”
Interesting.
“I know your status in Asterfell is... not ordinary,” Amelia continued. “And I’ve heard about Aria’s recent troubles.” Her eyes sharpened. “Like me, she once carried far too much malice and pressure as a lawyer. I suspect that even if those people aren’t the true masterminds this time, they are certainly involved.”
At the mention of Aria, my wolf growled low in my chest, an instinctive, possessive sound I barely suppressed. They had pushed Amelia, cornered her...and now they were bold enough to reach into my den?
There was no small talk between us. No wasted words. We both knew what this was.
I leaned back in my chair, my fingers tapping slowly against the desk, the measured rhythm of a predator thinking before the kill. “What do you want me to do for you?”
Amelia met my gaze head-on. She didn’t flinch, didn’t look away.
“I want you to reshuffle the deck,” she said.
My wolf surged forward, eyes blazing in my mind, instincts screaming blood and power.
Reshuffle the deck meant chaos. It meant tearing down the carefully stacked lies, exposing everyone who thought themselves untouchable.
It was about damn time that happened.
