Free Web NovelChapter 75: Chapter 75 She punished them
_Author’s POV_
Celeste was almost at the front gate when Elvira burst out of nowhere and opened her mouth.
She should have kept it closed.
Everyone in that garden had just watched Celeste dismantle Kaelen with nothing but words and a steady voice and a very accurate memory. The reasonable response was silence. The reasonable response was to let the woman leave and then spend a quiet evening reflecting on the series of choices that had led to this point.
Elvira was not interested in the reasonable response.
"She should be apologizing to us," Elvira said, loudly enough to carry across the garden to where Celeste had paused at the entrance. "Rowena. She should come here herself and apologize to this family for the embarrassment she’s caused. Get on her knees if necessary."
Celeste stopped walking.
"And she should return the dowry," Elvira continued, her voice picking up confidence the way a bad idea picks up momentum once it starts moving downhill. "She lived in this house. She used this family’s name. Whatever she brought in she spent here and she should account for every coin of it before she goes off selecting husbands like she has no obligations."
The garden was very quiet.
Maelis, who should have known better at her age, made a small sound of agreement from her chair.
Kaelen, who had just been comprehensively dismantled and should have been in no position to agree with anything, nodded slightly. Just once. The nod of a man who understood he was wrong but whose pride had found a small ledge to stand on and was going to stand on it regardless.
Celeste turned around.
She walked back into the garden slowly. Not quickly. She took her time, which was somehow worse than if she had come back fast and angry. She stopped a few feet from Elvira and looked at her with an expression that had moved past irritation into something considerably colder.
"Say that again," Celeste said. "The part about getting on her knees."
Elvira lifted her chin. "Rowena owes this family—"
"Rowena owes this family nothing," Celeste said. "She has owed this family nothing since the moment your brother left her alone on their wedding night and got on a plane. Everything she did after that point was grace she extended freely and that this family accepted without acknowledgment or gratitude." She looked at Elvira steadily. "You want her to return the dowry. The dowry that kept your grandmother in medical care for three years. The dowry that paid the staff wages your family couldn’t cover. The dowry that maintained this property while your brother was somewhere else entirely." She paused. "That dowry."
Elvira said nothing but her chin stayed up.
Celeste looked at her for a long moment.
Then she took out her phone.
She scrolled for approximately five seconds, found a contact, and made a call. She held the phone to her ear and waited while it rang, her eyes still resting on Elvira with a patience that was deeply unpleasant to be on the receiving end of.
Someone answered.
"David," Celeste said warmly. "I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time. I have someone I’d like to introduce you to." A brief pause while she listened. "Yes, in person. She’s from a decent family, reasonable looking, strong opinions." Another pause, then a small smile. "I’ll send the details through tonight. Let’s say the arrangement can be confirmed within the week." She listened once more. "Perfect. I’ll be in touch."
She ended the call and put the phone back in her bag.
Everyone in the garden was looking at her.
"David Harte," she said, addressing the name to the general space between Elvira and Maelis. "His father was an Alpha before the bloodline fell. He rebuilt the family money himself, very successfully, which is the only positive thing anyone who knows him tends to say about him." She looked at Elvira directly. "He has a great deal of money. Several very impressive cars. A house in the city and a property outside it." She paused. "He also has a first wife and a documented history of treating women as temporary and interchangeable." A beat. "You would be his second."
Elvira stared at her in shock.
"He does well for himself financially," Celeste continued pleasantly, "but the women who have been connected to him tend to leave those connections looking considerably worse than when they entered them." She tilted her head slightly. "He said yes, by the way. He’s always interested in arrangements from families with Alpha bloodlines, even diminished ones. The name still carries something for him."
Elvira’s chin had come down.
"You can’t," she started.
"I just did," Celeste said. "The call was made. David is expecting details tonight." She looked at her nails briefly. "You wanted to talk about what Rowena owes this family. I thought we might redirect the conversation toward what your future looks like."
"Celeste." Kaelen’s voice had an edge in it now. He didn’t dare call her Sister anymore. "You’re overstepping."
Celeste looked at him.
"I’m an Alpha," he said. "And you can’t walk into an Alpha’s home and arrange their family members like furniture. I don’t care who you know."
"Can’t I," Celeste said. She wasn’t raising her voice. She hadn’t raised her voice once. "Your sister just suggested that my cousin get on her knees in front of this family. Your grandmother agreed with her. You nodded." She looked at him steadily. "You nodded, Kaelen. After everything I said to you in that room. After everything you know about what Rowena gave this family, you stood there pathetically and nodded." She let that land properly before continuing. "So yes. I made a call. And I will make ten more calls if that’s what this afternoon requires."
Elvira’s face had gone through several colors and had settled on something close to white. Her hands were at her sides and her fingers were moving slightly, which was the only visible sign that she was not as composed as she was trying to appear.
"I want forgiveness," Elvira said finally. The entitlement had drained out of her voice completely and what was left was small and genuinely frightened. "Call it off. Please. Call it off and I’ll take back what I said." She knew that even if her brother stood to protect her, once Celeste tabled this to the Alpha King, David would really marry her whether she liked it or not. And also, if David offered financial help to their family, her brother and grandmother would agree in a heartbeat. She would be fucked.
Celeste considered her for a moment.
"You want forgiveness?” She asked.
"Yes."
"For what specifically?"
Elvira swallowed. "For what I said about Rowena. About the apology and the dowry and—" She stopped. "All of it."
Celeste nodded slowly, as if thinking it through carefully.
"Alright," she said. "I’ll consider it. But forgiveness in this house needs to mean something or it means nothing." She looked at Kaelen. "You." She pointed at him without any ceremony. "Slap yourself. Once. Across the face." freeweɓnøvel.com
The silence that followed was absolute.
Kaelen stared at her. "I’m sorry?"
"You heard me," Celeste said. "You sat in that room and you nodded when your sister suggested Rowena should come here and grovel. You are an Alpha of this pack. You were her husband. You nodded." She looked at him without blinking. "Slap yourself. I won’t do it cause I respect your little title at least.”
Nobody in the garden moved.
Maelis looked like she had briefly left her body.
Virella, standing near the back, had one hand pressed lightly over her mouth.
"And then," Celeste said, turning slightly, "slap Elvira. For the specific things she said about Rowena today." She said it in the same tone someone might use to suggest a mild correction to a household schedule. "After that the call to David gets cancelled and we’re finished here."
Kaelen looked at her for a long, extended moment.
"You’re asking an Alpha," he said slowly, "to slap himself."
"I’m asking a man who nodded while someone suggested his Ex-Luna, who did nothing but help this family for years grovel at his family’s feet to take one small, immediate consequence for it," Celeste said. "Yes."
The garden held its breath.
Kaelen’s jaw was tight. His pride was visible from across the garden, straining against what was being asked of it.
Then his eyes moved to Elvira, who was looking at him with an expression that said very clearly that she was not interested in meeting David Harte under any circumstances.
Kaelen knew he had no other choice. He might act bitchy sometimes, but he loved his family, and his sister.
It’s just him slapping himself and no one doing it for him. Surely he could manage.
“This is absurd!” Maelis yelled and coughed.
Celeste ignored the old woman and maintained eye contact with Kaelen. She would make sure to break everyone of Kaelen’s pride till there was nothing left.
Kaelen raised his hand and actually slapped himself. Sharp enough to be real. His head turned slightly with it.
Then he looked at Elvira.
Elvira closed her eyes and waited. Anything to never end up with that Casanova David.
The second slap was quieter but it landed.
When she opened her eyes they were wet and she was staring at the ground.
Celeste picked up her bag from where she had set it on the garden wall.
"I’ll cancel the call," she said simply. She looked around the garden one final time, "Leave the banquet alone," she said. "Leave Rowena alone. That’s all anyone here needs to do."
Then she walked out of the garden.
