The hall was so silent that even the smallest breath felt deafening. Every pair of eyes was fixed on her — on the trembling woman standing at the center of the chaos.
The woman who had been betrayed, humiliated, abandoned… yet still refused to shatter completely.
Livia's chest rose and fell unevenly, her heart hammering so hard it hurt. Her body shook, her knees weak beneath the weight of what she was about to do.
And yet, through the blur of tears and the ache splitting her soul in half, a single truth burned fiercely in her mind.
'Why should I beg for forgiveness… for a sin I never committed?'
Her gaze lifted — slowly, painfully — to meet Aldrake's. The man she once loved. The man she once believed would protect her, cherish her, fight beside her.
The man who had instead betrayed every vow, every promise, every bond they had ever shared.
"I will not," she whispered, her voice soft but steady. "I will not confess to something I did not do."
