(Marisel’s POV)

Trevian immediately pulled Frista into his arms, his voice filled with worry.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

His eyes anxiously checked her body before he carefully wiped away the dirt staining her calf.

Frista bit her lip and softly insisted she was fine, yet her timid eyes kept glancing toward me.

Only after confirming several times that she was unharmed did Trevian finally turn toward me, his brows tightly furrowed.

“Marisel, you have gone too far. Frista already apologized. Why can you not let go of the past? Besides, those things back then were done by others. Frista was only watching at most.”

Hearing his unfair words, my fists tightened hard. My nails dug deeply into my palms, and only the pain stopped me from collapsing completely.

“A watcher?”

I laughed coldly.

Of course, Frista never dirtied her own hands.

As the precious daughter of a noble pack, she only needed one look, and countless students would rush to obey her commands.

Trevian knew every truth. He knew every single detail. Yet because of a few tears from her eyes, he erased all my suffering as though it meant nothing.

“Enough, don’t fight anymore. Everything already happened long ago.”

Standing behind him, Frista acted like a peacemaker. Her lips spoke gentle words, but mockery filled her eyes.

I swallowed my anger and knelt down to gather the scattered belongings from the ground.

Frista pretended to help me. Then she deliberately stepped onto the small model airship.

Crack.

The fragile toy shattered instantly.

Looking at the broken pieces, I finally lost control. My hand lifted, ready to slap her.

But Trevian moved faster.

His foot slammed hard against my leg, sending me crashing into the pile of keepsakes I had just collected.

Sharp plastic pierced my back, and burning pain spread through my body.

“Enough!” he shouted angrily. “Why do you keep targeting Frista? What is the point?”

He did not notice the blood soaking through my clothes. He also did not notice my pale lips or my trembling body.

“Those were my brother’s belongings!” My voice broke painfully. “And she destroyed them like that!”

For a brief moment, Trevian froze. But very quickly, his expression turned cold again.

“It is only a model. I will buy him a better and more expensive one.”

I stared at the man I had known for seven winters and suddenly felt like I was looking at a stranger.

He had forgotten.

Forgotten that he was the one who gifted that model airship to my brother during his birthday celebration. Forgotten that Marcellus once dreamed of becoming a proud sky rider who flew across the kingdoms.

But my brother was already gone.

No matter how expensive the new model was, it could never reach his hands again.

The desire to argue slowly disappeared from my body. Silently, I turned around to leave. But Trevian had already entered the driver’s seat of the carriage.

When he saw me walking away, he quickly drove in front of me and blocked my path.

“I already told you to stop being stubborn. Look at your face. You are so pale. You skipped breakfast again, did you not? Come. Let’s eat lunch together.”

I pressed my lips together tightly.

The severing certificate was already being processed, so I no longer had the energy to fight him.

Numbly, I entered the backseat. The seat beside the driver had long become Frista’s place. Even the scent inside the carriage had changed into the sweet perfume she liked so much.

The entire ride was filled only with their voices. Frista’s silver laughter pierced my ears like needles.

Ever since Frista returned to the kingdom, I had not experienced a single peaceful night.

To steal my place, she attacked me endlessly. She bribed servants to place allergens into my meals.

She sent dead rats covered in blood to our estate, trying to frighten me into divorcing Trevian immediately.

She even drugged me unconscious, staged shameful photos, and spread them throughout Moonbook.

She kidnapped my brother and forced me to sign a severing agreement.

Every time, Trevian swore he would punish her.

Every time, he promised me it would never happen again.

Yet in the end, he still climbed into bed with the woman I hated most.

Leaning back against the seat, I closed my eyes. The wound on my back hurt so badly that I could barely think clearly.

Suddenly, the sharp scream of brakes tore through the air.

My eyes snapped open.

A massive transport carriage was rushing straight toward us from the side.

(Marisel’s POV)

Trevian sharply turned the steering wheel, but the collision could not be avoided.

The violent impact made the entire carriage shake brutally, and the protection spells burst open instantly.

My head slammed hard against the seat, and dizziness flooded my mind.

Instinctively, I wanted to check if Trevian was safe. But he did not spare me even a single glance. All of his attention was focused on Frista. He even wrapped his body around hers, protecting her tightly in his arms.

“Frista, answer me. Are you alright?”

His voice trembled with panic I had never heard before. Blood ran down from his forehead, yet he did not even bother wiping it away.

In his embrace, Frista whimpered weakly, trembling like an injured bird.

“Trevian, my hand hurts… my head hurts too…”

In the front seats, they looked like the tragic lovers from an old tale. And I, the one injured the most, was forgotten in the back.

Without the protection of the spell barrier, the force of the crash threw me violently against the carriage door before slamming me back again.

My head crashed into the glass window, shattering it into countless sparkling pieces.

The wound on my back tore open further, and warm blood quickly soaked through my clothes.

Only then did Trevian finally glance toward the backseat. Hesitation flickered briefly in his eyes.

But in the next moment, he turned back toward Frista again.

In the distance, emergency sirens echoed closer and closer. Nearby wolves rushed forward, pulling at the damaged carriage doors and shouting for help.

“Save Frista first!”

Trevian’s urgent voice cut through the chaos as though he had completely forgotten that I was still trapped inside, bleeding heavily and barely conscious.

My vision slowly blurred as crimson filled every corner of my sight.

I struggled to cry for help. I wanted him to remember me.

Just once.

I wanted the man I once saved winters ago to save me in return.

But Trevian carefully carried Frista out of the carriage, softly comforting her the entire time.

He never looked back. Not once. Not even for a single moment of hesitation.

The numbness from blood loss slowly spread through my body.

As darkness swallowed me whole, one final bitter thought rose inside my mind.

When he proposed to me beneath the Moon Goddess, he promised he would never allow me to be hurt again.

Yet he could not keep that promise for even one winter.

***

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying in a healer’s ward.

“You are finally awake!”

The healer sounded excited and relieved.

“If you had not woken up soon, Alpha Silverthorne was prepared to purchase this entire healing hall for you!”

Her eyes were filled with envy.

“You are so fortunate to have a mate who loves you this much. He even ordered people to redecorate your room so you would feel more comfortable. Every day, he brings fresh flowers too. Never the same kind twice.”

I slowly turned my head. On the bedside table sat a vase filled with blooming crabapple flowers. The very flower I hated the most.

“Really?”

A cold smile curved across my lips.

“He loves me that much?”

Without noticing anything strange, the healer excitedly took out her crystal communicator crystal and showed me a video that had already spread throughout Moonbook.

“Of course. Look at this. It proves how deeply he cares for you. He even risked his own life to pull you out from the wreckage.”

The shaky recording, taken by a bystander during the accident, showed Trevian carefully carrying someone out from the passenger seat.

He held her gently and protectively in his arms. Although her face was hidden, her slender figure was unmistakable.

The comments beneath the video overflowed with admiration. Everyone praised Trevian as a devoted mate.

“A loyal mate.”

“A man who treasured his Luna more than his own life.”

Yet the woman he rescued so carefully… was not me.

While the entire kingdom envied the love I supposedly possessed, I had been abandoned inside that carriage, left bleeding and dying alone.

A bitter laugh escaped from my throat.

“Yes… he truly loves me.”

The healer’s smile stiffened awkwardly.

She quickly excused herself before hurrying out of the room.

A few moments later, Trevian entered carrying another fresh bouquet of flowers.

(Marisel’s POV)

The moment Trevian placed the flowers into the vase, I violently swept them onto the floor.

“Get out! I said get out!”

Glass shattered across the tiles.

Trevian did not become angry. Instead, he crouched down quietly and began picking up the broken pieces.

A sharp hiss escaped him when one shard cut into his finger.

Instinctively, he looked toward me. But I did not even spare him a glance. I kept my face turned toward the window.

A heavy silence filled the room.

Finally, he stood up, walked closer, and sat beside the window before holding my face firmly in his hands.

“I know you are angry with me,” he said quietly. “But at that moment, I could only save one person.”

“Frista was closer, so I rescued her first. Besides, you are fine now, aren’t you?”

As though trying to soften his excuses, he pulled a piece of chocolate from his pocket like a small surprise.

“Eat something sweet. It will help your mood.”

He unwrapped it and tried feeding it to me.

Disgust rushed through my body, and I slapped his hand away.

“Are you deaf? I told you to leave!”

The chocolate rolled across the floor before stopping near the wall.

After being cursed at repeatedly, the last bit of guilt inside him finally disappeared. His face turned cold as he stood up abruptly.

“If you continue acting like this, I will stop your brother’s treatment!”

My trembling hand slowly lifted and pointed toward the door.

“Get. Out.”

This time, he slammed the door hard behind him.

I buried myself beneath the blankets and cried until my throat burned raw and my lungs ached painfully.

During my stay in the healer’s hall, Trevian came almost every day. And every single time, I forced him out.

Our arguments became sharper each day. He was the one who broke every promise and crossed every line.

Yet to outsiders, I looked like the unreasonable Luna who never knew when to stop.

I covered my ears tightly and whispered to myself again and again.

“Fifteen more days. Just fifteen more days until the severing certificate is complete.”

But I never expected that on the day I was discharged from the healer’s hall…

Frista would dare appear before me. She looked beautiful as always with elegant robes and perfect makeup. Such a graceful appearance.

But the poison hidden behind her smile had never changed. Her eyes slowly swept across me before she clicked her tongue in disdain.

“A crow will always be a crow, even if it sits inside a phoenix nest.”

“Marisel, your luck is truly disgusting. First, you acted weak and pitiful to seduce Ardyn Vaultere. Then you clung to Trevian back when he was still only a rising young wolf.”

Her sweet face twisted with cruelty.

“But none of that matters. I crushed you once before, and I can destroy you a thousand more times.”

Frista sneered as she waved an old crystal recording proudly in front of me.

“Back then, didn’t you look exactly like a filthy stray wolf dragged into the light?”

Inside the crystal screen, my face was pale with humiliation, and my body had been stripped bare.

Countless crystal communicators and crystal devices pointed toward me while cruel laughter echoed around me. Some people even reached out to mock me openly.

I thought I had already escaped that nightmare.

But the moment it replayed before my eyes, my body shook uncontrollably. The old wounds buried inside me began burning painfully once again.

My gaze slowly moved toward the fruit knife resting on the table nearby.

“What’s wrong?” Frista’s voice dripped with mockery. “Does it hurt to watch?”

“I heard after you were expelled from the Royal Moon Academy, you fell into depression and even tried taking your own life.”

Her laughter sounded like a curse ringing through the room.

“You are insane, and your crippled brother is already dead. No wonder the two of you are siblings.”

She leaned closer and shoved the crystal screen near my face, forcing me to watch every second.

“Do you know? I have many recordings like this. When I studied abroad, I watched one every night before sleeping.”

Her smile slowly widened as she enjoyed my suffering.

“Oh, right. There is one more thing you probably never knew…”

She paused deliberately, savoring my trembling silence.

“The day your brother died… I was in bed with Trevian.”