(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.”

(Marisel’s POV)

My fingers secretly tightened around the fruit knife.

Hidden beneath the blanket, my hand was already covered in shallow cuts. The pain was the only thing keeping me barely sane.

“You came all the way here just to tell me this? What exactly do you want, Frista?” I asked hoarsely. I will leave Trevian. You do not need to force me like this.”

Her eyes widened briefly in shock before anger immediately filled her face.

“Leave him? Do you think I need you to move aside for me? You are nothing more than a filthy parasite!”

Suddenly, she shoved me hard off the bed.

I never expected her to attack me so openly. My body slammed heavily onto the cold floor. The wounds that had only recently healed tore open again, and sharp pain spread through my body.

Darkness blurred my vision.

The knife slipped from my hand and crashed loudly against the tiles.

Grinding my teeth painfully, I tried forcing myself back up. But Frista’s sharp heel immediately pressed down onto my wrist. The stiletto dug cruelly into my flesh.

“Did you truly believe trash like you could ever compete with me?” she sneered.

At that moment, footsteps echoed outside the room.

Instantly, Frista smeared my blood across her own face before collapsing into fake sobs.

When Trevian pushed open the door, all he saw was me lying in a pool of blood while Frista cried pitifully beside him.

“Trevian,” she sobbed while grabbing his sleeve, “I only came to congratulate Marisel for leaving the healer’s hall. But she suddenly grabbed my hand and… she… she tried throwing herself onto the knife!”

He froze.

Instinctively, he stepped toward me as though wanting to help me up. But Frista’s trembling cries stopped him midway.

Pressing his fingers against his temple, he spoke tiredly, “Marisel, can’t you stop making things difficult for me just once? Because of you, I have not slept properly for days.”

I stared silently at the dark circles beneath his eyes. Bitter laughter rose inside my throat.

“Unable to sleep well… is that truly because of me? Or is it because you have been sleeping in Frista’s bed?”

He stiffened briefly.

Then he crouched before me and gently wiped the blood from my face. His voice softened, almost coaxing.

“Marisel… sometimes it is better to pretend you understand nothing. It makes things easier for both of us.”

“I love you. But loving you does not mean I cannot like another woman too. When I eventually grow tired of her, I will avenge you. I promise.”

The final sentence was almost whispered.

I immediately backed away, but his lips still brushed lightly against the corner of mine. No emotion stirred inside me anymore.

Only disgust.

Such deep disgust that for the first time, I regretted ever meeting him.

***

After they finally left, my crystal communicator rang.

“Lady Wolfhart,” a staff member said from the other side, “we have checked the national registry. Both you and Alpha Trevian Silverthorne are registered as unmarried.”

I froze completely.

“What… what did you just say?”

“The mating certificate you submitted is fake. There is no official record of your marriage within the kingdom registry.”

My mind instantly went blank. Even the pain in my body seemed to disappear.

“Lady Wolfhart? Are you still there?”

“I…” My throat felt painfully dry. “You are saying… the certificate was fake?”

“Yes.”

The answer was merciless.

“The registration number does not exist, and the details do not match. Legally, you and Alpha Silverthorne were never recognized as mates. Which means the severing agreement cannot be processed.”

“I understand. Thank you.”

I ended the call numbly. The crystal communicator slipped from my hand.

Fake.

That single word pierced straight through my chest.

Trevian had handed me a false mating certificate.

He gave me the empty title of Luna Silverthorne while allowing me to devote my entire life to him, wait endlessly for him, and endure humiliation after humiliation.

From the very beginning, he never intended to give me a rightful place beside him.

Disgust rose violently inside me. Even stronger than the revulsion I felt when he kissed me earlier.

My stomach twisted painfully. I gagged violently, yet nothing came out. Only tears streamed uncontrollably down my face.

But within this devastation, there was at least one small blessing.

Now I finally saw clearly what kind of man he truly was.

Rotten to the core.

And because of that, leaving became far easier.

After treating my wounds at the healer’s hall, I went directly to the healers’ station and demanded the surveillance crystal from earlier.

Frista still believed I was the same weak Marisel she once bullied.

When she returned from abroad, I never fought back because I trusted Trevian. Because I believed his promises.

But now, I finally understood.

Everything owed to me, I would reclaim with my own hands.

Using the surveillance recording and every piece of evidence of Frista’s harassment, I gathered everything into a single file.

Then I scheduled all of it for timed release.

***

After returning to the alpha estate, I packed my belongings. All the luxurious things Trevian bought for me remained untouched.

When I first moved into this place, I had brought only one small suitcase.

And now that I was leaving, even half of it was not filled.

Without looking back again, I headed straight toward Crimson Howl Skyport.