Paula's POV
They didn't even wait a week.
Barely five damn days after I dropped the bomb, Noah and Cassie came crawling out of the woodwork like roaches, holding hands, smiling for the press like nothing had ever happened. Like they weren't horrible pieces of breathing living garbage.
"We're in love," Cassie said on screen, all wide-eyed and fake soft. I could tell this was far from what they planned. "We didn't want to hurt anyone, but… sometimes the Moon Goddess has other plans."
The Moon Goddess? Really? What the actual fuck? This is blasphemy.
Noah stood beside her, putting on a smug expression that I can fortunately see through. "We know this will come as a shock, but we're happy. We hope everyone can respect our decision."
The world swallowed it up. Ate it like sugar. Comment sections full of sympathy and warm wishes. Some called it brave. Some said I was the "bitter ex." Some said I should "move on." Wow! If there was ever time I regretted being an omega, (which was often by the way) now was that time. If I wasn't an omega, people wouldn't be so eager to swallow this bullshit.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to tear the world apart.
But instead, I threw the remote at the TV screen and it left a crack.
I was at my father's mansion that afternoon, to check for some things I might have left there when I moved into the Alpha King Theo's villa.
My father wasn't at home, ever since the press conference, he left the city and went to God knows where.
One of his trusted betas told me in secret that he travelled to Greece, and didn't want to talk to anyone.
I understood the poor man, I too would want to disappear if my daughter's man was screwing my wife under my roof.
In my room, I took a couple of things that I deemed necessary, the others would stay behind, I tiptoed to my father's study. My intention was to get my hands on a folklore book he always kept hidden. He never let me take it to read on my own, he insisted he read the stories to me.
The man was just unnecessarily protective of that book. Well, he isn't here today, I might as well get my hands on it now while I had the chance.
I looked everywhere and I finally found it. It was tucked away, deep in a locked drawer of his study, his study, the one they defiled. I shrugged away the grossness of it all and got a hold of the folklore book.
I was about to leave when the book fell off my hand and another smaller book fell out of it. The name on the small book got my attention; Darius Whitmore's Journal
I should have picked it up and kept it back where I saw it, but no, I couldn't. This was my father's privacy, but I couldn't stop myself.
I started at the back, skimming through pages. Business talk, estate logs, meetings with alphas and council members. But then I saw the name.
Noah.
My heart dropped.
My fingers slowed. I flipped back, searching for context. Maybe it was old. Maybe it was about something else.
But it wasn't.
"Noah is loyal. Comes from strong blood. Would make a good son-in-law."
"Cassie says she can keep him close if Paula won't cooperate."
"The union will solidify the northern alliance. It's the only path forward."
My stomach turned. I kept reading even though every word felt like a dagger in my ribs.
"Paula's attachment is useful but unreliable. She's too emotional."
"Cassie's done well. I owe her more than she knows."
And then the line that shattered me—
"The deal with Noah is more important than Paula's feelings."
I stopped breathing.
That's it. That's the moment something broke. Something raw and bleeding snapped inside me. My fingers clenched around the edges of the journal until the leather cracked.
He knew.
Daddy knew.
He knew they were screwing each other behind my back, behind his back. He knew she was creeping around my man. He knew and did nothing. Worse, he let it happen. He signed off on it.
He used me.
I was never a daughter to him.
I was a pawn.
A bargaining chip in a game played by old men and backstabbing whores.
I stood up so fast the chair scraped the floor. My pulse thundered in my ears. I wanted to throw the journal, burn it, rip it to pieces, but I didn't.
No.
I need it now. Not for some sentimental bullshit, and it isn't for closure either.
I will use it as leverage.
If Cassie thought she could smear my name and crawl out with a ring on her finger like she won something, she was about to learn what it felt like to lose.
And Noah? That smug bastard?
He thought this was done?
He had no idea who he'd created the night he shoved me off that cliff.
Theo found me later that evening in the tower wing of the estate. He must have been looking for me all day, I didn't tell him where I was going.
I didnt look up to see him approaching where I sat. I hadn't spoken since I read the last line of my father's journal. My hands still trembled, but my face was like stone.
"News broke," he said, standing beside me at the window. "Their engagement is official."
"Of course it is."
"They want the public to forget. Repaint themselves. Play the long game."
"I'll ruin it before the ink dries on the invitation," I muttered.
Theo didn't smile. But something dark flickered in his eyes.
"You alright?"
"No," I said. "But I'm getting there."
He nodded once. "Use it, use this rage. I use mine all the time. I prefer people thinking that I am a monster so that they fear me and not mess with me. So use yours, unleash it, my young wolf."
"I plan to."
***
The next morning, the world buzzed with the murderous lovebirds picture-perfect engagement photo. Cassie in white, belly not showing yet, ring shining like justice hadn't even been born yet.
But I didn't speak.
I didn't react, I was still letting my next move peculate in my mind.
I sat alone in my room at the Roosevelt manor, fingers tracing the ink of my father's betrayal, reading the line over and over like it would change:
"The deal with Noah is more important than Paula's feelings."
The pen dug in so deep, I could feel his hand trembling when he wrote it.
I stared at the page until the edges blurred, and my throat swelled with heat.
And then, just as the light faded from the window, I whispered:
"You picked the wrong person to betray, Dad. If only you knew what they would do to you two years from now."