Chapter 198: A Joke?
Theresa.
The silence in the room stretched thin, heavy and suffocating, until Lurgard broke it with a cold, ruthless smirk.
"You heard her, Bella," Lurgard said, taking a slow step toward her. "We’re taking this to court. Attempted murder of a pack member and her pup—you’ll be lucky if you ever see daylight again."
Bella gasped, her eyes darting frantically between the three brothers. "Lurgard, have you lost your mind? You’re actually listening to her?!"
"I’m listening to my mate," Lurgard countered smoothly, his voice dropping into a lethal register. "And unlike you, she doesn’t have a reason to lie."
"Leonard! Lawrence!" Bella cried out, her voice pitching high with panic as she turned to the other two. "You can’t honestly let her do this! You know me! We have history!"
"History means nothing when my mate’s life was put on the line," Leonard stated calmly, his posture rigid and commanding as he crossed his arms. "I’ve already signaled our legal team. By the time you step out of this hospital, the charges will be filed."
Bella’s mouth fell open. "You...you called the lawyers? For her?"
"I’d call the entire police force if she asked me to," Lawrence added coldly, stepping right up beside my bed as a protective barrier. "Theresa wants you behind bars, Bella. And what Theresa wants, she gets. End of story."
"This is insane!" Bella screamed, her face contorting with pure, bitter rage. "How can you three stand there and do this to me?! I have been by your side for years! I’ve backed this family, supported your pack, and loved you all!" She pointed a shaking, manic finger at me. "And you’re choosing her? A nobody? An outsider who brings nothing but trouble into your lives?!"
"Watch your tongue, Bella," Leonard warned, his eyes flashing dangerous amber. "You are speaking about our mate."
"I don’t care!" she shrieked, tears of sheer frustration spilling down her pale cheeks. "I never expected the three of you to turn your backs on me for a pathetic creature like her! You’re choosing a liar over me!"
"She’s not the liar in this room," I said softly from the bed, my voice firm despite my exhaustion. "You are."
Bella rounded on me, her teeth grit so tight her jaw trembled. "You ruined everything! You took them away from me!"
"You did this to yourself the moment you touched my food," I fired back, locking eyes with her without flinching. "Get out."
"You’re all going to regret this!" Bella hissed, taking a step backward toward the door, her eyes burning with promise of revenge. "I swear to God, you will all regret choosing her!"
"The only thing I regret is not throwing you out of the window five minutes ago," Lurgard growled, taking another threatening step forward. "Now get out before I physically drag you to the police station myself."
Bella let out a harsh, furious sob, threw open the door, and stormed out, her heavy heels clicking loudly down the corridor until the sound faded into the distance.
The echo of Bella’s frantic, heavy heels had barely faded down the hospital corridor before the thick, suffocating tension in the room utterly shattered.
It started with a soft, breathy huff from Lawrence, which quickly spiraled into a low chuckle. Within seconds, Lurgard let out a boisterous, booming laugh that bounced off the sterile white walls of the ward, leaning against the edge of the footboard as if he could barely hold himself up.
Even Leonard, usually the picture of stoic authority, let a wide, amused grin break across his features, shaking his head in absolute entertainment.
"Man, you should have seen the look on her face!" Lurgard barked, wiping a tear of amusement from the corner of his eye. "Her eyes almost popped straight out of her head! She looked like she was about to faint right there on the tile!"
"Seriously, Theresa," Lawrence said, stepping closer to my bedside with an affectionate grin, his arms still loosely folded across his chest. "That was a masterclass in psychological warfare. You had her sweating bullets! For a second there, I almost thought you were actually being serious about the whole poisoning thing."
"Right?" Lurgard chimed in, tossing his head back with another round of hearty laughter. "You played with her emotions so seamlessly! I mean, bringing up a lawsuit, threatening to throw her behind bars, making her think we were about to call our entire legal team to ruin her life? Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant, my queen! You had her running out of here like her hair was on fire!"
They continued to laugh, exchanging amused glances as if I had just executed a hilarious, well-timed prank to put an unwanted guest in her place.
I sat still against the raised pillows, watching the three of them revel in their amusement. My face didn’t crack a smile. My lips didn’t stretch into an amused grin. Instead, my expression darkened, my brows drawing together into a deep, sharp, unyielding frown that slowly, methodically sucked every bit of lighthearted air straight out of the room.
Leonard was the first to notice the sudden, heavy shift. His grin faltered, his sharp eyes locking onto my face as he registered the cold, dead seriousness in my gaze. He raised a hand, silently signaling his brothers to cut the noise.
Lurgard’s chuckles died down into a confused breath, and Lawrence’s smirk completely vanished.
"Theresa?" Leonard asked, his voice dropping into a low, tentative register. "What’s wrong?"
"You think I was playing?" I asked, my voice terrifyingly calm, dropping like lead into the quiet room.
Lurgard blinked, leaning forward slightly. "Well... yeah, baby. I mean, it was a great act! You really showed her not to mess with—"
"I meant every single word that came out of my mouth," I interrupted, cutting him off with an edge so sharp it made all three of them visibly stiffen.
Silence fell over the ward once more, but this time, it was heavy, suffocating, and charged with a dangerous, underlying electricity.
"Theresa..." Lawrence started, his tone shifting from lighthearted amusement to utter bewilderment. "What are you saying?"
"Are you deaf, Lawrence?" I asked, staring straight into his eyes without a single flicker of hesitation or doubt. "I said I meant every word. It wasn’t an act. It wasn’t a game. It wasn’t some clever ploy to chase Bella out of this room." I took a deep, steady breath, my fingers tightening against the crisp hospital bedsheets until my knuckles turned stark white. "Bella poisoned me...she poisoned me, and she poisoned my unborn child."
The room went completely, utterly still. The air grew frigid.
Lurgard’s jaw dropped slightly, the color slowly draining from his face as the gravity of my statement finally hit him. "Baby... are you... are you being serious right now?"
"Do I look like I’m joking, Lurgard?" I fired back, my voice trembling with raw, suppressed emotion. "Do you think I would use the life of my pup, the poison that almost put me in a grave, as some cheap punchline for a joke? Do you think I would play around with something like that?!"
"Theresa, calm down, please," Leonard said, taking an immediate step closer, his voice laced with sudden, intense urgency as he held his hands up in a placating gesture. "We didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just... that is a massive, life-altering accusation to throw out. Poison? Bella?"
"I don’t care how massive it sounds to you!" I shouted, the fire in my chest bursting through my throat. "I know what I felt! I know what happened to me! The moment she stepped into this room, the moment I looked at her, I heard her thoughts loud and clear inside her twisted head! She was practically screaming with rage because the slow poison she gave me hadn’t killed me yet!"
Lawrence rubbed the back of his neck, looking thoroughly shaken, his eyes darting between me and the door Bella had just fled through. "Thoughts? Theresa, you... you heard her thoughts?"
I saw the flicker of doubt in their eyes—the subtle, natural hesitation of men trying to process something that sounded completely insane to their logical minds.
They wanted to believe me because I was their mate, but the sheer absurdity of hearing thoughts and accusing a long-time acquaintance of attempted murder was a lot for them to swallow in a single breath.
I let out a bitter, cold chuckle, tilting my head back against the pillow as I glared at the three of them.
"I see how it is," I whispered, my voice laced with pure, toxic disappointment. "You don’t believe me."
"That’s not true, Theresa—" Leonard started, taking another step forward.
"No, don’t pretend!" I snapped, pointing a finger straight at his chest. "You sat there laughing! You thought I was playing a game! You think I’m losing my mind or making things up out of thin air!" I paused, letting my sharp, furious gaze sweep across Leonard, Lawrence, and Lurgard one by one. "If the three of you don’t believe a single word coming out of my mouth right now, then fine! Don’t take my word for it!"
"Theresa, listen to us—" Lurgard tried to interject, looking deeply distressed by the rising anger in my voice.
"No, you listen to me!" I barked, cutting him down on the spot. "If you doubt me, then go and investigate it yourselves! Dig into her life! Check her movements, check her belongings, test the food, search her house, look into whatever dark corner she’s been hiding in! Do your job as Alphas and investigate it!"
I leaned forward, my chest heaving with deep, frantic breaths as I locked eyes with Leonard, refusing to back down even a single inch.
"Investigate it," I repeated, every syllable dropping like a heavy iron weight onto the floor between us. "And when you find the truth—when you see the proof of what that venomous snake actually did to me and my baby—you will realize that I didn’t lie about a single damn thing!"