Chapter 112: DRUG HER

Chapter 113

Lumi

"Which makes Lumi my half-sister."

Sienna’s words didn’t just fall into the room; they hit me like a punch straight to the chest.

My breath caught in my throat. Every piece of air rushed out of my lungs, and for a second, my heart stopped beating completely.

Half-sister?

The room around me began to spin.

First it was Priya, now Sienna. How many more children are to come.

Did he ever love my mom? Who hurt someone they love continuously. And she was so inlove that I’m sure he was the only man that she let touched her.

My mother’s face flashed in my mind...her tired, hollow eyes, her pale skin, and the way she gradually faded away after my father walked out on us.

I couldn’t begin to imagine how broken she must have felt.

She gave him a name, her wealth, even brought her to her pack. She stood by him when the whole pack was against her.

She gave him everything. There was nothing she didn’t give to him, including her life.

And what did he do. He didn’t just leave us. He ran away with another woman. He left my mother to suffer, broken and humiliated, until her heart couldn’t take it anymore and she died.

And now, standing right in front of me, was Sienna.

My brain calculated it before I even asked it too and it came to a very terrifying conclusion.

She was the child of that woman. She was the fruit of the affair that destroyed my home, stole my father, and killed my mother.

And I called her my friend. I laughed with her and brought her into my home. I laughed with the daughter of that woman.

A deep, burning agony flared in my chest, so heavy and sharp I thought I was going to throw up right there on the wooden floor.

My whole body started to shake. Tears stung the back of my eyes, hot and painful, but I clamped my jaw shut.

I pressed my teeth together until my mouth tasted completely of blood. The noise in the room felt like they were mocking me.

No. I won’t cry in front of her. I won’t give her that satisfaction.

Beside me, Ren felt the violent tremor running through me. He moved instantly, his large, warm hand wrapping around mine, pulling me flush against his side.

His thumb pressed firmly against my knuckles, trying to anchor me.

On my other side, Neve reached out, her fingers wrapping around my shoulder, holding me tight as if she was afraid I would collapse.

"Lumi, breathe," she whispered, her voice cracked with real worry. "Look at me, please breathe."

I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t move my head. I just kept my eyes fixed on Sienna, my chest going up and down.

I shook my head slowly, over and over, trying to push the horror out of my mind.

She really was her mother’s daughter, they like to go after people’s husband.

"Order! Order in this court!" Judge Gabriel slammed his gavel down, the sharp cracks cutting through the excited whispers of the press. He glared down over his reading glasses at Sienna.

"Mrs. Reed, these are extreme personal claims. This court operates on verified facts, not sensationalized theater."

"They are facts, Your Honor," Sienna declared smoothly, handing her thick file to the bailiff.

"Inside are birth records proving Arthur Vale is my biological father, along with my marriage certificate to Callum."

S turned slightly, throwing a cold, mocking look toward the reporters, making sure every microphone picked up every of her words.

"Your Honor, Lumi has been bitter for years," She said smoothly, adjusting her dark jacket.

"She took my minor son, Theo, out of pure jealousy. Just because our father left her mother years ago because he realized he loved my mother more, Lumi couldn’t accept that history repeated itself. Her husband, Callum, left her for me. She was rejected. So she stole my child to get back at us."

A collective gasp rippled through the room. The rapid scratching of reporters’ pens on notebooks immediately filled the air.

Sienna paused, letting her cold eyes sweep over the room before landing right on me. A cruel smirk played on her lips.

"She even went after her best friend’s younger brother just to get her plans to work." She continued, her tone patronizing.

"Ren is five years younger than Lumi. He is Neve’s younger brother...a younger man Lumi seduced while she was still married to Callum.

She cheated on my husband with a younger man just to heal her broken ego, and then used him to hide my child from me."

She turned slightly toward the judge, her voice dripping with fake sadness for the reporters sitting behind us.

A bitter, quiet smile broke across my face.

It was so absurd, so ridiculous, that the sheer absurdity of it cut through my grief.

I let out a soft, breathy laugh under my nose, shaking my head as I looked at the floor.

She was throwing every lie she could think of at the wall, hoping something would stick.

She was trying to turn a violent kidnapping into a story about a bitter, jealous woman who seduced a younger brother to steal a baby.

Ren’s body went completely still beside me, a dark, dangerous pressure rising off him.

Behind us, Neve gasped in outrage, starting to lean forward, but Ren threw an arm back, holding her down in her seat.

"Order!" Judge Gabriel barked, glaring at the gallery before turning his sharp gaze back to the podium.

"Mrs. Reed, sit down. Counselor, call your next witness or address the motion properly. This courtroom will not devolve into a circus."

The lead federal prosecutor stood up, adjusting his suit coat as he stepped into the center aisle.

"Your Honor, the prosecution calls Neve to the stand to address the defense’s timeline regarding the victim and Alpha Ren."

"Objection, Your Honor!" Callum’s attorney jumped up. "This witness was not on the preliminary motion list!"

"Overruled," Judge Gabriel stated flatly. "The defense raised specific allegations of marital infidelity and timeline fraud to justify their motion. The prosecution has the right to address those claims directly. Witness, step forward."

Neve stood up from our bench, her hands balling into fists at her sides. She walked down the center aisle with her chin held high, taking her seat in the wooden witness box.

The clerk swore her in, and Neve placed her hand on the bible, her eyes fixed entirely on Callum and Sienna.

"Miss," the prosecutor began, walking toward the witness stand.

"Can you clarify the nature of the relationship between your brother, Alpha Ren, and Lumi during her marriage to Callum Reed?"

"I am Neve. I am also Ren’s elder sister, and I was Lumi’s friend long before any of this happened." Neve started slowly like she had all the time in the world and she wouldn’t leave that stand till the world knew the whole truth.

"Lumi never touched my brother while she was in the UK," she said plainly, her voice carrying through the quiet room.

"She was in London for years. She didn’t even set foot in the US, and she and Ren hadn’t seen each other since she left seven years ago. They didn’t even like each other at first when she came back. They were like cat and mouse." Callum’s lawyer jumped up.

"Objection! How can you be certain the victim wasn’t secretly communicating or seeing your brother prior to her divorce?" Neve looked the lawyer dead in the eye.

"Because I know Lumi. And because I was the one who was angry at first."

The room grew quiet. I looked up at Neve, surprised.

"What do you mean by that?" the prosecutor asked softly.

Neve swallowed hard, her chest moving as she took a deep breath. She looked over at me, her eyes filled with pain and regret.

"When Lumi first came back from the UK, heartbroken after catching Callum and Sienna together in her own room, she was a mess," Neve said, her voice shaking slightly.

"I got a job and traveled out of the states but pleaded with my brother to help keep her company. She rejected on multiple occasions but I threatened to quit my job.

She agreed after a while and they started becoming close again.

Then I caught them kissing at my apartment and lost my mind." Neve paused, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"I thought she was using Ren," Neve admitted, her voice dropping into a raw, honest whisper.

"Lumi is older than my brother. I knew how deeply she had loved Callum, and how badly he broke her. I thought she was just using Ren to get over her ex-husband. I thought she was messing with my brother’s heart."

She turned her head to glare directly at Sienna.

"I was so mad that I chased Lumi out of her apartment," she continued, her fists tightening.

"I made her leave. And because she had nowhere else to go, she went back to her mother’s abandoned house...the very place where her father, Arthur, went to drug her and tried to make us believe it was a suicide attempt."