Chapter 5

This afternoon, Madron returned to the family estate at his grandfather's summons to discuss the acquisition.

He had just reached the back garden when a sharp, clamorous argument made him frown.

"You're nothing but a distant relative. How dare you stay in a hotel and have Madron foot the bill? Even my own mother has to pay her own rent!"

"Celeste, the whole company is talking about how you sent the CEO lingerie. Have you no shame? And you're trying to seduce a man when Luna is still in the picture?"

"Do you even know what the word 'incestuous' means?"

As she spoke, the girl raised the wooden stick in her hand and brought it down hard on Celeste.

"I didn't!" Celeste sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "I didn't seduce Madron! You've all misunderstood!"

The girl lowered the stick and spat at her.

"A misunderstanding? We all heard Amara on the phone with my aunt this morning! And you still dare to deny it!"

Saying this, she raised the stick again, poised to bring it down with full force.

"Stop!" Madron's face was dark, and the aura of a man in power erupted from him. "Have you all gone mad!"

The girl's eyes widened, the wooden stick fell from her hand, and she stammered, "C-Cousin."

"You said Amara called my mother this morning," Madron said, his voice dangerously low, "and told her something about Celeste?"His expression was dark and brooding.

"Yes... I overheard it by chance." As he spoke, he knelt, terrified of being punished.

Madron carried the distraught Celeste to his car and lit a cigarette, his breathing unsteady.

"Madron," the girl beside him murmured, her head bowed and her voice brimming with hurt. "I already moved out, so why would Amara still do this? My parents are gone... I don't have any family left. What did I do wrong?"

As she spoke, she broke into soft sobs.

Madron's hand on the steering wheel tightened instantly.

His mind involuntarily flashed back to fifteen years ago, when his family of four was living abroad.

They too had been attacked by a rival wolf pack, and his sister had died in a hail of gunfire trying to protect him.

So when he learned that Celeste's parents had also been killed in an attack overseas, it was as if he were seeing his own helpless self from all those years ago.

"I'm here."

Celeste’s lips curved into a slight, triumphant smile, confident in her victory.

...

I looked at the man before me, his face grim, who had condemned me without even asking for the truth.

The place in my heart that had once bloomed with roses for him had now turned barren.

"Madron, is that what you really think of me? That I'm the kind of person who stabs others in the back?"I stared at him, my fingers clenching into tight fists, but my voice was cold when I spoke.

My pride wouldn't allow me to show any weakness in a matter like this.

He gently laid Celeste on the sofa before rising, his expression disapproving.

"Amara, I've already told you, there's nothing between us like you're imagining. I even sent her to a hotel, just as you wished. Why won't you just leave her alone?"

"And now you've called my mother to tattle on her, instigating our families to gang up on her!"

I trembled with rage.

"Madron! Am I that despicable in your eyes? Let me tell you, if I truly wanted her gone, do you honestly believe it would be difficult for my family, with all our influence, to make someone disappear without a sound?!"

Madron's expression instantly frosted over.

"Amara, you can give it a try. Let's see what happens first—you making her disappear, or me making your family's corporation vanish from this city's map of power."

A dead silence instantly fell over the room.

I couldn't believe what I had just heard.

My body swayed, completely out of my control, overcome with incredulous grief.

Suddenly, everything felt absurd. My mate bond with Madron was absurd, but the idea of it ending because of some inexplicable woman was even more so.

I had never seen this dark, sinister side of Madron before.

I never thought the most dignified, composed, and rational man in the business empire would lose control over a woman.

"Hah, Madron, I finally see it clearly now. Our relationship was a complete joke from the start."

"And I, for one, hate jokes. So, this little game? I'm out. You two can carry on."

With that, I turned and walked away.

After the words left his mouth, Madron himself seemed to freeze, a flicker of imperceptible regret in his eyes.

"Let's just cool down," the man's voice called out.

I paused, scoffing inwardly.

The next day, the Elder handed me the agreement to sever our mate bond.

I avoided everyone and placed it on Madron's desk.

Walking downstairs, I slid into my Maserati and called my best friend.

"Find some hot guys at the Nightfall Bar. This girl is officially back on the market."