Chapter Four: Truth or Lies

Ella‘POV

I can't stop thinking about it.

Lucas has been exiled. And according to every person in that boardroom, it's because of me.

My mind is a mess — pieces of conversations, old rumors, the way people look at me when they think I'm not watching.

I need answers. But going straight to the executives? Too risky. They already walk on eggshells around me.

So I go for someone invisible. Someone who's been here long enough to hear things, but not important enough to keep quiet.

I flip through the employee directory. Senior staff? Too cunning to trust. New hires? They know nothing.

Wait, Lindsay Roler?

Lindsay Roler. Finance department . Junior data analyst. Three years with the company. Her start date lines up almost perfectly with Lucas's fall.

That's all I need.

The break room at the end of the hall is empty at this hour — except for one person. A young woman by the window, scrolling through her phone, a half-eaten pack of crackers in her hand.

Lindsay.

She looks up. Freezes.

"Luna." She shoves her phone into her pocket so fast she nearly drops her crackers. "Do you want coffee? I can—"

"I'm fine." I smile and walk toward the coffee machine, slow and easy. "You're in finance, right? I don't think we've properly met."

"Lindsay Roler. Transferred from a subsidiary about two years ago." Her voice is tight. Her eyes won't stay on mine.

I pour myself a glass of water, grab a clean mug, and make her a cup of tea without asking. I slide it across the counter.

"Here. You look like you haven't had a second to breathe today."

She takes it with both hands. "Thank you, Luna."

"Relax." I lean against the counter, keep my posture loose. "I just took over this division. I'm trying to get a feel for how things really run. Team culture, history, old business." I let the pause stretch. "You know what I mean."

Her fingers tighten around the mug.

"Lucas Blackwood." I say his name like it doesn't still feel strange on my tongue. "He was still here when you started. You must've heard something about why he was exiled."

The color drains from her face.

"Luna, I'm just in data. I don't know anything about decisions at that level—"

"You've been here two years." I keep my voice even. "People talk. I'm not going to make trouble for you."

Silence. Then something shifts in her eyes. The fear doesn't disappear — it hardens.

"That routine is a little outdated, don't you think?"

I go still.

"The whole company knows what happened back then." Her voice drops, but the edge stays. "You went from being an ordinary woman to Luna, running the entire medical division. And now you're pretending you don't remember, trying to get me to talk — so you can fire me for spreading rumors? Because I used to work under Lucas?"

Her anger bleeds through. "People like you hold all the power. You can get rid of us whenever it suits you."

She isn't entirely wrong. That's the part that stings.

I set my glass down and look her straight in the eye. She reminds me of someone backed into a corner — scared, but refusing to break.

"You're right," I say quietly. "It's just the two of us in here. No one knows what gets said in this room. And that goes both ways." I hold her gaze. "But if you keep pushing me like this, I will notice. I run this medical group. We both know what that means."

I hate the words coming out of my mouth. But I need what she knows.

She lets out a slow breath.

"I don't know much," she says, barely above a whisper. "There's just been a rumor. For a long time."

"What kind of rumor?"

"That you drugged him. Damian. That you arranged to end up in his bed — and that's how the mate bond happened."

I stare at her. She has to be talking about someone else.

"And that Lucas found out the truth," she continues, her voice getting smaller. "So Damian chose you. Exiled his own brother to keep it quiet." She glances up, then looks away fast. "Lucas leaves Fullmoon City and takes some pack members with him. No one knows where he goes. No one's been able to reach him."

"What's the pack's reaction?" I push.

She hesitates, then figures she's already crossed the line. "Some of the family council members go to Damian together. They want to keep Lucas and get rid of you. They say you've undermined pack unity. But Damian refuses. He uses his absolute Alpha authority and pushes the exile through by force. After that, several council members fall out with him. Some leave for the East Coast. Some go to Europe."

Absolute authority. For me?

No, not for me. For his fated mate. I just happen to be wearing her life right now, with no memory of how any of it happened.

"Got it." My voice comes out steadier than it has any right to. "Thank you, Lindsay. You can go."

"I didn't say anything." She turns and is gone.

I stand there staring at the untouched mug of tea on the counter. Then I walk out, down the hallway, and shove through the stairwell door.

The second it shuts behind me, my legs give out. I slide down the wall and sit on the cold concrete floor.

They say I drugged him.

How can anyone think that's me?

I know exactly who I am. I get scared. I back down. I hold myself together through humiliation and walk out of rooms with my chin up when everything inside me is falling apart.

But I would never go that far.

And yet everyone believes it. Lindsay. The council members. The entire Blackwood pack.

To all of them, I'm the woman who schemed her way into an Alpha's bed. And Lucas — the man I once loved, the one who wanted to show me off to his whole world — has been thrown out of his own family because of me.

I don't know how long I sit there. Voices and footsteps filter through the door from time to time. The world goes about its business, completely unbothered.

Eventually I push myself up, smooth my skirt, and pull my face back together.

Calm. Steady. Luna.

Back at the residence that night, I lock myself in the study.

Lucas Blackwood. No results.

Blackwood pack exile. Nothing.

Fullmoon City Lucas. Blank.

Every trace scrubbed clean — news, social media, everything. Whoever did it knows what they're doing.

I close the laptop. Someone knocks.

"Come in."

Grey steps through the door — Damian's personal assistant, early thirties, Beta. Quiet and precise as always.

"Luna. Alpha asks me to collect the signed documents."

"On the desk." I signed them hours ago without reading a word.

He picks them up and turns to go.

"Grey."

He stops.

"How long have you been with Damian?"

"Ten years."

"Then you were around three years ago." I look at him directly. "I want to know the real reason Lucas was exiled."

Grey's expression doesn't shift.

"That's not something Alpha permits anyone to discuss. If you want to know, ask him."

"I did." A lie — the Damian down the hall remembers nothing either. "He didn't give me the full answer. So I'm asking you."

Grey shakes his head once.

"Alpha has done a great deal for you, Luna." His voice is flat. "More than you know."

Then he walks out and pulls the door shut.

More than you know.

Not for the pack. For you. In Grey's version, Damian is the one who gave everything up. Which makes me the one who's taken it without understanding the cost.

That isn't fair. I'm the one who woke up with three years missing. I'm the one being cast as the villain in a story I can't even remember living. And even Grey has already made up his mind about me.

Damian promises he'll find the truth. Part of me believes him. But Grey's face tonight says something different — even if Damian finds something, I have no guarantee I'll hear all of it.

The truth isn't going to come looking for me.

I pull a blank notebook from the desk drawer and write three columns.

The rumor: Ella drugged Damian. Lucas found out. Damian exiled his own brother.

Damian's version: Unknown. Sealed behind Grey's loyalty and a scrubbed internet.

My version: A missing three years. A ring on my finger. And a man whose body knows me while his mind doesn't.

I draw a question mark underneath all three, taking up the rest of the page.

Then I close the notebook.

I'm not waiting around for answers that might never come.

I'm going to find them myself.