Chapter 78

Third Person POV

“What do you mean you found the perpetrator?” Gavin asked through the mindlink. He glanced at Matt who was still lost in thought. Had he lied to him?

Matt has never lied before… has he?

“It was a maid,” Taylor continued. “She was found with the peanut butter in her room. The same maid that came to get you after his allergic reaction. She admitted she wanted compensation for aiding his rescue.”

“Compensation?” Gavin growled into the mindlink. “I want her banished from the pack and turned into a rogue immediately.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Taylor agreed. “Do you want to see her before she’s banished.”

Gavin thought about it for a second and then sighed.

“No,” he murmured. “Just get rid of her.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

The link ended and Gavin turned back to Matt, his eyes narrowed.

“Why did you lie to me?”

Matt raised his gaze to look at Gavin and a frown formed on his lips.

“I didn’t lie to you…” Matt said, unconvincingly.

“Yes, you did, Matthew,” Gavin said, folding his arms across his chest. “Because you weren’t the one who put the peanut butter in that sandwich… it was a maid.”

Matt’s eyes grew wide.

“What?” He gasped. “Why would a maid want to hurt me??”

“That’s not for you to worry about. Just know it’ll never happen again. She’s being banished and I’ll have the other maids investigated as well.”

Matt glanced at his hands and tugged his fingers nervously as he processed all his father had said.

“You shouldn’t have lied to me, Matt…” Gavin said, his voice twinged with disappointment.

“I’m sorry, Dad… I just couldn’t let Judy get in trouble,” he said sadly, tears welling up in his eyes.

Gavin was quiet, processing his words for a moment.

“So, if it truly was Judy’s mistake, you still would have covered for her?” He finally asked.

Without hesitation, Matt nodded.

“Yes,” he answered. “She’s become family, right? Family is supposed to have each other’s back.”

Gavin was quiet for another moment; Matt was right. Judy had become part of the family. She was always around, and it wasn’t fair that he didn’t listen to a thing she said. He blindly accused her of something terrible and now he was seriously regretting his choices.

He just hoped it wasn’t too late to rectify things.

Meanwhile, Both Gavin and Irene were oblivious of Ethan’s planning. He thought having Judy in his family home would have been great for him, but he found it even more difficult to get close to her because his family had a 24/7 watch on her.

He knew Judy couldn’t poison Matt; she loved that boy too much. He wasn’t sure who was sick enough to do such a thing to a 7-year-old, but he knew it wasn’t her. He did the only thing he could think to do… he bribed a maid. Told her that he would set her up with a lifetime of fortune if she took the fall. He handed her the peanut butter, and her greedy eyes lit up when she heard about the fortune.

An hour later, she was being banished and Ethan was wiring a ton of money into her account. He was a man of his word after all. Although, he knew it wouldn’t be long before she ended up dead and he’d get the money back anyway.

Now, he just had to make sure that Judy got her job back so at least he had a chance to see her every day and continue convincing her to become his side piece.

….

Judy’s POV

“You look exhausted,” Nan pointed out as she met me in the student quad. I stared down at my failed test and let out a sigh. I didn’t have time to study for this exam because of how much work I’ve been doing for the Cash family. “Is living with the Cash’s that bad?”

I gave her a pointed look.

“It’s worse than bad,” I murmured. “I’ve only been there for a couple of days, and I haven’t slept once.”

“I’m so sorry, Judy,” Nan said, resting her head on my shoulder. “I wish there was something I could do. I’ve been looking around for a place for you, but nobody has any spare rooms.”

“It’s okay,” I murmured. “It’s not your fault. I’m honestly grateful that you’ve been trying.”

“It’s not fair that they are working you like a dog,” Nan said, folding her arms across her chest. “You have a life too and school you need to focus on. What does your mother think about all of this?”

I shrugged and chewed the inside of my cheek.

“I don’t think she really notices how bad things are for me,” I admitted. “When I tried to talk to her about it, she told me that I need to be grateful to the Cash family and I shouldn’t complain too much.”

Nan rolled her eyes.

“She’s completely blind,” she murmured.

“Her mate is in prison. She’s allowed to be blind. I just want her to be okay,” I sighed. “If anything were to happen to her… if they treated her like they treat me…”

Tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them, and I quickly wiped them away before anyone else saw.

“It’s not fair to you…” she murmured. “Have you eaten? You look like you’ve lost a ton of weight.”

I bit my lip; I’ve barely eaten these last couple of days. Mostly because the food the servants eat isn’t edible, but also because I haven’t had an appetite.

“I’m fine,” Nan,” I assured her.

I glanced at the time and sighed.

“I should go,” I told her. “I don’t want to be too late tonight.”

“Make sure you get some schoolwork in,” she told me as I walked towards the parking lot.

I waved at her over my shoulder. I already called an Uber, and I knew it would arrive at any minute, but I wasn’t expecting to see the familiar luxury car out front. I frowned as the window rolled down and I saw Beta Taylor in the driver’s seat.

“Taylor?” I asked, my brows furrowed. “What are you doing here?”

“I have some news for you,” he told me.

I sighed and stepped away from the car.

“If Gavin knew you were here, you’d probably get in trouble,” I warned him.

“He’s the one who sent me,” he surprised me by saying. “He had important work to do at his villa and couldn’t come himself but—”

“Isn’t that rich,” I muttered, folding my arms across my chest.

My Uber pulled up and I motioned for him to wait a moment after he honked once, alerting me of his arrival.

“I have to go,” I told Taylor just as I spun on my heal and walked away.

I heard Taylor quickly getting out of the car and rushing towards me.

“Wait, Judy. Please, listen to me for a minute,” he pleaded. I had nothing to say to him and I doubted whatever it was he had to say would make anything better.

“I really need to go, Beta,” I said over my shoulder.

“We found out the truth. It was a maid who poisoned Matt; it wasn’t you…”

My entire body froze just as I was about to pull the back door of the uber open. I thought for sure it was somehow Irene with how strangely she acted. I didn’t think it would be one of Gavin’s trusted maids.

“Are you sure?” I asked, not bothering to look at him.

“Yes, she gave a full confession. She’s been banished from the pack and forbidden to join any other pack,” Taylor explained.

I sucked in as harp breath as I slowly turned to look at him.

“That’s as good as death,” I said, my voice coming out breathy.

Taylor nodded and ran his fingers through his hair.

“She almost killed his son, so yeah, he’s pissed. You can’t blame him for being pissed and worried for his son’s safety.”

I sighed.

“No, of course I’m not,” I said gently. “But he wouldn’t even listen to me. I get that he was upset, but he cast me away, Taylor.”

“And he regrets that,” Taylor tried to tell me. “If you’ll just give him a chance…”

“A chance?” I scoffed. “He can’t even come here himself to apologize. If he wants me to forgive him, then he’ll have to speak to me himself.”

I opened the car door and froze before getting in.

“How is Matt doing?”

“He went home today,” Taylor informed me. “He’s doing well… but he misses you.”

Tears filled my eyes, and I quickly blinked them away before they fell down my cheeks.

“Thank you for letting me know, Taylor. I truly appreciate the update, but if Alpha Landry is truly sorry, then he’ll have to tell me himself and not send his Beta to do it for him.”

“I understand,” Taylor said, stepped away from me.

I didn’t spare him another look as I got into the car and slammed the door shut. The Uber drive drove off just as the tears finally escaped my eyes.