---- Chapter 19 No.19 Aria POV: Silas stood apart from the others, his face a complex mixture of sorrow and regret. He looked at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "My name wasn't in her videos," he said softly, a desperate plea for me to see the difference. "| never touched her. | have only ever wanted you, Aria." | frowned, crossing my arms. "If you truly wanted me, Silas, why did you join them in their mockery? Why did you stand with them against me?" A bitter, self-deprecating smile touched his lips. "It was strategy," he confessed, his voice heavy with the irony of it all. "Kaelen was the strongest. The others followed his lead. | thought if | pretended to dislike you, to see you as a burden, they would all underestimate my ambition. | wanted them to write me off, to focus on each other, leaving the path clear for me to win you in the end." He shook his head. "l was a fool. | outsmarted myself and lost the one thing | ever truly wanted." 7 He didn't beg to stay. He didn't make excuses. He simply looked at me, his heart in his eyes. "Be happy, my princess," he whispered. ---- Then he, too, turned and walked toward the doors, ready to accept his fate. Now, it was just Kaelen. He stood alone in the center of the ruined ballroom, the fallen Alpha, the rejected mate. The silence was absolute. Every eye was on him, waiting for the final act of this tragedy to play out. He looked small, broken, and utterly alone, facing me, his judge and jury.