(Adele's POV)

The red wine dripped down Valerie's emerald dress in slow, deliberate rivulets.

Her perfect smile was gone.

Then I reached over, picked up the empty wine glass, and slammed it onto the marble floor.

Crystal exploded outward in every direction. The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot.

"Those earrings," I said, my voice carrying easily through the stunned silence, "were left to me by my grandmother Eleanor. Not to you."

Valerie's hands flew to her dress. Her mouth opened in outrage. "How dare you-"

"No, how dare you?" I cut her off, turning to face my mother. "And you, Mother. What right did you have to give away my inheritance to someone who isn't even of our bloodline?"

"Adele." My mother's voice cut through the room like a blade. "Apologize. Right now."

"No."

Miranda's eyes went cold. "I said apologize."

"And I said no." I turned to look at Eric, who stood protectively in front of Melody. "Between me and Melody, who do you believe?"

He didn't hesitate. "Melody would never steal anything. She's not that kind of person."

The words landed exactly the way I knew they would."Of course not," I laughed bitterly. "Sweet, innocent Melody would never do anything wrong."

Cora went very still inside me. Not because it hurt less. Because it hurt too much to react to.

Where once the eighteen-year-old Eric had held me in his heart and eyes, that wasn't the case anymore. Melody was foremost in his mind now.

Eight years. I had given this man eight years of my life.

I reached out and grabbed the nearest glass from a passing tray. I didn't throw it at him. I dropped it at his feet.

It shattered across his shoes.

"Eight years," I said quietly. "You don't believe me, but you believe your secretary?"

"I'm so very sorry that I wasted eight years of my life on someone who doesn't believe a word I say."

His jaw tightened. "You're making a scene."

"I'm already in one."

Before he could respond, the doors at the far end of the ballroom opened.

A servant walked in, moving quickly, holding something small in his raised hand.

"Miss Valerie." His voice was breathless. "I found these in your room. On the vanity. I thought you'd want to know right away."

He held up the earrings.

The emerald drops caught the chandelier light. The familiar asymmetry of the left stone was unmistakable.

Valerie recovered faster than most people would have. "Oh." She laughed softly, pressing a hand to her chest. "I completely forgot. I was looking at them earlier and I must have set them down. With everything going on tonight, it completely slipped my mind."

I walked across the room, took the earrings directly from the servant's hand, and put them on.

I turned to face the crowd.

"This was a setup," I said clearly. "Valerie and Melody planted this. They moved the earrings, killed the hallway cameras, and waited for me to say something so they could make me look like a liar in front of everyone."I pointed at Eric, "you're so disrespectful to your mate that you'd believe anyone over me."

A murmur moved through the guests.

Valerie's friends closed in around her. Three of them, all wearing the same careful expression, stepping forward like a wall.

I felt the shift in the room. The threat in it.

Something rose in me that I didn't fully suppress. My fingers curved. My teeth felt sharper.

The crack of my mother's hand across my face snapped my head to the side.

The room went absolutely silent.

"You have ruined her birthday," Miranda said, her voice low and furious. "You have embarrassed this family in front of every important person in this city. What is wrong with you?"

I straightened slowly. My cheek burned.

"Say that again," I said, "and I'll tell everyone in this room exactly what Valerie and Hayden have been doing behind closed doors."

My mother's face went white.

She knew exactly what I meant.

The doors opened again. Harrison walked in with Hayden at his side, both of them reading the room with the particular alertness of men who had walked into a disaster.

Eric moved toward me immediately. "Come outside. We can talk about this privately."

I shoved his hand off my arm.

"This is your last chance," I told him. "I mean that."

He looked at me like he didn't understand what I was saying. Like the concept of a last chance from me was something that didn't quite compute.

I turned to Valerie. Then to Melody, who was still standing slightly behind Eric.

I grabbed both of their wrists.

They both started talking at once, pulling back, but I was already moving. Through the side doors, down the stone steps, out to the pool terrace where the water was lit from below and the winter air hit us like ice.

I shoved them both in.

Two splashes. Two screams. The crowd that had followed us outside erupted.

I stood at the edge for one moment.

Then I jumped in after them.

The cold hit me like a wall. The water closed over my head.

I can't swim. After Valerie pushed me into the water when I was a child, I developed aquaphobia. Under the surface, my arms moved uselessly against the current of my own sinking weight.

I could see everything from down here. Distorted and strange.

Hayden went in after Valerie. His arms were around her within seconds, pulling her toward the edge.

Eric went in after Melody. He had his jacket off before he even hit the water.

On the pool deck, I could hear my parents' voices. Harrison calling for Valerie. Miranda calling her name.

No one called mine.

My lungs started to burn.

Then an arm came around me from behind. Strong, sure, pulling upward without hesitation.

I broke the surface gasping.

When I finally remembered to look back at the face of the person who had saved me, he was already gone, leaving only a blurry silhouette disappearing into the crowd gathered around the pool.

I pulled myself out and sat on the wet tile, coughing.

Across the pool, Eric had Melody wrapped in a towel. His hands were gentle on her shoulders. He was saying something to her quietly, his head bent toward hers.

Then he looked up.

He saw me sitting there. Soaking wet, alone, no towel, no one beside me.

Something moved across his face. Realization, maybe. Or something close to it.

I didn't wait to find out what he would do with it.

I went upstairs and changed.

My father followed me into the room before I had finished buttoning my shirt.

"Do you have any idea what you've done tonight?" His voice was barely controlled. "The reputation of this pack-"

I picked up my phone and typed a single message to Eric.

100.

I sent it.

"I'm calling off the wedding," I said.

My father stopped mid-sentence.

Eric appeared in the doorway a moment later, wearing borrowed clothes that didn't fit him properly. He looked at my face and almost laughed.

"You're not serious."

"I gave you one hundred chances," I said. "Every time you hurt me, I subtracted one. Tonight used the last of them."

Harrison crossed the room and hit me across the same cheek my mother had already struck.

"Ungrateful." His voice was shaking. "Do you understand what this alliance with Crimson Pack means for us? You would throw that away because of a tantrum?"

"I'm calling off the wedding," I repeated.

Eric's expression finally shifted into something harder. "You want the truth? I never wanted this engagement. You went to my uncle Dorian and pressured him into pushing this through. I didn't choose you."

"I know," I said. "But things have changed."

I didn't say anything else.

I walked out of the room, down the stairs, and out the front door of the Crescent Pack House.

The cold air hit my wet hair and I didn't care.

I got to my car and took out my phone. I tried Paige first. Voicemail.

I scrolled to Ryan Quinn's name and called.

"Adele?" His voice was surprised. "What's going on?"

"I need Dorian Crimson's phone number," I said. "Right now."

"Dorry's number? Why?"

"I need him to help me cancel the wedding."

A pause. I heard muffled voices. Ryan talking to someone.

He came back. "We're at a business dinner. He'll be done in about thirty minutes. Come to the Moonlight Club."

"Thank you, Ryan." I meant it.

I hung up and started the car.

As I pulled away from the Pack House, something loosened in my chest for the first time in longer than I could remember.