Scarlett’s POV
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The words hung in the air like a deadly poison. The room went so quiet that the only sound was the frantic drumming of my heart against my ribs. My hands started to shake, and a cold sweat broke out across my neck. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not like this.
Liam stood frozen by the door, the shopping bag slipping slightly from his fingers. The soft, helpful look on his face completely vanished, replaced by a sudden, terrifying blankness. He looked at me, his green eyes wide and scanning my face for a denial, before his gaze snapped back to Leo.
"What do you mean?" Liam asked, his voice dangerously soft, dropping to a low, trembling whisper. "What the hell do you mean by that, Leo?"
Just then, heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Leonard walked straight into the room. He took one look at the suffocating tension, his dark brown eyes narrowing as he sensed the incoming explosion.
Leo looked completely out of control. His chest was heaving, his sea-blue eyes wild with a sick, twisted mix of triumph and agony. He didn’t back down. He leaned into the madness.
"Yes, you heard me right!" Leo shouted, a harsh, mocking laugh tearing from his throat as he glared at Liam. "I knew Scarlett was alive for over two years! We fucked! In fact, I was her first man. While you were locked away crying over her, she was in my bed!"
I swallowed hard, a painful, choking lump forming in my throat as hot tears instantly gathered in my eyes, blurring my vision. This was a total disaster. The secret I had hidden so desperately, the one thing I wanted to protect them from, was being dragged out into the light in the worst possible way.
"You’re lying," Liam growled, a dark, primal sound tearing from his chest. In a blur of speed, he dropped the bag, crossed the room, and grabbed Leo tightly by the collar, slamming him against the wall. His Alpha aura roared to life, violent and ready to kill. "You’re fucking lying, Leo! Shut your mouth!"
Leo scoffed, even as the fabric choked his throat. He looked right past Liam’s shoulder to face me, a bitter, broken smirk on his lips. "Ask her. Go ahead, Liam. Ask your perfect mate if I’m lying."
Slowly, the heavy pressure in the room shifted.
Liam’s grip on Leo’s shirt loosened just a little as he turned his head toward me. Next to him, Leonard stepped closer, his hard expression completely breaking into pure, total shock. Both Liam and Leonard looked at me, their eyes begging me to say it wasn’t true, begging me to tell them that Leo had just lost his mind.
"Let me explain," I choked out, a hot tear finally spilling over my lashes and running down my cheek. I held my hands up, stepping toward them with my heart breaking into a million pieces. "Please, just listen to me... it’s not the way it sounds."
"Is it true?" Leonard asked. His voice didn’t sound angry—it sounded completely empty, like his entire world had just been pulled out from under him. He looked at me as if I were a stranger. "Did you sleep with him? While we were dying of grief, you were with him?"
"Leo found me in Nigeria!" I cried out, my voice cracking with desperation as I tried to piece together the shattered remnants of my secret. "I didn’t want any of you to know I was still alive until the five years were up! It wasn’t a betrayal, I was trying to protect—"
"Protect?!" Leonard suddenly roared.
The calm, calculated Alpha completely snapped. With a fierce, angry swing of his leg, Leonard kicked a wooden stool across the room. It slammed into the wall, shattering into pieces with a loud, violent CRACK.
"For two years?" Leonard choked out, his face turning a sickly, pale white as his eyes filled with absolute heartbreak. He gripped his hair with both hands, pacing the room like a caged animal. "For two entire years, my twin brother and my fated mate knew the truth. You let me believe you were dead. You let me suffer. You let me bleed through the bond while the two of you were together behind our backs!"
Liam slowly let go of Leo’s collar, stepping back as if he had just been struck by lightning. He looked down at his hands, then at me, his green eyes filled with a deep, silent agony that was ten times worse than any physical blow Leo had given him earlier. He looked completely paralyzed, his chest heaving as he struggled to draw air into his lungs.
"You... you gave yourself to him," Liam whispered, his voice cracking completely. The strong, protective Alpha who had just held me tightly the night before looked like he was physically dying. "I stayed faithful to your memory, Scarlett. I nearly destroyed myself for you. And you were with him the whole time?"
"No, Liam, please!" I sobbed, reaching out to touch his arm, but he flinched away from my hand, stumbling backward. The rejection sliced straight through my soul.
The room was drowning in pure pain. Leo stood against the wall, the anger draining from his face, leaving him looking just as ruined and heartbroken as his brothers as the reality of what he had just done settled in. Leonard was breathing fast and panicked, his hands shaking as he stared at the floor, completely broken.
The secret was out, but in the worst possible way.
Suddenly, Leonard threw a heavy punch straight into Leo’s jaw, sending Leo stumbling backward into the desk. Before Leo could even recover, Liam threw a hard punch of his own, hitting Leo across the face.
"Stop! Stop it right now!" I screamed, rushing forward and throwing myself right between them before they could tear each other to pieces.
They actually stopped. Both Liam and Leonard stood there, breathing hard as they stared at Leo with pure hatred. Leo just wiped a fresh line of blood from his cut lip with the back of his hand, looking like he didn’t even care about the punches.
Liam slowly turned his head to look at me. The pain and anger completely left his face, leaving his green eyes entirely blank and dead. He stared at me like I was a stranger, like the woman he loved had died all over again. Without saying a single word, he turned around and walked straight out of the room.
Leonard didn’t say anything either. He gave me one last, deeply heartbroken look before following Liam out, slamming the heavy bedroom door shut behind them.