#Chapter 65: In the Rain

Amelia The smear campaign began like all good lies, with a seed of truth, a carefully chosen sliver of reality used as the foundation for something uglier. David's team didn’t need to fabricate a scandal. They simply amplified what was already there: the optics, the rumors, the awkward silences, the looks that lasted too long. A few edited clips of Richard brushing his hand against mine in a council meeting, a still frame of us standing too close in a hallway, a blurry photo of me exiting his suite before dawn. No accusations. Just questions. Questions that were easy to plant and impossible to uproot. What is the role of an intern in royal policy? Should someone with no Pack ties be influencing Pack law? Why has the Alpha King grown so secretive? It spread like rot through the ranks. I started noticing the shift in the way people greeted me. They stopped making eye contact. Meetings were shorter. Conversations dried up. I was no longer the intern who worked too late and bro