Chapter 6

OLIVIA’S POV The accusations hung in the air like a death sentence. The world had come crashing down around me. The weight of Elder Alyosha’s death suffocated me, and with it came an unbearable sense of dread. I knelt on the cold floor, my entire body trembling as I tried to make sense of what was happening. My hands clutched at Dominic’s wrist desperately, my fingers digging into his skin as though holding onto him would make him hear me—make him see me. "Dominic, please," I gasped, my voice breaking. "I didn't do this! You have to believe me!" “I was with you the whole time!” My voice screeched. But the man standing before me was not the Dominic I had once known—not the boy who had once shielded me from cruel whispers, not even the man who had hesitated before condemning me to an existence of solitude. No, this was Alpha Dominic. Cold. Ruthless. Unforgiving. The air was thick with the weight of judgment, and every breath I took felt like a battle against an unseen force trying to cru