Chapter 7 The Truth They Buried

Aurora's POV

"If that's true... then, Father was only trying to help you. He wanted the best for you. He wanted you to achieve your dreams."

I stared at him, my chest rising and falling slowly as I controlled the storm inside me.

"My dream?" I repeated softly, my voice cold. "My dream was to study engineering." My words were calm, but my heart pulsed with quiet rage. "Not to become a dancer."

I didn't need to raise my voice. The truth was loud enough.

"It was Alpha Frank who forced me into dancing," I continued. "As my guardian, he made all the decisions. He didn't ask what I wanted. He only saw a way to control me. Before I was even eighteen, he made me perform again and again, like a showpiece."

The guests were silent now. No more whispers. Just watching. Listening. The cracks in the Donald family's perfect image had widened even further.

I looked straight at Keith, and my voice grew sharper. "Do you want to hear what life was like for your beautiful, famous dancer?"

Keith's jaw tightened, but he didn't respond. None of them did.

I spoke anyway.

"Walking three hours through the snow at four in the morning."

"Minus ten degrees. Every day."

I swallowed, feeling my chest tighten at how normal that suffering had once felt.

"My legs numb, my hands frozen."

Even now, I could almost feel the sting in my fingers, the burning cold that never left until the sun finally rose.

"I walked to the training hall while everyone else slept warm in their beds."

That part always cut the deepest. While they rested under heavy blankets, I was out there alone, every step a fight to keep going.

My voice remained even, but inside, I could feel my wolf instincts pulsing, steady and cold, trying to keep me from breaking again.

"When I was hungry between classes, I drank tap water just to keep standing."

"Even when my toenails fell off from the constant training, I kept dancing."

Because stopping was never an option. If I stopped, I would disappear.

Several guests gasped quietly. I ignored them.

"After school, I picked up leftover food from the cafeteria trash just so I wouldn't starve. And when my classmates saw me do it, they called me a beggar."

My mother's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide with tears. "I didn't know you suffered so much," Melissa whispered. Her voice cracked, and tears ran down her cheeks. "Aurora, I'm so sorry."

But I cut her off before she could continue her little performance. "You haven't wronged me," I said calmly.

"After all, you've always believed I was stronger than Helen. You thought I could handle a mental hospital better than she ever could."

That one sentence cut through the entire hall like a blade. And it pierced straight into the lie that had sat at the center of our family for five years.

Melissa's body shook. She clutched her chest like she might faint right there, gasping for breath. But even as she trembled, I stayed calm, my voice steady.

"Do you remember, Mother?" I continued, my voice growing colder. "You once knelt in front of me. You begged me to take the blame for Helen.

You cried and said Helen couldn't survive the shame. You said, "You're strong, Aurora. You can endure the hardships of the mental hospital.' You made it sound like a favor."

Melissa's eyes filled with panic. Her lips trembled, but no words came.

The guests looked back and forth between us, their faces full of shock and quiet horror. The image of the kind, loving Luna Melissa was crumbling before their very eyes.

But I wasn't finished.

I turned to Keith next. My brother, who had always been so quick to judge me, so quick to side with Helen.

"Mr. Donald still doesn't know, does he?" I asked him, my voice sharp. "He doesn't know about the surveillance footage that could've saved me. The one showing Helen poisoning Vicky."

Keith's face stiffened, his alpha aura growing tense as my words struck deeper.

I kept going, letting every truth pour out now.

"The footage was deleted immediately," I said, "by your loving mother.

She made sure it never reached the Elders. She let Helen walk free while she pushed me into the mental hospital to take her place."

Melissa gasped again, her hand pressed tighter against her chest as if the truth itself was suffocating her. Frank stood beside her, silent, his face rigid.

Alpha Keith's eyes darted back and forth between us, his breathing unsteady. Finally, he turned fully toward Melissa. His voice cracked, no longer able to hide his own doubt.

"Is... is what she said true?"