Make Them Regret It Chapter 35
On the day the family council convened, the first person brought forward was Isabella.
She wore the tracking bracelet from the mining district, her half-white hair a tangled curtain over her shoulder.
When she saw my father and brothers standing in the defendants’ dock, she froze, then laughed out loud.
“So you ended up here, too.”
My father kept his head down and didn’t look at her.
An elder ordered her to identify the instigators of the staged performance.
Isabella immediately raised a hand.
“Them!”
“My father agreed to lock the women in the chapel and gave me the authority. My older brother gave me money. Colton said that if Blythe was frightened enough, she would break the engagement for sure.”
“Without them, who would have listened to me? I had only just come home.”
Colton said, his voice flat, “That is true.”
Isabella hadn’t expected him to admit it so easily. She stared for a second, then pointed at my father again.
“He was the one who cut out her Core! They said her abilities were stable and she’d be fine without it!”
My father closed his eyes.
“That is true.”
“And the thirty lashes! The document was found in her bag, but no one investigated. They were all in a hurry to convict her. Colton even volunteered to do it himself. He didn’t spare a single strike!”
Colton’s fingers curled into a fist.
“That is true.”
Isabella spoke faster and faster, as if dragging everyone else down with her could somehow lighten her own guilt.