Chapter Twenty-Five
*The Cruelest Truth*
Lyra looked at Regina, a storm of gratitude and shock swirling inside her. The defense had been swift, icy, and absolute. For a moment, she felt a fragile hope that the humiliation was over.
She was wrong.
Naomi Louis, seeing the united front, did not shrink back in defeat. A new, more vicious light entered her eyes. If she couldn't win with brute force, she would poison the well with sweet, smiling lies.
"If everyone thought like you, Regina," Naomi said, her voice now sickly smooth, "how great the world would be. So noble. So... forgiving." She took a slow sip of wine. "But we do not live in that world, do we? In reality, people talk. They whisper behind very tall, very expensive backs."
She set her glass down and turned her pitying gaze dir
