CHAPTER FOUR: PLEASE, BELIEVE ME
2017 Words
POV: AMARA
For the first time, all night I saw doubt in Zayn's eyes.
Not condemnation
Not verdict
Not uncertainty
Just doubt...
And somehow,that was worse than if he'd looked at me with outright accusation.
Because, doubt could grow. Doubt could turn into disbelief. As it could spread until it swallowed everything else.
For years I'd believed one thing without question,that even if the entire world turned against me, Zayn would not.
That no matter what happened, he'd be the one person who'd look past the noise and saw me.
Now, for the first time, I wasn't sure.
The crowd roared around us — voices crashing into each other, impossible to separate.
"A witness?—"
" Who saw her—"
"This changes everything—"
"The evidence just keeps building—"
I barely heard any of it. I couldn't look away from that small c***k in Zayn's expression.
From the trust I'd never once thought to question, splitting open right in front of me.
The second warrior remained kneeling before the platform,head lowered, shoulders trembling, like the words in his mouth were too heavy to hold.
"Bring the witness," Elder Malik said.
"My Elder—" The warrior hesitated
"Now..." Malik's eyes narrowed as he commanded
The warrior swallowed
"...The witness is already here."
A ripple moved through the gathering. My stomach dropped straight through the floor.
No...
No
No
No
Who?
Who would say that they possibly saw me?
Who could?
The crowd parted.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Like the sea opening around a ship.
A woman stepped forward.
I recognized her instantly.
She was Kemi Sade.
I knew her.
Young, quiet, harmless
She was one of the palace attendants, someone I'd shared meals with, someone I'd stood up for more than once when the other nobles treated her like furniture.
Her hands were shaking.
She wouldn't look at me.
Wouldn't even lift her eyes off the ground.
A knot formed in my chest.
"Kemi." My voice came out softer than I meant it to.
Her shoulders flinched at the sound of her own name.
Still nothing.
Still no eye contact.
Fear crawled through me.
Real fear.
People don't avoid your eyes unless they're ashamed of something, or afraid of someone.
"Tell us what you saw," Malik said gently.
Kemi's throat worked.
The whole courtyard seemed to lean forward, waiting.
"I... I saw Princess Adanna."
Her voice cracked.
She looked like she wanted to disappear.
A pause.
"Walking toward Lady Amara's chambers."
My pulse roared in my ears.
That's not true.
Adanna never came to my chambers tonight.
"And later," Kemi went on, eyes squeezed shut now, a tear sliding down her cheek.
"When I was heading back to the servants' wing, I saw Lady Amara, leaving the eastern gardens."
The crowd gasped as one, and I felt sick actually, physically sick, like the ground had tilted under me.
No.
No.
No.
That never happened.
I took a step forward.
"You're lying."
The words came out before I could stop them.
Kemi flinched like I'd struck her.
"I—"
"You're lying." My voice cracked.
Not from anger.
From disbelief.
I knew this woman.
I had eaten meals with her.
Helped her when other nobles ignored her.
Why was she doing this?
Why?
"I never went near the eastern gardens."
The words echoed across the grounds.
Firm.
Clear.
True.
"Not tonight. Not ever, not without someone with me."
Kemi finally lifted her eyes to mine.
And what I saw there wasn't conviction.
It was guilt.
Not certainty.
Not conviction.
Guilt...
My wolf immediately noticed it too, and it reacted before i did —a low, uneasy pull in my chest.
Something's wrong with this.
Something's very wrong.
Lira leaned in close. "You don't have to answer this."
"Yes, I do." My voice was barely a whisper.
"If I stop defending myself now, nobody else will."
Several elders were already exchanging looks.
Whispering.
Calculating.
Judging.
I turned back to Kemi.
"When, exactly, did you supposedly see me?"
She froze.
The hesitation lasted barely a second, but I caught it.
So did Lira.
So did Zayn.
So, I was almost certain.
"After sunset," Kemi said.
The answer came too quickly.
Too fast.
Too clean.
Like she'd practiced it.
My heartbeat increased.
"After sunset?" I repeated.
Kemi nodded.
"Yes."
I stared at her,then i shook my head slowly.
"That's impossible."
The courtyard went still.
Every eye swung toward me.
I took a breath. "After sunset, I was with Lira. The entire time."
"We were together," Lira said, straightening beside me, voice ringing clear. "Nearly an hour. Getting her ready for the ceremony."
Kemi's face drained of color.
She looked trapped.
Cornered.
And afraid.
"So tell me," I pressed, "how could I have been in the eastern gardens and in my chambers with Lira at the same time?"
A murmur spread through the gathering.
For the first time all night, i had felt uncertainty move.
Away from me.
Toward her.
"Memory can be... imperfect," Elder Malik said quickly.
"The witness may simply have the timing wrong."
It was subtle.
Almost smooth enough to slide past unnoticed.
But I caught it.
He wasn't questioning Kemi.
He was protecting her.
Why?
The question lodged itself somewhere cold in my chest.
Lira's eyes had gone sharp, locked on Malik with an expression I rarely saw on her, calculative and suspicious.
"How convenient," she muttered, just loud enough to carry.
A few wolves snorted.
Others shifted, uncomfortable, glancing at each other like they were doing math they didn't want to finish.
The tension in the courtyard was changing.
Not gone.
Changing.
People were starting to think instead of just react — and that had to be dangerous for whoever had built this.
My eyes went back to Zayn.
He still hadn't said a word.
Not since Kemi appeared.
His silence pressed down on me harder than any accusation could have.
Say something.
Anything.
Look at me the way you did this morning.
But he just stood there — watching, listening, weighing.
The Alpha King, fully present, and Zayn nowhere to be found.
A lump rose in my throat as something clicked into place.
This isn't only about evidence to him.
This is his sister.
His family.
The person he loved most.
How could I ask him to separate grief from judgment?
How could anyone?
Understanding his silence didn't make it hurt less.
If anything, it made it worse.
Elder Dagan rose again, voice cutting through the crowd like a blade.
"Blood in her chambers." One finger. "A weapon that belongs to her."
A second.
"A witness placing her at the scene." A third.
"How much longer do we pretend this is nothing?"
The crowd stirred — and this time, I saw heads nodding.
Small.
Hesitant.
But nodding.
"No." The word tore out of me before I could stop it.
I looked around at every face — warriors, elders, people who'd known me for years.
"I didn't kill her." My voice shook.
"I loved Adanna.
She was my friend."
A few expressions softened.
Most didn't.
And uncertainty, I realized, wasn't enough.
Uncertainty curdled into belief.
Belief turned into judgment.
Judgment became something I didn't want to think about.
Panic clawed up my throat.
I looked at Zayn one more time. Because I couldn't not.
Because despite everything — the silence, the doubt, the storm behind his eyes — I still trusted him more than I trusted anyone else in this courtyard.
"Zayn."
The crowd went dead silent.
Nobody used his name like that.
Not in court.
Not during a ceremony.
I didn't care anymore.
His eyes met mine — dark, unreadable, and for one moment it was just the two of us.
No crowd.
No elders.
No dagger.
Just him, and me, and whatever was left of the trust between us.
"Please believe me." My voice cracked wide open, and I let it. "I didn't kill her. I swear it."
Silence.
Total, suffocating silence.
The whole courtyard seemed to hold its breath, waiting for him.
Zayn's jaw tightened.
I watched grief and conflict and something close to pain move behind his eyes — watched him feel it, watched him fight it.
Then his gaze slid away from me.
To the dagger.
To Kemi.
To the evidence.
Something in my chest cracked. Not all the way.
But enough.
"Until the investigation is complete," he said, and his voice was calm, too calm, carefully empty — "no conclusions will be made."
My heart stopped.
He hadn't said he believed me.
He hadn't said he didn't.
He'd chosen the law.
The throne.
Not me.
Relief rippled through part of the crowd. Disappointment through the rest.
I barely registered either, because right then I genuinely couldn't tell which hurt worse — his doubt, or his silence.
Then the gates burst open.
A guard sprinted across the courtyard, pale and breathless, and dropped to his knees before the platform.
"My Alpha!"
Every head turned.
"What is it?" Zayn's voice had an edge now — something close to dread.
The guard swallowed hard, like the words themselves might choke him.
"We found something else. In Lady Amara's chambers."
The courtyard exploded into noise.
And for the first time all night,
even Zayn looked afraid of what they were about to say
- Writer
