Chapter 727 Real Culprit
Vivian’s POV:
I didn’t even have to look up—I recognized that scent immediately.
Benjamin.
The man I’d loved so deeply, the Alpha of the Midnight Pack.
But he only had eyes for Hayley, that lowly Omega, while my own life had fallen apart…
I took a deep breath and finally lifted my head to glance at him, my feelings a tangled mess. “Forget it. Just go. You don’t need to take responsibility for this.”
I was nothing now, with nothing left to offer Benjamin, and I was no longer worthy of an Alpha like him.
But most of all, I couldn’t bear for him to see me like this—at my absolute lowest.
After the Jaggeds fell from grace, once my father was stripped of his Alpha title, our finances collapsed. Everything we owned—every asset, every property—was seized by the bank. The only thing I had left was this old minivan.
My father, devastated, had ended up in a coma in the hospital. To pay his medical bills, I sold everything I could.
Gone were the days of luxury cosmetics, designer clothes, and handbags. Now, I wore the simplest jeans and a shirt, a far cry from the daughter of an Alpha.
This was not how I wanted Benjamin to see me.
As I struggled with these thoughts, that infuriating Hayley stepped out of the car and walked over.
“How’s it looking?” she asked Benjamin.
“It’s fine, I’ll handle it,” Benjamin replied, his voice so gentle when he spoke to her.
Then he handed me a card. “There should be enough on here to cover repairs, or maybe even buy something newer and more comfortable. Honestly, this van’s on its last legs.”
I never expected him to do that. The gesture hit me hard, and I had to fight back tears as I stubbornly refused, “No. Take your money back.”
Of course I knew how pitiful this old van looked—after sitting in the underground garage for over a decade, it was practically falling apart.
But I didn’t have a choice. Everything the Jaggeds owned was gone, except for this one car, which was still in my late grandfather’s name. That’s the only reason we still had it.
I needed it to move my remaining possessions to a newly rented apartment and to travel back and forth between there and the hospital to care for my comatose father.
Besides, having been downgraded to an ordinary werewolf, my physical strength was poor. I desperately needed this car for transportation.
If it hadn’t been for that man Steven, I’d still be living in comfort as an Alpha’s daughter. My father, who loved me more than anything, wouldn’t be lying unconscious in a hospital bed.
I still couldn’t accept what had happened, let alone face Benjamin.
Hayley recognized my voice, her eyes widening in surprise. “Wait—it’s you? Vivian?”
“I’m not Vivian,” I muttered, head down, biting my lip. “You’ve got the wrong person.”
Then, in a flash of determination, I snatched the card from Benjamin’s hand. “Fine, I’ll take the money. Let’s end this here. I won’t bother you again. You can go now.”
The Jaggeds were ruined. I’d fallen from Alpha heiress to nothing. More than anything, I wished everyone who’d ever known me would just disappear from my life for good.
Just then, I noticed a luxury car pulling up behind Hayley. A man got out, exuding the unmistakable aura of a high-ranking werewolf. He looked at Hayley with concern. “Are you two alright?”
It was him!
I recognized Steven in an instant.
Before my father’s accident, he’d clung to his phone, repeating that name over and over.
When the Rogues came to attack our family, they kept mentioning that name, too.
It was Steven who destroyed the Jaggeds overnight, who dragged us from heaven to hell, who turned me from a pampered Alpha’s daughter into this pitiful wreck.
He was the one who ruined the Jaggeds—who ruined my father, the one who loved me most.
Our family was shattered, and yet here he was, living his life as if nothing had happened!
Why? How was that fair?
The Jaggeds had never wronged this man. Why did he have to take everything from us just to satisfy his own whims?
And now I saw—he was one of Hayley’s people.
So that was it. Hayley was behind it all. She was the real culprit!