Reborn To Change My Fate-Chapter 305 - Three Hundred And Four

Beatrice frowned, her grip tightening on her cane. "What are you saying, Carlos?"

"She seduced an outsider," Carlos lied smoothly, his voice shaking to sound more convincing. "She went behind my back and slept with him. She has soiled our family name. I cannot bear the shame. I am divorcing her."

Ashlyn gasped. Her mouth dropped open in pure shock. She could not believe the words coming out of his mouth. He was twisting the story completely. He was making himself the innocent victim.

A new, fiery anger exploded in Ashlyn’s chest. She would not let him do this. She would not go down alone.

"Carlos!!!" Ashlyn screamed.

She ran forward, ignoring the pain in her legs. She stopped a few feet away from him, her eyes wide with rage.

"You are the one who gave me to him!" Ashlyn shouted, her voice breaking with emotion. She pointed at him, her finger trembling. "You drugged me! You put the powder in my tea for your own gain! You wanted to win favor with the Prince, so you traded your own wife! And now you are putting all the blame on me?"

Beatrice stood frozen on the steps. Her mouth opened and closed. She looked back and forth between her grandson and his wife. Drugs? Trading wives? Seduction? This was too much for the old woman to process. Her proud family was crumbling into dirt before her eyes.

"Enough!" Beatrice shouted, hitting her heavy wooden cane against the stone steps.

Thack!

The sharp sound made Carlos flinch.

"What exactly happened?" Beatrice demanded, her voice shaking with anger and confusion. She pointed her cane at their torn, bloody clothes. "Why are you two covered in blood? Who did this to you?"

Carlos swallowed hard. He kept his head down, refusing to look at Ashlyn. He continued his lie, building upon it to make it sound worse.

"Ashlyn lost her virtue to an outsider," Carlos replied, forcing tears into his eyes. He looked up at Beatrice with a pathetic expression. "The shock and the sin... it was too much for her body. Causing our child to miscarry."

Beatrice gasped. She brought her wrinkled hand to her chest. A child. A great-grandchild. Lost.

"I was furious, Grandmother," Carlos continued, playing the role of the grieving, angry husband. "When I found out, I went to confront the man. I went to defend my honor and my wife’s honor. But he was too strong. He beat us both like dogs and threw us out."

He lowered his head again, pretending to sob.

"We cannot keep such a woman in our family," Carlos declared, his voice filled with fake righteousness. "She is a curse."

Beatrice could not believe her ears. Her mind spun. A scandalous affair, a beating, and a dead child. It was the worst disgrace the Thompson family had ever faced.

"What?" Beatrice asked in disbelief, her voice weak. She leaned heavier on Marissa’s arm. She felt dizzy.

Ashlyn stood in the courtyard, staring at the man kneeling on the steps.

She let out a scoff. It was a harsh, bitter sound that held no humor. It was the sound of a woman whose heart had completely shattered into dust.

Tears began to stream down Ashlyn’s face again. But they were not tears of fear anymore. They were tears of pure, unadulterated hatred.

She took a slow step forward. She looked at Carlos, and then she looked up at Beatrice.

"He lies," Ashlyn said. Her voice was quiet, but it cut through the night air like a sharp knife.

She pointed a bloody, trembling finger at Carlos’s back. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"You caused the miscarriage," Ashlyn said, her voice rising in pitch. "By beating me. You beat me in our room. You kicked me in the stomach when I begged you to stop."

Carlos froze. He did not turn around. He stayed on his knees, staring at the stone steps.

Ashlyn’s voice grew louder, turning into a painful, heartbreaking scream.

"You killed our child!" Ashlyn cried, tears pouring down her cheeks, washing away the dirt. She clutched her own stomach, remembering the pain, remembering the blood. "You killed our child!"

She took another step closer to him.

"You murderer," she whispered.

The word hung in the air, heavier than the word ’divorce.’

Beatrice stared at Carlos. The old woman’s face turned completely pale. She looked at her grandson, waiting for him to deny it, waiting for him to say Ashlyn was crazy. But Carlos stayed silent. His silence was louder than any confession.

Marissa stood quietly beside Beatrice. She held the old woman’s arm to keep her from collapsing.

Marissa had watched the entire scene unfold. She had hated Ashlyn for two lifetimes. Ashlyn had stolen her father’s love, Ashlyn had tried to ruin her reputation, Ashlyn had plotted against her time and time again. Marissa had wanted to see Ashlyn fall. She had wanted to see her punished.

But as Marissa looked down at the courtyard, her feelings shifted.

She saw Ashlyn standing there. Her dress was in bloody rags. Her face was swollen from crying. Her body was covered in deep, bleeding cuts from a whip. She had just lost a baby, a child she had carried in her womb. And now, the man who was supposed to protect her—the man who had caused all her pain—was throwing her away like garbage to save himself.

Marissa looked at Carlos. He was pathetic. He was a coward who hid behind lies and violence.

Then, Marissa looked back at Ashlyn.

Ashlyn was broken. She was completely, utterly destroyed. She had lost her status, her child, and her husband all in one night.

Marissa’s face softened. The cold, calculating wall she had built around her heart cracked just a little bit. She did not forgive Ashlyn for the past. She did not suddenly love her sister.

But as Marissa watched Ashlyn clutch her empty stomach and weep in the cold courtyard, for the very first time, Marissa felt genuinely sorry for her. She felt pity for a woman who was destroyed by the cruelty of the men in their world and her own foolishness.