Chapter 3: Betrayed
Athena maintained a stoic face as she was pushed to the center of the hall where a council of elders presided over issues emanating from the elites in the region. Not even her father's look of disappointment and disgust was able to excite an emotion out of her.
He hadn't believed her words the previous night, when Ewan had taken her to her home, rather he had kept cursing her for being as useless as her mother. Her father never forgave his wife for not giving him a son, before her death.
The only person that had believed her was Gianna. No one else from the elite community, or the public. If her mother had been alive, then...
"Athena Moore, you know why you are here right?"
Athena's attention returned to the matter on ground, when she heard Fiona's father speak. He was one of the elders in the ruling council, and of course, he hated her.
She shook her head mechanically to his question, eliciting murmurs from the crowd that had added up from the two families involved in the case. They couldn't believe her audacity.
"Athena, we are not here to play around. How can you not know why you are here? You have been accused of cheating on Mr Ewan of the Giacometti clan. What do you have to say on the matter?" Another elder asked, taking the reins of the interrogation.
"I didn't cheat on Ewan. If there was a cheat in our marriage, then it should be him. Weren't you all aware of his improper relationship with his best friend, Fiona? Frolicking with a mistress, under the guise of friendship..." Athena chuckled about the smartness of the arrangement, before speaking again.
"Did y'all say anything? Was Ewan sanctioned for disregarding the sacred union?" She questioned calmly, struggling to put her rageful emotions on hold. Bursting out in anger won't help her in the council.
Fiona's father scoffed. "What insolence! Do you have proof? Has your unfounded jealousy driven you to cheat on him with another man? Don't change us from the discourse, young lady. Tell us why you committed this disgraceful act, on the eve of your mother's funeral. Isn't that cruel?"
Athena inhaled deeply, feeling the jab sink straight into her heart and increase the pain that was already there to a hundred-fold. They would include her mother into this too?