Chapter 129: Comments
As soon as the words fell and were heard by everyone, Marianna ran forward but the men around the stage held her back and she screamed hysterically. "No! Turn it off! Turn it OFF! It’s a lie! Everything is a lie! He is lying! Turn it off!!"
Ephyra ignored Marianna’s hysterics, her gaze locked on the crowd as she let the room absorb the damning revelations. The ballroom was a sea of stunned faces, whispers swelling into an uneasy murmur. Eliot Allen stepped forward, his expression a mask of fury, disbelief, and pain.
Enough of this madness," Eliot growled, his voice cutting through the tension. He turned to Marianna, his jaw tight with barely restrained anger. "You not only deceived me, you lied to me, making me believe Myra was my daughter, you sent men to kill my daughter and you were even the one who killed Elara."
Marianna’s wide, tear-filled eyes darted between Eliot and Ephyra. "Please, Eliot! I can explain! This isn’t what it looks like!" she pleaded, her voice cracking. "She’s twisting everything—"
"Enough of your lies," Eliot thundered, his voice like a thunderclap. "There is no redemption for you now. The evidence is irrefutable Everyone here heard and watched it, we not only heard how you asked that man to kill Ephyra for you, but we also saw this clearly. So don’t you dare try to deny it!"
Marianna immediately held his hand and shook her head, "Eliot, please you have to believe me. I love you, I love you so much. You love me too, don’t you? Isn’t that why you married me and accepted Myra when she was a baby? Please, it’s all a lie. Myra is your daughter! She is your daughter! You have to believe me! And yes! I poisoned your late wife because I wanted to be your wife, I couldn’t stand the thought of another woman being with you, and being the only one people recognized with you! I was jealous and I didn’t think! I just– I–" She held his face and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please don’t believe it, she is lying! She set everything up to frame me because she hates me! I’m sure you know that Ephyra wasn’t the same after her accident. That’s because she wasn’t her former self! Everything she did in front was pretense! The real her, the real her is a cruel–"
A hard slap met her face and she fell to the floor, her hand clutching her face as she slowly turned to look up at Eliot with wide eyes. "Y-you slapped me?"
"Shut your mouth! Shut your fucking mouth! You have no right to speak of Ephyra when you are so evil!" Eliot’s hands clenched into fists at his sides as he turned his gaze on Marianna, his face pale with rage. "You poisoned Elara?" His voice was turned low, trembling with barely contained fury. "You killed my wife, the mother of my child, just to take her place? And you still have the nerve to say you are being framed? That’s it is all a lie?"
"I... I didn’t mean for it to happen!" Marianna wailed, tears streaming down her face. "I only wanted to be with you! I didn’t know it would lead to this! Please, Eliot, I—"