Outcast: The Alpha King’s Beloved by Blue Tears
CHAPTER 8 APOLOGY
Jennifer’s POV:
I didn’t change my mind about Prince Anthony just because I had become his secret mate. I didn’t want to let myself depend on him. I just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity he was giving me and try my best to become stronger.
The prince clearly told me that he wanted to maintain our mate bond for the time being, in order to make his mother happy. After this period of time, we would rescind our mate bond, which was just fine by me. After all, I was not interested in finding a mate. His plan sounded perfect to me.
For the next three days, I rested in my small shabby room. Since I was selected to enter the training list, no one hara*s*sed me anymore. During this time, my wounds almost completely healed.
On the day we were supposed to set out, Kevin, Barbara and I gathered in the hall to wait for Prince Anthony. Alpha Norman and Luna Debra were also present. They had come to see off Kevin and Barbara.
I looked around the place that had brought me endless suffering and pain with mixed feelings. Of course, more than anything, I was glad I could finally leave this pack. I silently vowed to get back the necklace left to me by my mother.
Barbara stood beside me, looking at me viciously as if she was plotting something. Sure enough, as soon as Prince Anthony arrived, she pointed at me and shouted, “Mr. Jones, Jennifer shouldn’t be allowed to attend the training with us. She’s a rotten thief!”
How could she accuse me of stealing when she was the one who had taken the necklace left to me by my mother?
I was so angry that my teeth gnashed against each other. I wanted to reach out and tear her hateful face to shreds, but I knew I couldn’t do that. Prince Anthony was a member of the royal family, who attached great importance to acting composed and civilized. If I pounced on Barbara and fought with her like a shrew, I might lose the qualification to attend the special training.
Therefore, I suppressed the anger I was feeling and explained calmly, “I’m not a thief. I didn’t steal anything from anyone.”
“Can you prove it?” Prince Anthony looked at me expressionlessly.
“Barbara didn’t lose anything,” I answered clearly, word by word.
Looking at how calm I was made Barbara flustered. She pointed at me and roared, “You are lying! You stole my necklace! Everyone saw it. You’re a thief!”
“Be quiet!” Prince Anthony ordered, glancing at her in disgust.
“Mr. Jones, I… I…” Barbara’s face turned deathly pale. It was not until then that she realized how uncouth she had behaved in front of the prince. Her eyes filled with resentment, and as usual, she put all the blame on me. “Jennifer! It’s all your fault!”
I just ignored her and raised my head to look at the prince again. “Mr. Jones, if you don’t believe me, you can send people to look for her necklace with me. But before that, you need to ask Barbara what the necklace she lost looks like.”
Prince Anthony glanced at Barbara and said coldly, “Tell me.”
“It’s a white pearl necklace.” Barbara’s voice trembled with fear.
“You two, go with her,” the prince said, turning to his servants.
“Yes, Mr. Jones.”
The two servants followed me to Barbara’s room to look for the necklace. Barbara tried to hurry after us, but she had barely lifted her right foot when the prince stopped her with a sharp glance. Her face turned pale and she froze in place.
In fact, this was a great opportunity for me. Not only would I be able to prove my innocent, but I might also be able to find the necklace that my mother left to me.
After entering Barbara’s room, I didn’t search for the pearl necklace that she had described. Instead, I went to look around for my necklace.
I searched every inch and corner of Barbara’s room, in case there was something I had missed before, but I still couldn’t find what I was looking for.
“Is this the pearl necklace Miss Barbara mentioned?” one of the servants asked me, holding up a pearl necklace in his hand.
“Yes!”
“Then let’s go. Mr. Jones is waiting for us.”
“Okay.” I walked out of the room reluctantly, with my eyes still desperately searching around.
When we walked back into the hall, all heads turned to me at the same time. One of the prince’s servants passed the pearl necklace to him. Looking at the pearls glimmering under the sunlight, Barbara stiffened.
The hall broke into whispers. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She didn’t lose her necklace, but framed Jennifer for stealing it!”
“Miss Barbara always likes to play evil tricks, doesn’t she?”
Many were condemning Barbara for her actions. Of course, most of them were those who had been bullied by her before.
“Now that your necklace has been found, can you return mine to me now?” I asked, gathering my courage to seize this opportunity. All I wanted was to get back the necklace that my mother left to me.
Barbara shot me a sharp look, as if she wanted to skin me alive.
“Your necklace? Who took your necklace? Not me. Did anyone see it? I wouldn’t accept it even if you offered it to me! Who cares about a slave’s things? You probably lost it, and now you’re putting the blame on me! Well, I won’t let you!”
Barbara’s skewed logic made me want to beat her up. Remembering that she hadn’t barged into my room alone that day, I looked at the she-wolves standing next to her. Afraid that I would ask them to testify, these werewolves lowered their heads to avoid my gaze.
One of them stammered, “We saw nothing.”
“See? They said they didn’t see anything!” Barbara shouted arrogantly, emboldened by the fact that no one was testifying against her.
“They are all your followers. Of course, they would say that they didn’t see you take my necklace,” I retorted hotly.
But since Barbara refused to admit it, and no witness would be willing to step forward, I knew that I had no choice but to let it go.
“Since there is no evidence, let it go. Jennifer, prepare to set off. Barbara, you made a false accusation, so you’re forbidden to attend the special training,” the prince said firmly.
My head jerked around to see Barbara’s reaction. Her arrogance disappeared all of a sudden, and her face was deathly pale. I was disappointed that I hadn’t gotten back the necklace left to me by my mother, but watching Barbara lose her qualification to attend the special training almost made up for it. As for my necklace, I decided to find another way to get it back later. I couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
“Mr. Jones, please forgive her! Barbara just did something stupid in a moment of madness. Please give her another chance!” Luna Debra couldn’t bear to let her adopted daughter lose such a precious opportunity to attend the special training, so she pleaded with the prince on Barbara’s behalf.
Barbara’s eyes lit up with a glimmer of hope. She looked at Luna Debra and Prince Anthony expectantly.
“We have known Barbara since she was a child. She has always been obedient and sensible. Just now, she probably wasn’t thinking straight.” Seeing that the prince didn’t say anything, Luna Debra continued to plead with him.
As for me, I was starting to feel nervous. I stared at Prince Anthony, fearing that he would change his mind. I knew that as long as Barbara was around me, I couldn’t be at peace.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the prince as they waited for him to make the final judgment.
The prince just looked at me silently. His eyes were so sharp that they sent a chill down my spine.
After a long silence, he slowly said, “Okay.”
I froze and looked at Prince Anthony in disbelief. What was he thinking? It was known that the royal family valued moral quality above everything, and it was an indisputable fact that Barbara had slandered me just now. So how could she still be allowed to attend the special training? The only explanation I could come up with was that the prince was pardoning her for the sake of Alpha Norman and Luna Debra. After all, even the royal family had to uphold diplomacy.
I swallowed hard and looked at Barbara, who secretly flashed me a smug smile. But before she could gloat too much, Prince Anthony’s voice sounded again.
“But Barbara has to apologize to Jennifer in public for slandering her.”
Barbara’s face changed, as if someone had slapped her in the face. Her face contorted in fury.
Jumping up like a cat whose tail was stamped, she screamed angrily, “You want me to apologize to this lowly slave? No way! She doesn’t deserve my apology.”
“You can either apologize or not attend the training. It’s up to you,” Prince Anthony said coldly.
Barbara looked like she was going to explode. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth with pure unwillingness in her eyes. It was obvious that she would rather die than apologize to me.
“Barbara, apologize now. The prince is willing to compromise once, but he won’t compromise a second time. You know how important this training is. You can’t miss it,” Luna Debra persuaded Barbara in a low voice.
Hearing that, Barbara finally gave in. Anyone with a level head would know that giving an apology was nothing compared to being disqualified from attending the special training. Barbara opened her thin lips and squeezed out a single word between her clenched teeth.
“Sorry.”
“What? Your voice is too soft. I can’t hear you,” I said lightly.
“Sorry!” Barbara shouted this time. “I apologize to you!”
It was the first time that the arrogant Barbara had been f*orc*ed to bow her head in front of me. A sense of satisfaction swept over my chest, soothing the anger that I had felt just now. Apologizing to a slave like me in public was the biggest shame for an arrogant woman like Barbara.
Although I was a little ticked off that Prince Anthony was still allowing Barbara to attend the training, at least he had helped me get back at Barbara by ordering her to apologize to me.
“Look, I’m just a lowly slave, but you still have to apologize to me,” I sneered at Barbara. “At this moment, you don’t seem to be nobler than me, do you?”
Barbara was obviously enraged by these words, but she didn’t dare to lose her temper with Prince Anthony’s eyes on her.
I knew that she wouldn’t let me live a peaceful life after we went to the training ground together, but I was not afraid. No one could f*orc*e me to yield, not even fate itself.