Watch Me Win Alpha (Olivia and Ethan) novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Olivia’s POV

I hit the floor hard.

The gasps around me didn’t bother me. It was Chole’s words that echoed like a thunderclap across the ballroom. She wasn’t just attacking me-she was trying to poison everyone’s image of me, make Ethan hate me beyond repair.

But she had made one mistake,

She knew too much.

I lay there for only a second before I pushed myself up, ignoring the sharp pain in my elbow. The murmurs were al- ready spreading like wildfire.

I met Chole’s wild eyes and gave her a cold smile. “Interesting,” I said, brushing imaginary dust from my dress. “You seem awfully well-informed for someone who wasn’t there.”

Her lips parted. “I-someone told me!”

“Who?” I stepped forward slowly. “Who told you what happened to me last night, Chole? You said I wasgang raped by rogues-words only someone on the inside would use. Were you there?”

Chole paled, but her pride refused to let her back down. “Everyone knows you—”

I didn’t let her finish. “Everyone knows what? Because until you shouted it here in a ballroom full of people, no one knewanything.” I turned to the guests. “Chole exposed herself before I could even press charges. That’s not just cruel -that’s stupid.”

The crowd murmured louder. Shock was now folding into suspicion. I looked at Amelia next, who stood frozen be- side Madeline Windsor.

“This,” I said, gesturing to the hysterical girl in white, “is your ideal Luna? This is your carefully chosen Alpha’s daughter?” My voice was thick with sarcasm. “She’s slandering her fiancé’s wife in public, after orchestrating a trap to destroy her.”

Amelia trembled. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

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Ethan’s face was thunder. His fists clenched at his sides, I saw something shift in him. Rage, shame, and something darker. He didn’t ask Chole to deny it. He didn’t even look at her.

Instead, he stepped forward and seized her by the throat.

“What the hell did you do to her?” he growled, his voice like steel breaking.

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13:30

Chole flailed, panicking, trying to pry his fingers from her throat. “Ethan-!”

‘Answer me!” he shouted.

Felix shot forward and grabbed Ethan’s arm, forcing it down. “She’s your fiancée, Hawthrone,” he said with a strained calm. “Maybe Chole’s just upset and didn’t mean it. She might’ve just… said something out of anger.”

Chole crumpled behind Felix, coughing and red-faced. But it wasn’t just her brother stepping in now.

Bella Windsor, third daughter of the Windsor Pack and always too eager to prove her diplomacy, walked into the cen- ter of the circle forming around us.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Bella said, smoothing her silk sleeve with calculated calm. “Even if what Chole said is truc-and that’s still uncertain-it doesn’t prove that she orchestrated anything.”

She gave me a pointed look. “Perhaps someone saw Olivia with rogues and reported it to Chole. That would explain how she found out.”

The room tensed again. Some guests exchanged glances. The tide was shifting again.

Bella turned toward me, her voice cool. “And if that’s the case, then maybe you feared the scandal would spread, and acted first. Before Ethan could find out, you came here playing the victim.”

I almost laughed when I heard Bella speak.

Of course she’d come rushing in to play peacemaker, being the sister of Chole. Her subtle words coated in sweetness, but sharpened to cut. I could already see how the gears in Chole’s brain turned. Sure enough, she latched onto Bella’s suggestion like a drowning woman to a raft.

She staggered up from the floor, rubbing her throat, her expression shifting from hysterical rage to wounded inno-

cence.

“I swear,” Chole said tearfully, clinging to Ethan’s arm, “I would never do something like that. Ethan, you know me!”

Ethan didn’t react. His jaw was clenched so tight I thought he might shatter his own teeth.

“He won’t answer you. You know why? Because he doesn’t care. He’s mine now.”

“I set this up perfectly. The rogues will play with you all night and we’ll post it tomorrow. Let’s see who still calls you Luna after that.”

“Don’t bother calling the police. Windsor runs this city and the Hawthrones will make sure you vanish without a trace.”

“Tomorrow, Ethan and I will announce our engagement. And you? You’ll be a joke.”

The room fell into a horrified hush.

Every word slammed into the guests like a hammer. I let the silence stretch. I didn’t need to add anything. I didn’t need to shout or cry. Chole had done all the work for me.

Chole’s face turned ghostly pale. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.

Ethan’s eyes were glowing red now. Rage radiated off him in waves. His wolf was barely contained.

Chole took one terrified look at him and scrambled backward.

“Wait! Wait-!” she shrieked, latching onto Felix. “I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean any of it!”

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13:30

She was hysterical now, trembling all over.

“It wasn’t me-it wasn’t just me—I didn’t plan this alone!” she screamed. “It wasn’t my idea!”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “Then whose was it?”

Chole pointed a shaking finger toward Amelia.

“She… she told me to do it!” she sobbed. “Luna Amelia ordered me to do it!”