The Alpha's Exchanged Mate
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 72

Edwina’s POV…

I glared at the exiting crowd as they had adjourned the hearing for tomorrow. I am not sure if that’s what I wanted because I would have rather preferred we get this all over with today so that we can face other things.

Other things like the war that threatened in the pack or the fact that Sonia stood there motionless and indifferent throughout my testimony, I get to wonder what is on her head when she is thinking about it. I get to wonder about the battles she would also be fighting in her head to make sense of all these.

I get to wonder what she would be thinking, am I now the bad person in her head? It is so easy for people to paint you as the bad person and forget all the roles they contributed to actualize that reaction from you. We are all self-righteous beings. We are always so consumed by people’s actions and inaction and, occasionally, their responses to your action. Yet we tend to forget or lose in communication our actions that pushed them to that reaction.

And I know at this moment Sonia’s head was giving her a thousand reasons why I am the bad person in this play.

Well, f**k her. I don’t mean this; I am genuinely trying not to break down now. And I was also trying not to overthink things. Maybe she also felt half as guilty as I did for the role she had contributed to this also.

But I knew Sonia.

Her head doesn’t work that way. The guard was taking her away to the visitor’s room. I told them to take her there; I don’t see the need to prolong the inevitable. We would definitely get to have this conversation some more and someday. So why not today? Let me just get to do this now and face whatever comes my way tomorrow.

Alex was waiting for me as I reached him. He wasn’t smiling a lot. During my testimony, I practically exonerated Sonia from most of her crimes. I made her look more like the victim than the one who orchestrated all the crime.

“Hey,” I said to him, and he didn’t reply to me.

Gosh, how many battles do I get to fight today. He began to wheel himself away. And I followed behind him. I passed Caleb, who glared at both of us. He had an estranged look on his face at this point in time. I knew not of whatever anyone was thinking. All I could do was to be stuck in my head.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from all these. Not from my sister and not from Alex. I am so tired of the uncertainties and the pain I have to go through.

I went into the study, I thought we would be going to the room, but he decided to go to the study.

As I closed the door. And I moved to the side of the room. I didn’t want to be so close to him, and neither did I want to be far.

He cast a glare on me, and I could tell he wasn’t as angry as I thought he would be. He folded his arms around his stomach as if one was guarding a precious stone.

“Edwina, what are you doing?” He asked, and I frowned.

I wasn’t expecting that question.

“How about, how are you doing, Edwina,” I replied. I found that his quiet, inconsiderate, and painful question shows that he only cares about my actions and not my reaction.

“I am sorry,” he muttered. Not the reaction that I was expecting, but I just lost most of my will to fight.

“What am I doing? I think I am doing what is right. It is right for me to help my sister when she has no one else to turn to. It is right to be kind to her,” I responded, and he let out an exasperated gasp.

“I think you are not being true to yourself, you are not giving her a chance to a fair trial,”

“By saying that, I have forgiven her, and it wasn’t really her fault which is true___.” I tried to say before he interrupted me.

“There is nothing remotely true about what you said on stance. Telling them that she had an unhappy marriage because she was forced to marry a man she didn’t love is not a true statement, and even if it was, does it justify cheating?”

“You don’t know what it is like to marry someone who doesn’t love you. I do.”

“Are you talking about Ben or me?” He asked, and I fell silent. Because I wasn’t sure who exactly I was talking about.

I thought Ben loved me, but up until the conversation with Sonia, I realized I was just a safe option for him, access to Sonia to get what Alex had.

“I don’t even know because you don’t love me either,” I replied spitefully.

“It’s not like you love me either, so what exactly are we saying now,” he responded, and I frowned, and I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“So you plan to let Sonia go free without any punishment and let Ben take all the blame and you sleep well at night knowing Ben is paying for cheating on you,”

“I hope you know it also hurt me that of all people he gets to cheat on me with, he cheated on me with my sister, do you know the kind of pain I have to go through because of that every day? If there is anyone that was hurt the most in all of this, it’s me. Ben wasn’t your brother, he was a Beta. And Sonia is my sister.”

I stated, and he glared at me.

“I hope you know you are invalidating the fact that I almost lost my life because of their stupid plot to keep their affair secret, I hope you know hundreds of soldiers lost their lives, and those people were my people,”

At this point, I grew cold. I was comparing pain and trauma, the very thing I preached against. And that was one of those things I didn’t want to become. I didn’t want to become someone who invalidated people’s struggles just to validate mine.

“I am not trying to invalidate your struggles but I think Sonia deserves a second chance. She deserves to be heard, she has been through a lot and no one has ever seen things from her side.”

“Do you think she will be happy that you are Luna now?” He asked me, and I scowled at him.

“I know she won’t be, but she doesn’t even have the right to rebuke me at this moment. We have all sinned against each other, and she should just take it that way. I plan to go see her now and face whatever judgment she has for me because, at this time, I am tired and exhausted.”

“Brace yourself up; Sonia doesn’t have your heart.” He said gently and reached out to me and held my hands. That was enough comfort I needed to take me to the waiting room.

***

As soon as I entered, Sonia stood up and walked towards me, I knew I should expect the worst, and at this point, I did, as she stretched out her hands and her hands landed on my face. I knew this was the pain I didn’t subscribe for. This is the pain I don’t want to remember.

“Sonia,” I mumbled as tears filled my eyes from the loud slap.

“Do you think I will thank you for what you just did? I will rather be left to rot in prison than let you take my man!” She yelled out. “I f****d your husband because he was a piece of cheating shit, and in turn, you got married to mine. You think you are the good person, the victim, but you are just as horrible as me,” she growled and yelled. Her noise attracted the guards, who then came in, and one of them glared at me.

“Should I take her away ma’am?” He asked me.

“Yea, she doesn’t deserve the mercy she just got,” I said angrily.

“I spit on your grave of mercy,” she replied as the guard took her out.

After they took her away, I fell to the ground crying. My life just got a whole lot worst and so complicated. I wished at this point I could stop caring and helping because if I had never reached out to help Sonia in the first place, then all these wouldn’t have happened. Now, she still sees me as the bad person after all this.