Dark Revenge Of An Unwanted Wife: The Twins Are Not Yours!

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?

At this point, she hated herself for ever choosing Ewan. If only she could turn back the hands of time.

"I didn't sleep with another man. That picture was edited, or the woman isn't me." She managed to answer, her hands remaining as fists by her side. 

There was an outbreak of laughter in the crowd.

"Do you think us stupid, Athena? That picture isn't edited. You have been caught in the act. Be truthful, and we can perhaps reduce your sentence." Fiona's father requested.

Athena smiled then, annoying the hell out of Ewan who was still seething in anger over being betrayed by an illiterate woman. 

Ewan couldn't believe that Athena had the audacity to smile while on trial. She should be ashamed, begging for mercy, and not smiling.

"You want me to lie, Elder Alfonso? I'm sorry, but I can't. That is not me."

Elder Alfonso smirked at Athena's response. "Okay then. What were you doing at hotel Lafoon two days ago, before your mother's burial?" He asked, standing up, and sharing a bunch of papers to the other elders on the governing council. 

The paper depicted the records of a room that had been booked by Athena.

"You were meeting a man. Weren't you? The CCTV had captured that."

Athena smiled again, grating on the nerves of the people. She already knew where they were heading to with this. It's a good thing then, that Luca was here. He would come to her rescue.

"Yes, I was there to meet an old friend for a meal."

Ewan folded his fists for the umpteenth time. He couldn't believe the balls of this woman. Beside him was Fiona, with a false look of pity on her face.

"Luca had just returned from a trip, and had called upon me for a talk. I met him at the hotel. We had lunch at the hotel's eatery. Whilst there, I got sick, and he told me to move to the room—which I had booked for him in advance—and take a rest on the bed while he called for the doctor. I obeyed. But I dozed off minutes later, while waiting…"

Athena paused, when the murmurings got louder. It was so sinister and loud, that the chief elder had to strike the table to ensure silence. He gestured at her to continue when there was silence.

"When I woke up from the nap, I saw a bunch of medicines on the table. It seemed that the doctor had come and left. I took the medicines before leaving the room. I didn't see Luca, so I left him a message. Nothing happened, Elder Timothy. Luca is here. You can ask him." Athena finished with a definite calm, not finding it necessary to add that the same day was when she had found out about her pregnancy.

Yet, her calm was broken by chills transcending the contours of her body when she saw a smirk on Elder Alfonso's lips, right before he called on Luca from the crowd.

What was that smirk about? She wondered, dread settling in the pit of her stomach, when Luca stepped on the podium right opposite her, and yet couldn't meet her eyes.

She swallowed nothing, feeling her hands begin to sweat.  Evil foreboding overwhelmed her so much that she felt faint. Luca was her only source of salvation, but why was he looking like her sentence to death?

"Luca, you pledge to speak only the truth?" The head of the ruling council asked, and Luca nodded slowly.

"Then, I am sure that you know why you are here. The accused had called you as a witness. What really happened at the hotel?" 

Athena watched forlornly as Luca's eyes darted between Fiona and her father.

Without him speaking, she already knew that she was condemned. She couldn't believe that her childhood friend, a best friend to her and Gianna, could do this to her.

How could he? What had they promised him? She wondered, her ears attuned to the lies he was spouting already.

  "Yes, I met Athena in the hotel to talk and catch up. There, she had told me of her mother's death, and had bemoaned the bad state of her mind. Then she pleaded with me to make her forget, that she had always wondered what it would be like to sleep with me, that she had always wanted me in her bed." Luca began, his face shrouded in false pity and remorse.

Athena couldn't help, at this moment, but to gape openly at Luca. What he was saying was utterly ridiculous!

"He's lying! I never did this!" She cried out, her resolve to remain calm despite the odds breaking fitfully. But her passionate statement resulted in everybody looking at her like she was crazy.

No one would believe her.

All of them were expecting her to go to hell.

Athena gasped softly at this knowledge, unable this time around, to stop the tear that slipped past her eyes. Quickly though, she wiped it off, and re-capped her staidness.

"I had no choice but to do that. She had promised me secrecy, and a position in her husband's company. I couldn't resist such an offer, so I succumbed. I don't know how the pictures were made public though." Luca concluded, his face, a template of false remorse.

There were many loopholes to the story—like who had taken the pictures, and the timeframe—but Athena made no sound. She had seen the resigned look on Ewan's face already. He believed Luca.  

"Well, I think we have our truth now. Anything you would like to say, Athena, in your defense?" Elder Alfonso asked, mockingly, but Athena shook her head.

There was nothing to say.

"Ewan, over to you. What do you want for her?"  The ruling elder asked, clasping his hands together. Obviously, the case was over.

Ewan stood up from his seat sharply. And keeping a tight lid over his emotions, he spoke with a straight face and a cold voice:

"I, Ewan Giacometti, head of the Giacometti family, reject you, Athena Moore, as my wife and co-leader of my clan and town. You can collect the divorce papers on your way out." 

Without stopping, without caring to know how Athena had taken the rejection, he continued, this time to the elders. "And I want her banished from my city, and my father's land returned."

Once done, Ewan turned around and walked out of the meeting, his eyes not catching when Athena fell to the ground in despair, as the pain of rejection and exile bawled her over.