Switched Bride, True Luna - Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Third Person POV
The envelopes were thick and government-stamped. Their weight hit the marble countertop loud and heavy as Chloe slapped it down. She stared at it, her heart stuttering in her chest.
There were four: one for her, one for her mother, and one for her father.
The Crowley family had officially been summoned to testify in the upcoming trial Emily started to reclaim her inheritance.
Mr. Crowley broke the seal on his letter with a sharp finger, eyes scanning the thick paper before he crumpled it in his fist. He sneered before he slammed his fist down on the counter.
Chloe jumped.
“Of all the stupid things that girl could do to this family,” said Philip Crowley.
“What’s wrong?” Hannah asked sharply, hurriedly opening her own envelope. Her lips pursed before she even finished reading. “How dare she!”
Hannah turned on Chloe like a predator catching the scent of prey.
“This is your fault,” she hissed.
Chloe’s stomach dropped. “Mine?”
“You said you’d get close to him. You said you could handle Logan Duke. You were supposed to distract him, get his attention on you, and marry him.” Her voice was a shriek, the high-pitch shaking the crystal in the dining cabinet. “Instead, Emily is going rogue, and his support is behind her.”
“The fight is that much harder so long as the Alpha is behind her,” said Philip.
Chloe opened her mouth, then shut it. What could she say? That Logan was impossible to get close to? That every time she got close, he saw through her like glass?
“I tried—”
“You didn’t try hard enough,” Hannah snapped.
Philip paced, his hands behind his back. “Do you understand what this means for us? We could lose everything. Our rank. Our lands. The investment from Mr. Baron.”
“Gregory Baron…” Hannah echoed, coldly calculating. Her gaze flicked toward Chloe, and Chloe felt a fresh stab of dread.
“No.” Chloe shook her head, backing up a step. “You’re not serious.”
“I warned you,” her step-father said. “We had a deal with Gregory Baron long before Logan ever stumbled into the picture. He wanted Emily, but the situation has changed. You will have to go in her place.”
“How could I do that?” Chloe said, voice trembling. “He’s an ancient wolf who has already retired! I don’t want to marry him!
“You should have thought about that before you let Logan go,” spat Hannah. The words make Chloe shiver with dread. Her parents had always treated her like the golden child. All of the sudden, she became the object of their anger.
“I tried to get close to him. He doesn’t trust anyone. He doesn’t look at anyone besides Emily!” Chloe wasn’t able to understand why Logan would ever choose someone like Emily. She was a useless dormant wolf. What did he see in her?
“I don’t care,” Philip said. “If you can’t turn his head before the trial, you’ll marry Gregory.”
Chloe stared at them. Her blood felt like ice. “You’re talking about handing me off to some old Alpha like I’m livestock!”
Gregory Baron was nearly fifty, a retired Alpha with too many lands and not enough heirs. His mate had died years ago. Emily was his original prize and the one that was supposed to be him pups. He had offered a large sum for her. Instead of giving him his money back, Chloe was up next to be his bride.
“You don’t have a choice,” Hannah said crisply. “We need Gregory’s funding. And Gregory needs a mate.”
Chloe’s knees buckled, and she sank onto a chair, burying her face in her hands. “I don’t know how!”
“You need to make him want you,” Philip said.
Chloe shook her head. She had tried all her usual tricks. No amount of beautiful dresses, expensive jewelry, or flirtatious words made Logan turn his head.
There was a beat of silence. Then Hannah spoke up.
“There’s another way,” she said.
Everyone turned to her. Hannah’s smile was sharp and a little cruel. “If Logan won’t come to you willingly... make him.”
“What are you talking about?” Chloe asked. Hannah held up a small tincture bottle. Chloe’s face immediately fell. She thought it was something dangerous.
Despite everything, Chloe didn’t actually want to hurt Logan. She wanted him. She wanted to be at his side.
“It’s not poison,” Hannah said, waving a hand. “It’s an aphrodisiac. It’s made from all natural ingredients. One dose and Logan won’t be able to keep his hands off you.”
Chloe’s breath caught. “You want me to drug him?”
“Do you want Emily to win her case? Do you want to be Gregory’s wife?” Hannah snapped. “Because that’s your future if you don’t get Logan to claim you.”
Chloe felt dizzy. Her fingers clutched the edge of the table like a lifeline. The idea made her nauseous.
Gregory Baron made her skin crawl. But worse was the idea that Emily would stand at Logan’s side as his bride.
“I can’t do that.”
“What else do you want to do?” Hannah asked.
“I… I’ll try harder. There had to be something. Something he doesn’t want us to know that we can use against him,” Chloe suggested. She bit her fingernails, trying to think of something, anything, that might help.
She didn’t want to win over Logan like this. He’d hate her forever if she drugged him.
Suddenly, her face lit up.
“Emily has been using the press to spread her precious message, right? What if we turned it around on her?”
“We do have a few connections. What could we print?” said Philip.
“Their whole relationship is fishy. Logan was only with Emily to get back at me. It has to be fake,” said Chloe with a coy smile. She truly believed that Logan was using Emily to get back at her.
“We can get a few stories going online, especially on social media. A rumor that their relationship is fake could be enough to give you an opening,” said Hannah thoughtfully.
“I’ll send out the word,” agreed Phillip. Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, but it was ruined when Hannah placed her hand on her shoulder.
“If you can’t get closer to Logan, you will have to use this.” She shoved the vial of aphrodisiac into Chloe’s hands.
Chloe gripped it so tight, her knuckles turned white. She didn’t want to do this. To appease her mother, she nodded. Internally, she vowed to win Logan’s heart without it.
Emily
The trial was going better than anyone expected.
For the first time in years, I felt a sense of relief. Not only was I going to get what was mine, I was freeing my mother’s name and restoring her reputation.
And yet, despite the victories, I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.
At Logan’s office, I was constantly pulled in two directions. I had legal meetings, press briefings, and court prep. Then the rest of my hours spent elbows-deep in spreadsheets and client reports. I was stretched thin. Every breath felt borrowed.
Worse than the exhaustion was the lack of progress.
I’d scoured every document, every record I could find, looking for the account my mother was supposed to have set up for me. There should have been something. There had to be a paper trail.
There was nothing, not even a trace. It wasn’t an oversight.
It was a cover-up. Someone had gone to great lengths to erase her legacy. It had to be someone with access, motive, and no conscience.
I needed to find out who and get to the bottom of what they had done. If only I could find any trace of them.
Yet, I didn’t have all the time I wanted for the lawsuit. I had problems in Logan’s office too.
Iris had been Logan’s assistant for years. Everyone said she had taken a leave of absence for her health. She had recently returned to her desk right across from mine.
The way she stared at me had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
She hated me. It reminded me of Chloe. Her hatred was sharp and bitter.
She hadn’t said much. Her eyes never stopped watching me, particularly when I talked to Logan.
It wasn’t subtle. It wasn’t friendly. It was territorial.
Iris didn’t just dislike me. She wanted me gone.