Switched Bride, True Luna - Chapter 35: Chapter 35

Emily
The days following the carnival felt like walking on shifting sands. One moment, everything felt fine. We settled into this space where we were two people figuring each other out. The next, the weight of the words the fortune teller spoke hung over me, heavy and suffocating.
Fated mates.
I couldn’t shake the thought.
I watched Logan, too, but he was closed off in a way that only made me more uncertain. Every time I looked at him, there was a part of me that wondered if he was grappling with the same realization. Was he thinking about what the woman said? Was he filled with the same fear and uncertainty that I was?
Logan kept his walls high, even when I thought I had made some kind of crack in them. It felt like everything we had built together, including the vulnerability we showed each other, was lost.
We drifted away from each other once again.
We didn’t talk about what happened at the carnival. It was like that night never existed, like the connection we shared under the ferris wheel’s lights was a fleeting illusion.
In the office, it was easier to avoid the tension between us. That was mostly because we had a little more separation between us. It was also because I had to deal with tensions somewhere else.
Iris wasn’t going to let me slide into this life, Logan’s life, without a fight, but I didn’t expect the venom to seep in so quickly.
I walked into the accounting department that morning to find Iris and another woman, Carla, whispering to each other over some paperwork. As soon as I entered the room, their conversation went silent, and both women exchanged glances before looking away.
It was clear they weren’t happy to see me, and their reactions made my stomach sink. I was overwhelmed by dread.
“Morning,” I said, trying to sound casual as I moved to my desk.
Neither of them responded. Instead, Iris leaned back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest as she watched me.
I sat at my desk, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was brewing. Something bad.
The day moved forward, but there was no escaping the tension. Every time I looked up, I felt Iris’s eyes on me. She wasn’t being subtle anymore. Her passive-aggressive comments had become regular, sharp jabs that hit harder than I ever thought they would.
Finally, after a few hours of biting my tongue, I couldn’t stand it anymore. “What’s going on, Iris?” I asked, turning in my chair to face her.
She looked at me with a smug smile that made my skin crawl. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I said, lowering my voice, “you’ve been acting weird.”
Iris’s smile widened, and I saw the glee behind her eyes. “Maybe you’ve been imagining things. Or maybe you’re guilty.”
I froze at her words, trying to process what she was implying. “Guilty of what?”
“Guilty of stealing,” she said, her voice dripping with faux sweetness. “Everyone knows the pack’s finances have been doing well lately. Maybe you’ve been helping yourself to a little extra.”
My blood ran cold at her accusation, and for a moment, I didn’t know how to respond. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words were lost.
Before I could think of something else to say, Carla stepped in. “I think we should look into this. After all, we wouldn’t want our accounting department’s reputation ruined by someone who doesn’t belong here, would we?”
I clenched my jaw. This wasn’t about me anymore. This was about everything they had been plotting in the shadows, everything they were trying to do to discredit me and hurt Logan in the process.
“I haven’t stolen anything,” I said, my voice tight. “If you think you can make an accusation like that, then you’d better have proof.”
Iris’s eyes flashed with something dark. “We’ll see about that.”
The day spiraled from there. I felt like I was walking a tightrope, trying to keep my head down and avoid getting tangled up in whatever plot Iris was weaving.
For a moment, I considered going to Logan. The recent tension between us stopped me. I didn’t feel like I could go to him.
By the end of the workday, the rumors were already spreading. Word had gotten around that I was under suspicion for embezzling from the pack’s accounts. People who were once friendly with me now looked at me sideways, whispering behind my back.
When I finally got home that night, the weight of it all settled in like a rock in my chest. I felt like I was drowning in this web of lies, and all I wanted was to run away from it.
As soon as Logan stepped through the door, I knew something was wrong. He looked tense, his shoulders stiff, his eyes narrowed as he met my gaze.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice low.
Logan didn’t answer right away. He stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and leaned against it.
“I need to talk to you,” he said, his voice tight.
I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. “What happened?”
“I got a call from the pack’s finanace department,” Logan said, running a hand through his hair. “There’s an investigation into the missing funds. And they’ve implicated you.”
My world tilted. My stomach dropped. I couldn’t breathe for a second.
“What?” I whispered. I had hoped that the ladies in the office had been all talk. To think they’d actually gone through with it.
“Iris… and Carla…” Logan shook his head, his jaw clenched in anger. “They’ve claimed you’ve been stealing money from the pack.”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“No.” The word came out as a strangled gasp, like a sharp breath caught in my throat. “You can’t think I actually did something like this. Logan, I would never steal, and definitely not from the pack.”
He stepped toward me, reaching for my hand. “It’s bad, Emily. There’s evidence that shows money is missing. And it’s all pointing to you.”
I shook my head, still struggling to process everything. “But I’ve never touched the pack’s money. I didn’t do this.”
Logan’s voice was full of frustration and guilt. “We have to prove it, Emily. We need to clear your name.”
“I’ll prove it,” I said, my voice shaking with a mix of fear and determination. “I won’t let them do this to me.”
Logan grabbed my shoulders gently, his grip firm but not harsh. “I’m sorry.”
The look in his eyes was as good as a dagger piercing me through the heart. Things had not been going well between us, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. The sting of betrayal left a wound deeper than I ever imagined.
As my blood ran cold, I looked him directly in the eye. “Do you believe them?”
“I didn’t want to,” he admitted, his voice raw. “They have evidence. I have to be impartial here, no matter what I think.”
I could see the regret in his eyes, and part of me wanted to throw it all back in his face. After everything we had gone through, he had to have some amount of trust in me. He had to know that I wasn’t the sort of person that would do something like this.
Another part of me understood. It was more than him and me. It was about the pack, the reputation, and everything that went along with being an Alpha.
This wasn’t about us.
“I’m sorry,” Logan said again, his voice breaking.
I took a deep breath, the weight of everything pressing on me. “I’ll figure this out. But I need you to trust me, Logan. I need you to believe in me.”
“I do.”
But I knew that, in this moment, the lines between us had shifted. Trust—real trust—was a fragile thing. And we were standing on it, unsure of whether it would break or hold.