A bitter, angry laugh ripped out of Voren, low and rough, but it carried so much fury that everyone in the room instantly tensed up.

Seraphine, still curled on his lap, felt every single muscle in his body go rock-hard beneath her. His arms stayed wrapped tight around her waist, but his chest heaved up and down as he battled like hell to keep his emotions from exploding.

She gently pressed her hand against his chest, trying silently to calm the storm raging inside him. It barely made a difference.

Voren locked his gaze straight on Olivia, his eyes colder than ice. "So let me get this straight," he said, his lips curling into a dark, humorless chuckle. "The very first time you met your twin sister, you found out she had just died... and the only thing that popped into your head was stealing her entire life and taking her place?"

The deck went dead silent.

Voren slowly shook his head, disgust dripping from every word. "You’re evil."

Olivia flinched hard, her eyes flooding with fresh tears. "You don’t understand what I went through—"

"I don’t care what you went through!" Voren’s voice boomed across the deck, cutting her off like a whip. The raw force behind his words made Olivia stumble backward instinctively.

"No matter how painful your life was, you had no damn right to destroy ours." His jaw clenched so tight it looked painful. "You walked into our home pretending to be someone else. I spent my whole childhood loving a fake. I respected you. I trusted you, and I loved you."

Every single word carried decades of betrayal and heartbreak.

"And after everything you stole from my family," he growled, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white, "you still had the nerve to insult my wife. You invaded her privacy in the cabin, judged her, and looked down on her. You even called her—" He cut himself off, grinding his teeth together as the memory made his blood boil hotter.

Then another bitter laugh escaped him. "Look at you." His eyes raked over Olivia from head to toe. "You spent years pretending to be someone you weren’t, yet you still had the audacity to look down on the one woman who never hid who she really was."

His expression turned even darker. "You had no right to take my mother’s place." His voice softened just a fraction, but the pain bleeding through it was crystal clear. "And honestly, if you had just told the truth from the very beginning..." He let out a heavy sigh. "I believe my father still would have cared about you somehow."

Olivia shook her head almost instantly. "No," she said without hesitation, fresh tears streaming down her face. "He never would have. I’m damaged. I was already another man’s wife. I had a child." She lowered her eyes in complete shame. "If Vladimir had known that, he would have never accepted me."

She drew in a shaky breath. "I never planned for any of this. But when I saw Oriana lying there lifeless, I realized just how identical we were." A painful smile twisted across her lips. "There wasn’t a single difference between us. And... she was already gone."

Before anyone else could say a word, Vladimir slowly rose to his feet. His massive, towering presence immediately commanded the entire deck.

Olivia looked up at him with desperate hope shining in her swollen, red eyes. For one stupid, foolish moment, she actually believed he might understand.

Instead, his words shattered that hope into a million pieces.

"You’re right about one thing," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "I would never have married you."

Olivia’s face crumpled.

"There has never been room in my heart for another woman." His eyes grew misty as memories of the real Luna flooded him. "No matter how much you looked like Oriana... you were never her." His voice grew stronger, filled with deep conviction. "Oriana cannot be replaced. And she never deserved to be."

The sharp finality in his tone made Olivia stumble back like she had been slapped. It felt like someone had reached into her chest and ripped apart the last fragile piece of hope she had been clinging to for decades. The pain inside her became almost unbearable.

She tore her eyes away from Vladimir and turned toward Seraphine instead. For the first time since her confession started, she slowly pushed herself to her feet, her legs trembling beneath her.

"I envy you, Seraphine." Everyone’s attention stayed on Seraphine. Olivia smiled sadly through her tears. "Goddess, you have a strength that women like me could never even dream of having."

She shook her head slowly. "When you married Ravyn, Voren still loved you. And now you’re married to him." A weak, broken laugh slipped out. "You went from one Alpha to another, yet your heart never changed."

Before Seraphine could even respond, Voren’s voice thundered across the deck with fierce pride. "That’s because she’s honest!" Seraphine felt the deep vibration in his chest as the words burst out. "She never hides who she is. She doesn’t waste her life worrying about what other people think. As long as she knows she’s doing the right thing and isn’t hurting innocent people, she stands by her choices."

His arm tightened protectively around her waist. "She doesn’t hide in the shadows. And she sure as hell doesn’t steal another woman’s life."

Olivia completely broke down. Her shoulders shook violently as loud sobs tore from her lips. "I’m sorry... I’m truly sorry..."

Voren didn’t even blink. There wasn’t a single trace of pity on his face.

"You’re too late." His answer came cold and immediate. "If all you had done was take my mother’s place because you were scared, maybe I could have tried to see things differently." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "But you didn’t stop there. You judged Seraphine. You disrespected her. You insulted her. And you even tried to use a spell to tear us apart."

The memory made his blood boil all over again.

He slowly stood up, keeping Seraphine close beside him the whole time. His powerful Alpha aura flooded the entire deck like a storm. Then he looked Olivia straight in the eyes, his voice ringing with absolute authority.

"But above all else, you took the body of a Luna and sent her to a pack where she didn’t belong." His expression stayed completely merciless. "That is a crime. It is an abomination. And for what you’ve done, you have to be banished."