Chapter 131

[Third-Person’s POV]

Caroline Kingston was livid. No. She was downright humiliated.

How on earth could her own son be sentenced to life imprisonment??

Hell, she wasn’t even made aware that there had been a trial. Instead, like everyone else, she had found out the basic pedestrian way—by reading about the whole ordeal through the tabloids.

At first, she thought it was nothing but a cruel joke.

But after having tried to get into some kind of contact with Michael and never getting through to him, Caroline was beginning to truly believe that the gossip columns were holding more truth than they normally would.

Yet, she still held her denial.

Having scoured through every single article she could get her hands on, involving the most recent events of her son’s secret trial, Caroline was still only getting speculation of what went on. What she needed were the cold, hard facts.

It was only a matter of time before any of the formal statements were released but she didn’t have that kind of patience left within her to wait.

No. Caroline demanded to get her answers from the actual source. She headed straight to the palace with the intention of having a private conversation with the Alpha King himself.

Upon her entering the grand foyer of the building, Caroline was greeted by a slew of staff members as well as the King’s secretary.

“His Majesty is very busy today, as I’m sure you can well imagine,” the young woman said with a tight tone. “I'll have to see if he’s willing to make time—”

Caroline’s anger flared with indignation. “Just tell him that Caroline Kingston is here to discuss the current happenings about my son!” she barked out.

The secretary was taken aback by the older woman’s ire. She quickly scurried off to pass on the message of Caroline’s arrival.

It wasn’t long before the young secretary came bustling back, large notepad in hand, directing Caroline to follow her to the main office. “Please, wait inside. The King will be with you shortly.”

Inside the circular room, sat a large desk surrounded by bookcases and various framed photographs of all the King’s ‘achievements’.

Caroline knew a thing or two when it came to purposely painting one’s image to shine brightly in the public’s eye. Creating charities for worthy causes and supposedly making large donations to said charities was a common tactic for political enhancement. Caroline knew all too well that the only investments the Alpha King ever made were that of the unspoken kind.

Her only reason for knowing that was because she and her son held their shares in such underground dealings. It was just another thing that linked all of them together.

That and their collective plan to ensure that Alexander would never get the chance to take on the Royal Family.

Suddenly, the main doors of the office flew open and the Alpha King walked in with a casual leisureness that nearly set Caroline off. She scowled at the man’s calm demeanor.

“Mrs. Kingston, how lovely for you to pay me visit—”

“Cut the shit, Gregory! Or should I say, Your Majesty?” she hissed sharply. “Why the hell is my son in prison? How on earth could you let something like this happen?”

The King curled his brow and more or less ignored the woman’s outburst.

“There truly wasn’t much that I could do, Caroline,” he admitted dryly. “You see, when that annoying bastard of a Stepson of yours had requested a private court hearing, I hadn’t actually anticipated for him to present viable evidence.”

Caroline bore a look of complete confusion. “What the hell are you talking about? What evidence?”

That planned car crash was a work of art. There was no chance that anyone would ever have expected there to be foul play present. Everything had been meticulously pre-planned out to where there were no mistakes possible.

But, there again, it was also meant to end a whole lot differently than it had.

“Imagine my surprise when I, and the entire courtroom, was shown video evidence of your idiot son screaming at that mechanic to have the brakes taken out of the car,” the King slithered venomously. “There was absolutely no way for me to have been able to swing this case in our favor. Face it, Caroline. Michael fucked up.”

She sucked in a tremulous breath and shook her head. “There has to be something...”

The King merely shrugged and wandered around his desk to sit down.

“I’m afraid that not even a plea can be made on his behalf,” Gregory informed her. “You forget, I’m the King. How would it look to the public if I were to let an insane man back onto the streets?”

Her brows furrowed. “Insane? My son isn’t crazy,” she huffed.

“I’m well aware. Although, he happens to be as vindictive as his mother.” He let out a long breath. “Think of it this way, only Michael was able to be incriminated by the evidence that was presented. I know you feel for your son, Caroline, but let’s face it. Would you have preferred that it was the two of you in that video?”

Caroline's stomach churned. “I’d prefer if he wasn’t in jail at all,” she sneered.

“Well, perhaps if your so-called flawless plan had worked as it should have in the first place, no of this would be happening at all,” he countered.

Her brows raised in umbrage. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Alexander was meant to die in that car accident, making no one the wiser to the scheme that was going on in the first place. Michael was sloppy in his execution of it. He got himself caught red-handed. As usual, you and I had to step up and fix the mistakes.”

She planted her hands on her hips and peered at him.

“Oh, yeah? Your solution when it came to keeping Alexander preoccupied was setting him up with a useless Luna,” she hissed. “You tell me, how’s that been working out for you?”

Gregory grimaced. Unfortunately, she had a point. Matching Alexander purposely with an Alpha’s daughter who naturally came from a small pack was meant to hinder him.

Yet, when he watched Evelyn move about the courtroom organized and determined to help Alexander win over that case, the King was unhappily surprised.

She carried herself with poise and grace. She appealed to the humanity of the jury when speaking about how her own family had been affected by the car accident. He’d been informed that there was nothing truly remarkable about Evelyn Silverwood; however, he saw firsthand that simply wasn’t the case.

“What do you know of Evelyn Silverwood?” he questioned.

Caroline pursed her lips and smirked. “Feeling slightly deceived by how her family initially described her as? Well, you’re not wrong. I also thought that she was nothing more than some obnoxious troublemaker. People have countlessly referred to her as a ‘wild child’—never to be taken seriously.”

That was certainly not the same Luna he had intentionally set Alexander up with. Had he been lied to? Had he somehow managed to give his biggest adversary a golden Luna?

The mere thought was enough to send the man’s blood pressure rising.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Caroline fished her phone out of her bag to find that Isabella Silverwood was trying to get a hold of her.

The corner of her mouth began to curl into a devilish grin.

“What is it?” Gregory asked.

“We’re not the only ones that would like to see Evelyn and Alexander fall.” She left the palace with the promise of being in touch with any new developments.

Indeed, Caroline Kingston was livid. And now, she was out for blood.