Chapter 162. The Truth Is Revealed

Xerina’s POV

I sat at the head of the grand table, surrounded by the very people I once called family. But it didn’t feel like family anymore. The tension in the air was suffocating, like a vice tightening around my chest with every passing second. My father, sitting to my right, wore a stony expression, his sharp eyes flickering between Rasmus and me as if waiting for the inevitable explosion.

Across from me sat Rasmus, the man who had once been everything to me, his posture rigid and his face hard as stone. His hands clenched into fists on the table, his knuckles white with barely contained anger. He had the look of someone caught between disbelief and fury, as if the world he knew had just been ripped out from under him.

I swallowed, the lump in my throat growing larger with each passing moment. My heart raced as I opened my mouth, the words spilling out before I could stop them.

“You were my knight, Rasmus,” I said, my voice soft but steady. “Befor