390–I Was Framed
Ron:
“She was my only family,” I said through my tears. “How could this happen? How could she leave like this? She was fine just a while ago. We were talking. I fed her myself. We talked about so many things. We made plans for the future.”
I was in so much pain that I found myself opening my heart to someone I had never seen this way before.
And at that moment, he started crying with me.
Lord Eldon suddenly lifted his head and looked toward the doctor. 112
“What exactly happened to her?” he demanded, his voice raised, almost as if accusing them of failing her.
The doctor hesitated for a moment.
“Your Highness, there was nothing we could do,” he said carefully. “When she was brought in, she was already gone. Even then, we tried to pump her stomach, but the poison had spread too far.”
The doctor fell silent.
I lifted my head from Lord Eldon’s shoulder and looked at him.
Even Lord Eldon stood up and faced the doctor.
“One second,” he said sharply. “Poison? She was poisoned?”
The doctor slowly nodded his head.
“But how is that possible?” I shouted. “Why would someone poison her?”
I pushed myself to my feet and looked at the doctor. My hands had clenched into tight fists. Tears kept streaming from my eyes.
I could not understand how I was supposed to live without her.
“I do not know who did it,” the doctor explained carefully, “but it was a very strong poison, and it seems it was given in a large amount.”
I shook my head again and again.
“No, that is not possible,” I said desperately. “Do something. She will be alive. Please.”
I started begging once more.
That was when I noticed Lord Eldon clear his throat.
“One second,” Eldon said, stepping to my other side.
Before I could react, he did not even give me a moment. He reached into my jacket pocket and pulled something
out.
“What is this?” he asked.
It was the same bottle I had seen earlier.
For a moment, I could not move. I only stared at it in his hand.
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The doctor’s eyes followed the bottle as well.
“Could this be the poison?” Lord Eldon asked the doctor.
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The moment he said that, something snapped inside me. I stepped forward and snatched the bottle from his hand. “How dare you?” I shouted. “What are you trying to say?”
Heat rushed to my face, my ears burning as a loud ringing filled my head. My breathing grew uneven as I stood there, shaking.
“There is no need to get this worked up,” Lord Eldon replied calmly. “I only asked a question. Doctor, is it possible to find out whether the contents of this bottle were given to her?”
He directed the question at the doctor.
I wanted to know the same thing. I wanted to know what had happened to my grandmother, and whether this poison had been used.
But I could tell from Lord Eldon’s tone that this was not about finding answers. It was about making me look guilty.
“Of course, we can find out,” the doctor replied.
Before I could say anything else, Lord Eldon suddenly made a call.
“I want guards here immediately,” he said. “A crime has been committed.”
The moment he ended the call, I stared at him.
“What do you mean a crime?” I demanded. “What are you trying to prove? I have been quiet for so long, holding everything in. I just lost my grandmother. What kind of things are you saying to me?”
I shouted at him, but it did not seem to affect him at all.
That same unreadable look stayed on his face.
He slid one hand into his pants pocket. With the other, he held the bottle carefully by the cork.
I noticed that he did not touch the glass even once.
Then he turned to the doctor.
“Bring me a plastic bag,” he said.
“Very soon, we will find out whether I am shouting for no reason, or whether I am very close to the truth.”
As he said that, he signaled his warriors toward me.
“One second,” I shouted, pointing at them. “Your warriors cannot touch me. I am the alpha of this pack.”
I warned them to stay back..
“There is no need to listen to him,” lord Eldon said firmly. “If he turns out to be innocent, he will walk free the next day, and we will pay the penalty ourselves. But right now, this poison bottle was found with him, and he admitted in front of everyone that he fed his grandmother himself.”
He paused, then looked straight at me
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“So, Alpha Ron, I would suggest you do not make this difficult for us.”
“Arrest him,” Eldon decided, pointing toward me as he gave the order.
At that moment, it felt as if my heart stopped.
Tears started spilling from my eyes.
In just a few hours, my entire life had been destroyed, and now I was being arrested for the murder of my grandmother.
What made it worse was that I also knew there was a ninety–nine percent chance that the poison found in my pocket was the same poison that had been used. 1