My breath stills. I feel the trap getting ready to snap shut around me.
"No," I admit, and I can feel the case slipping away with that single word. "I-I didn't think about documentation. I still considered him my husband. I-I didn’t want to make him angrier. He- I loved him—"
"So there's no physical evidence," Elder James interrupts. "No third-party verification. No testimony from medical professionals who treated your injuries. We have just... your word." There is a small chuckle in the last part.
"Yes, but the word of someone who survived—"
"The word of someone who has already been proven to lie," Elder James cuts in, and his voice sharpens into something cruel. "The word of someone who fabricated a fated mate claim to deceive this council. The word of someone who entered into a tran
