How to be loved

66 - I can breathe

How to be loved

66 – I can breathe

Inside the room, Freen's expression darkened, her gaze like steel as Amanda's words coiled around her, poisonous and deliberate. Her voice cut through the tension, sharp and resolute. "You're saying Becky's doing this... for a company?" she asked, her disbelief laced with defiance. "That doesn't sound like her.

Amanda's smirk widened, predatory and cruel, as she leaned back in her chair, her confidence an oppressive weight in the air. "Oh, you think you know her so well?" she sneered. "You're just a fleeting infatuation, Freen. A distraction. Becky's using you to escape this family, to rebel, to burn it all down while she builds her empire."

Freen's jaw tightened, Amanda's venom striking deeper than she cared to admit. "That's a lie," she said, her voice rising. "Becky would never—she won't do that to me."

Amanda's voice lashed back, unrelenting. "Then why is she hiding it from you? Why are you here, Freen, blind and powerless, while she dismantles the Armstrong name behind your back? Do you even know her at all?"

The room felt suffocating, Amanda's words like chains tightening around Freen. Doubt flickered—unwanted, uninvited—but there, lingering in her mind. *Why didn't Becky tell me?*

---

Behind the glass, Becky's chest heaved with fury and heartbreak, her fists trembling as they pressed against the cold barrier. She could see it—the hesitation in Freen's eyes, the tiny crack Amanda had managed to exploit. It crushed her.

"Freen," Becky whispered, her voice quivering as she pressed her forehead against the glass. "Don't listen to them. Please, baby, don't let them get in your head."

---

"A legacy she doesn't even deserve," she hissed. "She's nothing but a disgrace. And now, she drags us all down with her." Amanda's voice sliced through the room again, sharper, crueler.

Freen's head snapped up, the words hitting like a physical blow. Her voice dropped, dangerous and cold. "You're saying Becky doesn't deserve to be an Armstrong?"

"Yes," Amanda spat, her eyes blazing with unrestrained malice. "Because she's a fucking mistake."

The air went deathly still. Even William flinched, his head bowing slightly as if ashamed, his silence an admission of guilt. Behind the glass, Becky froze, her breath hitching as Amanda's words carved into her heart like a blade.

Freen's fists clenched, her knuckles white as she stepped closer, her anger radiating like a storm. "Becky is not a mistake," she said, her voice steady and lethal.

"You cannot tell me otherwise!" Amanda snarled, her defiance matching Freen's fire.

"Amanda, that's enough!" William's weak attempt to intervene was quickly crushed.

"Don't you dare stop me, William!" Amanda's voice thundered, venom spilling unchecked. "This is the truth you've been too cowardly to admit!"

Freen's eyes locked on William, her voice cutting through Amanda's tirade like a dagger. "Mr. Armstrong, are you really going to stand there and let this woman call your daughter a mistake?"

William's silence was deafening. Amanda smirked triumphantly.

"It's the truth," Amanda said, her voice a death knell of condemnation

"No," Freen said firmly, her voice sharp as glass. "The truth is this: your husband's betrayal was the mistake. Cheating was the mistake. You were betrayed, Amanda, but you don't get to turn your pain into Becky's punishment."