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He had a smirk on his face, and Noelle narrowed her eyes at him.
Something was awfully odd about the entire thing. She just didn’t know what.
“I would also like to take the time to introduce my wife to you. I’m sure most of you already know her, but if you don’t, meet Noelle Villanueva—today’s special guest.”
twenty-three
Noelle blinked in confusion.
But as the crowd stared at her, she strained a smile onto her face as she nodded to them.
“You may be wonderingwhyshe’s the special guest today,” Sergio continued, and both Noelle and everyone present was attuned to what he was saying, curiosity dripping from everyone’s expressions.
“It’s a message from Tonacacihuatl herself that she wishes to impart with you all tonight.”
Noelle was already on the edge, but when she heard the name of the goddess, she knew Sergio was up to something.
“As you well know, she’s been watching over our lands for months now. But she has decided to abandon her vessel because my wife wasn’t worthy of her.”
“Blasphemy,” Noelle shouted, standing up in all her might and pinning him to the spot with her arctic gaze. Her hand reached for her weapon, ready to point it to Sergio. But he spoke first.
“Is it? I think the people should see for themselves why the goddess has decided to rescind her favor from you,” he added smugly, removing a small remote control from his pocket and directing it towards the facade of the house.
As he clicked on a button, a projector flared to life, the entire wall of the house becoming enveloped in images.
Noelle swiftly turned, her mouth hanging open as she watched the video begin.
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head.
This couldn’t be happening.
It was the surveillance feed from Raf’s room and it showed the two of them naked on the floor, fucking like two beasts—biting, scratching, licking. The sounds, too, permeated the air.
Her moans.
His groans.
“Look at her! The adulterous whore that is not worthy of Tonacacihuatl,” Sergio declared. “It is no goddess that possesses her, but a demon. The demon of adultery and debauchery, and we’ve been all cheated, my people!”
Quickly, she swiveled, her eyes scanning the crowd and seeing the once respectful gazes of the people, turning to pure hate and disdain.
The murmurs had already started: how they should have known she was tainted by the devil, that they’d always had a bad feeling about her. Suddenly, all the times she’d instilled fear in people turned to her disadvantage as they proclaimed her a bloody monster feeding from people’s fears and misfortunes.
Where she was once revered for putting the fear in them, now she was reviled.
Noelle swallowed hard.
So that was what Sergio’d had in mind from the beginning. He couldn’t denounce her as a fake Tonacacihuatl without rejecting the very basis of the religion he’d started. But he could brand her as unworthy for the goddess’ blessings by showing that she was a wretched wife to him—an adulteress, something the people of the hacienda abhorred.
Not only had she displayed the human ability to sin—something the goddess’ vessel would have never been capable of—but she had also done Sergio wrong. And going by the murmurs passing around, everyone was quick to point it out.
Panicked, Noelle looked around until she found Lucero in the crowd. Her friend was equally as shocked by what Sergio had done. She gave her a quick nod, knowing she would get her request.
As Lucero nodded her understanding, moving around in the crowd, Noelle turned to see the last of her dignity shatter in front of at least a hundred people, if not more. Knowing Sergio, he wouldn’t have wanted anyone to miss this, so he must have provided copies to those absent as well.
Yet even as she felt her legitimacy and the last of authority melt away, there was only one recurring thought in her mind.
Raf.
