Chapter 40 Genevieve
Genevieve
“How dare you!” I shout as my mother turns to look at me.
I’ve been dragged into the parlor, the very room where Kieran and I made love only last night.
She stands on the carpet, oblivious to what happened here, but fully aware that what she’s doing now is unwarranted.
She wears a smug expression of victory, as if this battle is already over. Already won.
Seeing the place where we connected so deeply defiled by the woman determined to tear us apart is almost more than I can bear. I want to rip that condescending smile from her face. I want to make her feel even a fraction of what she’s made me endure.
Outside, Kieran is being loaded into a prisoner’s wagon, steel bars and bolts securing him in place. As if he were a criminal—when the true criminal is my own mother. Arresting an innocent man simply for loving her daughter.
“Control yourself, Genevieve,” my mother hisses as she approaches.
“It was you all along! You sent Kieran away! You watched my heart break—not once but twice. And you’re the one who’s always tried to pass my gift off as love. It’s not love, Mother. It’s—”
The words choke me. How can I even name what she allowed to happen to me? How she let me be a victim of my own curse. How she taught me to feel ashamed of it, to believe my worth lay only in an advantageous marriage—my own safety and comfort be damned.
“Really, Genevieve.” She shakes her head and glances around the room before reaching for me. “Speaking that way is beneath you. Two days with this man and you’re already sounding crass. Let’s go. The coach is waiting, and you have a wedding in less than a week.”
I pull away from her grasp, stunned by her refusal to acknowledge a single truth. “I’m not marrying Prince Leland. He called it off, and Kieran is innocent. I won’t go anywhere with you unless you release him.”
Mother’s eye twitches, and her hands curl into fists.
“I will not be disobeyed, Genevieve. You made a commitment to Icelantica. It was your choice. I won’t allow you to cast your mistakes onto one of your siblings.
I knew the moment I saw that upstart Blackwell there would be trouble.
His disguise was so poor I’m shocked you believed I couldn’t tell it was that gardener’s boy. ”
“You knew it was Kieran all along?”
Queen Penelope rolls her eyes. “Of course I knew. Really, Genevieve—do you take me for an idiot?”
“Then why did you allow him to stay? Even after you sent him away? Weren’t you worried something like this would happen?”
“Because I didn’t believe you’d be foolish enough to fall for his advances again. Wasn’t it obvious he was trying to seduce you into giving up everything you’ve worked for?”
She turns her back, gesturing for me to follow—but I refuse. I will not be commanded like a child. Not by this woman who’s dictated every breath of my life for twenty-eight years. So I stand my ground, even as she pivots back, her eye twitching harder.
“You would choose to ruin the kingdom over this man?”
“Choosing him isn’t ruining the kingdom, it’s strengthening it. It’s unity. It’s choosing all our people—bluebloods and redbloods, aristocracy and the working class.”
Queen Penelope crosses her arms, her gaze icy enough to freeze the room.
“You are my daughter and my heir. You will be queen in less than two years. You made a commitment to Icelantica. You cannot choose this redblooded upstart. I have evidence of his crimes—whether you claim you left willingly or not. He will be tried. He will be found guilty. That, I promise you. Forget him.”
A white-hot fury tears through me. “I will never forget him. And I’ll never forgive you for taking him from me once. Try to do it again, and you’ll learn very quickly what it means to threaten me, Mother.”
“Oh, child. Even as a grown woman, you don’t understand what it is to wear the crown.”
She snaps her fingers. Two guards step forward. One presses a damp cloth to my face while the other seizes my arms. I try to scream, but the sound fractures into a muffled gasp as everything fades to black.