Chapter Twenty-five #2
“You’re going to tell her everything, and you’re going to do it now.
Because trust me, I have even less patience than anyone else here.
You let me fuck you, let me believe we could have a future.
I was about to propose to you. Imagine how I felt finding out you blackmailed Marquette into pressuring the council so the Sawyer’s could join the Big Six.
All for what? Because they helped you sabotage a Veylor shipments and lure Kate Korven into a trap with a fake peace treaty?
You started a pointless war between two families, and you served Serenity up on a silver platter during her escape. ”
To say I was shocked was an understatement. I was shattered, completely in denial.
“I started suspecting you when you claimed to have no idea where Serenity was, or about her escape route, even though you were the one pulling the strings. At first, I thought you just didn’t want to betray her, but it didn’t add up, especially after we talked about how much Konflict loved her and he’d never hurt her.
The detail slipped by me until Marquette’s investigation into Serenity’s poisoning revealed she wasn’t poisoned at the gala.
The only other place it could’ve happened was at the Korven estate, near you. ”
I refused to believe what Krash was saying, but at the same time, it all made horrible sense. My skin prickled, cold sweat running down my back. Seylan Sawyer’s words echoed in my mind. Oh my God. Who was this woman I had called my sister all these years? I felt like I didn’t know her at all.
“Valery, tell me what he’s saying isn’t true. You’ve been with me since I was born. Tell me you didn’t start the war that destroyed our families. That you didn’t try to kill me. Tell me, please.”
“I was treated like a servant all my life! Everything for Princess Serenity. Protect Serenity. Guard her purity. Keep her away from violence. Meanwhile, no one cared what happened to me!” she screamed, rage twisting her features.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, completely lost.
“Oh, of course you never noticed what was happening right in front of you. You didn’t see Vince Veylor and his son raping me every night. Sometimes one after the other. Sometimes both at once,” she spat.
The horror of it stabbed me like a knife and tears started streaming down my face. I had never seen such hatred in her eyes before.
“It started with touching when I was fifteen. Sure, you were just a kid, but everyone else knew. Even your mother. She told me to keep quiet. To accept it because Vince and Vermon were entitled to do as they pleased. She told me to bear it in silence, while she protected you. Nothing could happen to you. You had to stay pure. I hated her for it. I hated her with everything in me until I finally managed to get rid of her. I’m the one who made sure Vince caught her with her lover and killed her.
I orchestrated everything, and I’m proud of it. ”
God. I was so shocked I could barely breathe. The pain of what she had suffered, and my mother…
“But when she was gone, your bastard father decided I should replace her every night. He raped me, again and again, then called his son to do the same. I became their plaything. Every day I had to smile and take care of you—guard your purity while they violated me night after night. They had to go. All of them, including you. Because you represented everything I wished I could have been, but never was. To wipe out that family of vermin, I needed another powerful family, one I hated just as much.”
She looked at Konflict then, a bitter smile twisting her mouth.
“Hey, cousin. Yes, I’m a Korven too. I should have been a Korven, but your bastard uncle got my mother pregnant and refused to claim me.
If he’d taken responsibility, I wouldn’t have ended up in a predator’s house.
But he was too selfish, didn’t want to lose his marriage.
Funny how men forget they’re married when they’re fucking someone else, then pretend it was a mistake when the consequences show up.
They’re all the same. Judge Marquette isn’t any better. ”
She turned on Krash, voice fiercer than ever.
“You wanted to know why I blackmailed Marquette? Because I hate men like him. Pretending to be good, principled men, but as soon as you offer them a warm bed, they forget everything. Then they panic, afraid to lose their marriage. Just like my so-called father. Yes, I used him in my plans with the Sawyers to get what I wanted. I needed the Sawyers to start a war between Korven and Veylor. And they needed a seat in the Big Six. The war had to be as bloody as possible, so both families would destroy each other. For that, I needed the Korvens enraged. Kate Korven was perfect for that.”
The tears kept streaming down my face as she spoke. My whole body trembled. I didn’t know how I was still standing. The Valery in front of me was a stranger. I didn’t recognize the hatred, the manipulation, the coldness. God, how had I not seen it?
“You’re probably wondering why I dragged your precious ‘Mama Kate’ into my revenge?
Because I hated her too. She was perfect, loving, gave love to everyone.
But she wouldn’t act to force her brother-in-law to admit the truth, to claim his child.
Yes, Kate knew who my father was. When I saw how she treated you, I hoped she might care for me too.
I told her who my father was, but she said she couldn’t do anything for me.
Such a fake saint. Acting like a second mother to you, when I had already made sure you lost your first. It drove me crazy that she was there for you, as a mother, when I’d gone out of my way to take yours. ”
“You’re disgusting,” I sobbed, hatred boiling in my stomach. “I thought you were my sister.”
“Well, big scoop, we actually have the same mother. So technically, yes, I am your sister.”
“What?” The shock hit me again, harder than before.
“Yeah, see how twisted that woman was? Passing off her own daughter as the child of a maid. Delivering me to her predator of a husband, telling me to smile and take it. Why do you think she didn’t like you spending time with me when we were younger?”
“I… I didn’t know… I had no idea.”
“You never know anything. That’s why I couldn’t stand you.
I had to pretend every day to love you when all I wanted was to see you disappear.
This war should have wiped you all out, but you and your husband survived, and Marquette decided to marry you off.
You became untouchable, but I still had a little hope because Konflict wanted to kill you.
But unfortunately, my idiot cousin was in love, and I didn’t notice until too late.
When I found out he was the escort screwing you every night I knew he’d never kill you so the poisoning before the Marquette party was perfect.
You should have died that night, and Marquette would have been blamed.
Konflict, with his hot temper, would have gone to war again, and this time I hoped he’d die there. ”
“I always knew there was a reason I never really liked you,” Konflict said, voice cold and detached. “If you weren’t fucking Krash, I’d have put a bullet in your head a long time ago.”
“Go on, keep talking,” my so-called uncle said. “I want to know where the rest of us fit into your twisted plan. I still don’t see how we ended up with an anonymous tip that Serenity was being held captive and had to be extracted tonight.”
“I know,” Viper—the man who’d brought us back—spoke up.
“I may not be on Emberwick, but I kept an eye on you, Valery. Your work was flawless, totally unsuspected. Everyone trusted you. Nobody would have guessed, except me. I trust no one. Especially not an anonymous informant. Here’s what happened: Once you were sure Konflict wouldn’t kill his wife, and after you failed to poison her, you convinced her to run away, telling her she had to fight for her life.
Serenity, she was the one who planned your route, and I bet she insisted you run. ”
“She even told me she was pregnant and wanted me to be godmother. So I thought I was safe.” I turned to Valery, voice breaking. “Are you even pregnant?”
“She’s not,” Krash answered, voice hollow. “That was just another lie, to keep us off balance.”
“Wow… I… I have no words,” I whispered, heart in pieces.
How could she have gone so far as to manipulate me with a fake pregnancy?
She was diabolical. The more I thought about it, the more I realized she’d done things right in front of me and I’d been too blind to see.
Like the time Eleana Sawyer came to my office, wanting to buy my casino.
Kalash would never have let her in. It must’ve been Valery who gave her access, and then pretended to want her gone.
How many more things like that had she done, right under my nose?