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A tall, muscular man stood there, his skin dark and his expression menacing. He aimed a gun at us, and my heart slammed against my ribs.

“Who are you, what do you want?” Valery demanded, stepping in front of me protectively.

“Who I am, you’ll find out soon. What I want, is for you to getback in the boat and return to the yacht.” He stepped closer, gun raised. “Get back in the fucking boat.Now!” He fired off a shot near us, the bullet whistling past and splashing into the water. The threat was clear.

We scrambled back onto the boat, my cheeks wet with tears. I didn’t understand what was happening. None of it made sense. If these were Sawyer’s men, I hoped Konflict would destroy them.

The man climbed in with us, gun pointed directly at us, and ordered Valery to take the speedboat back to the yacht. As we approached, the scene waiting for us was shocking. Konflict stood with his weapon drawn, aiming at a man whose face looked familiar, though I couldn’t quite place him. Konflict’s voice cut through the chaos, demanding to know where I was.

I froze. For a second, I thought he knew Valery was getting me to safety. But the confusion on his face told me he didn’t. And suddenly, all the pieces of the plan felt like they were falling apart.

We climbed back onto the yacht and everything started happening so fast, I could barely keep up. One moment, someone was announcing they had come to kill my husband and Konflict was ready to sacrifice himself for me, as if I could ever live without him. Then, suddenly, the man with the familiar face claimed to be my uncle, and old images from when I was ten—at my mother’s funeral, the last time I’d seen him—flashed in my mind. Shit. He was my infamous uncle from Newfoundland and Labrador, the one I’d tried to reach during my escape a few weeks ago.

I didn’t even have time to process any of it before everything shifted with dizzying speed and suddenly, every pair of eyes was on Valery.

“Valery, what’s going on? What is he talking about?” I demanded, confusion and dread making my voice shake.

All of us were full of questions except the guy who’d forced us back onto the yacht and Krash, who now looked so angry he was practically vibrating with rage.

Konflict drew his weapon, fury written all over his face, and stepped right up to Valery, pressing the barrel to her forehead.

“You better start opening your fucking mouth and explain what’s going on before I blow your brains out. I’m not patient when someone fucks with my family.”

“Whoa, baby, no. Don’t do that,” I said, jumping up, rushing to put myself between him and Valery. I couldn’t believe what everyone seemed to be insinuating. I’d known Valery all my life. There had to be some mistake.

“Baby, please calm down. Let me talk to her.” I turned to Valery. “Can you say something? I need to understand what’s going on.”

“Serenity… I haven’t done any of the things they’re accusing me of,” she answered, eyes wide with fear.

She didn’t have time to say more. Krash pressed his own gun to her head, voice low and shaking with betrayal.

“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 youwere 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 toyou.Youhadto 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.”