Chapter 1
Matt
She looks almost the same as she did when I last saw her, over twenty-five years ago.
I was just a kid when my mom died, when that car bomb threw me back onto the sidewalk, when Dad scooped me up and ran me back inside.
He wouldn’t let me see her. Said it would be too painful, even for a child of the Royal Syndicate. Dad handled everything himself, from identifying the body to making funeral arrangements, and even commissioning an elaborate tomb for Mom’s remains.
So how is she standing here now?
While I lie there like a dumbass, Aron slowly creeps forward behind Mom, his face ghostly pale. Aron was there that day, too, whisked away by his dad and kept hidden with me while the adults did their adult things.
Mom turns to Aron with a smile on her slightly aged face, but even with the added lines and grey streaks, there’s no mistaking her. Not for those of us who knew her.
“Lucinda?” Aron’s voice drips incredulity, like he’s in as much shock as I am.
“Hello, Aron. How is my second son?”
He stops just out of Mom’s reach and looks down at me. “Better than your real son. Why is he tied up?”
Shit. I think Aron has forgotten that we’re supposed to be enemies now. This could go south fast for him if he doesn’t come to his senses. There are witnesses and guards who could easily spread word of his comment and poison the minds of his officers against him.
Mom seems unphased. “He’s like that for his own safety. You know the Empire won’t stand for Matteo to be loose. We have to follow the rules set by Javier here.”
“Dad’s dead, Lucinda. His rules don’t apply unless I say they do.”
“Why?” she scoffs. “Because you’re his son? I would think Javier’swifewould have higher standing in his absence.”
What the fuck?
Aron rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his broad chest. “Dad didn’t have a wife, Lucinda. Don’t you remember? My mom died in childbirth.”
I can’t see Mom’s face from here, but I can hear the smug smirk in her response.
“Well, yes, but your father remarried, Aron. Twenty-five years ago, actually.”
Jules hit my head too hard when he knocked me out. That has to be it. Mom alive … and married to Javier? That’s insane. The timing alone would mean that Mom and Javier faked her death to hide her affair with him, which is a ridiculous notion in and of itself. Mom loved my dad, she—
Wait.
Hold up.
Twenty-five years ago … another relationship, another marriage …
My eyes swing over to Emily, and my stomach churns.
Emily’s sapphire gaze meets mine, her eyes the same blue that Mom and I share, and her lips spread in a wide, manic grin. She nods slowly, winking at me, then puts her free hand on Aron’s shoulder.
I think I’m going to be sick.
Aron brushes her hand off, still glaring at Mom. “Not now, Emily.”
Shit, he doesn’t realize it yet. He hasn’t done the math. What should I do? If I tell him, he might blame me for being the bearer of terrible, disgusting news, but if I don’t …
Mom saves me from that fate.
“Aron, honey, tell me how old your bride is. She seems younger than you, yes? I’d wager about ten, eleven years maybe?”
