Page 27 of Necessary Cruelty

That is when the worst part of this all finally sinks in.

“There is only one founding family with a daughter old enough to get married.” The Averys have a one-year-old daughter that Emma is always asking when she’ll be old enough to babysit. There isn’t enough money in the world to make literally robbing a cradle an option. “That only leaves…”

I trail off, because I don’t know what my body’s reaction will be if I continue.

Duke says her name softly like he fears what will happen when he says it out loud. It still feels like a bomb goes off inside my head.

“Zaya Milbourne.”

The girl I love to hate, the one I’ve been torturing for years, is all that stands between my family and financial ruin.

My arm burns from the still healing cut, the one I’ll keep hidden under the sleeve of my shirt until the scab falls off.

There are moments when you can say to yourself, Someday I’ll look back and realize this is the moment that defined my life.

Then there are other moments, when you don’t need the benefit of hindsight to know that fate is gleefully tearing your whole world apart.

“Well, fuck.”

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