Page 153 of Ruthless God

Finally, she exhales. “Because I know who he really is.”

I swallow hard. “Gabriel?”

Millie’s eyes sharpen.

“No,” she says, shaking her head. “Not just Gabriel.” A pause. “I know who he was before that.”

Before that?

The words slam into me like a truck.

“What are you talking about?”

She looks away, her fingers twisting together in her lap.

“I’ve been here longer than you,” she whispers. “I’ve seen things. He isn’t who you think he is.”

A chill rips through me. Because I already know Gabriel isn’t really Claudius. But now Millie is telling me—What?

“I don’t understand.”

She shakes her head sharply. “You’re in danger because Mr. Gabriel is out.”

“What does that mean?”

Millie’s fingers clench together in her lap, her eyes desperate, searching.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” she whispers.

Yes. Gabriel is pretending to be Claudius. My breath catches.

“Is… is Claudius dead?”

Her face falls. A slow, breaking look of devastation.

“You don’t see?” she murmurs. “How can you not see?”

Millie leans forward, her voice a thread of sound.

“There hasn’t been a Gabriel and Claudius since that day on the cliff. Not since Claudius pushed him to his death.”

“What are you saying?”

“There was never a Gabriel and Claudius. Not recently, at least.”

The words hit me like ice water. A slow, sinking realization, like the ground beneath me is cracking apart, opening into something dark and endless.

My head shakes, denial clawing at my throat.

“No. That’s not?—”

Millie’s eyes flash sharply, cutting through my disbelief like a knife.

“It’s always been him.” Her voice is low, firm. “Always.”

I suck in a breath. The room tilts. A cold sickness coils inside me. Because I already know it’s true.

The inconsistencies.

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