Page 61 of Ellie 3

She chuckled darkly. “You should have. That part was completely true.” She nodded when I couldn’t hide my disbelief. “You saved the captain as a child. I knew him from some legal trouble, and when he was about to get caught with some cargo that would cost him his head, I told him what you were doing here.”

“You’ve lived quite the life,” I muttered, shocked that the spoiled brat I’d heard of over and over again had actually helped me.

“It’s best you erase what you think you know of me and start fresh,” she said firmly.

“Except I experienced what I experienced,” I told her. “I believe in what Ha-joon sensed and there is more to the story than I know, but… Even if you didn’t come to kill me that night, you did come to see me later.”

“I put the blame on the wrong person. I know that,” she accepted. “I was exhausted and almost broken from the harshness of this world. I had just been repeatedly raped—”

“What?” I gasped, mentally cursing that I couldn’t see her aura since we were related.

She intentionally wouldn’t meet my gaze, focused on the curtains. “The world is perilous for a woman without protection—even more so back then. I proved that I had a mind for the law and sought a clerk position. The humans I went to thinking they would be safer tricked me. Who would think the best-known firm in Paris for fighting for people was filled with monsters?”

“I’m so sorry, Theresa.”

She gave a sharp nod. “I couldn’t find it in myself to—in my mind, if I had been raised like you and knew how to fight, it wouldn’t have happened. I could have gotten free that night. I was too terrified to be outed as a vampire and found by either family looking for me that I let myself get chained up. They used me as a clerk and free whore.”

“Until you didn’t get blood for too long,” I surmised.

“I became the monster, and it was blind luck he had the keys on him or I would have been stuck down there forever in that damn place,” she whispered. “I didn’t know what to do and I basically tripped over you. And you were thriving. You were part of a group of healers, supported and thriving.”

Theresa took in a long breath and met my gaze which impressed me.

“I’m sorry. You deserved none of what I said that night.” She seemed to think better of it. “Actually, maybe a little because you telling everyone I’d tried to kill you did set my escape on a bad path. The servant Aurora had sent with me ditched me after getting me out of the country, saying he didn’t trust I wouldn’t kill him if I wanted to my own sister.”

It was my turn to take in a long breath and let it out. “So what did happen that night? What was all the…” I shrugged. Mess? Disaster?

Cliché?

“It was all a setup,” she said bluntly. “From the broken wheel and needing help to—I believe I was Anna fromFrozenbasically and he was… I forget the bad guy’s name. It was all bullshit.” She gave a sad snort. “He thought I was a bastard and living hidden as Kenneth’s shame.” She gave me a hard look. “I told no one about you—about our relation.

“Neither did your mother. They knew. Even after going to the castle to meet you, he kept sneaking back to see me.” She rubbed her neck. “The things we believe when we’re young, stupid, and desperate to be loved.” Theresa let out a slow and pained breath. “He came to me that night and said we were out of time and I had to prove my love for him so I could take over.

“I cannot even tell you what he fully said or knew. It was such a switch from the way he’d been and—I thought he truly had loved me, but it was all about control. I snuck in andkilled you and he had that secret over my head forever. A puppetforeveror maybe outing it once we were mated and he controlled the coven.”

“Ha-joon said you were telling the truth and it’s hundreds of years later. I cannot think of a single reason you would lie besides being a psychopath.” I was shocked when something filled her eyes when she’d been cold and distant, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared.

“I’m not a psychopath. I’ve been tested.” She chuckled darkly. “I was worried about that too.” She cleared her throat and fidgeted with her skirt. “I hope you don’t repeat that, not even to your partner.”

“He’s not nosy like that and it has no bearing on this,” I comforted. “Why were you tested?”

She gave me a hard look but then swallowed it down. “I wasn’t loved like you were, Ellie. Even if her plan was psychotic, Aurora truly loved—loves you like her own. Your mother didn’t feel the same with me. Looking at me hurt her because I wasn’t you and you were being kept from her. She didn’t blame me, but it wasn’t an emotionally healthy way to grow up.”

“She abused you?”

“No, that implies intent,” she said quietly. “She did her best. Looking back, I don’t blame her. She was broken from her family and then what ours did. I’m sure I didn’t help and was a brat, but—I had nothing. I grew up in the most fucked up circumstances and—yes, I was jealous of you. Even if what you had was messed up, it was less messed up than what I had. Trust me.”

Again, I had no reason not to. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. Of course it wasn’t your fault either, and I’m sure I was a mess when I tried to tell you what was going on. I still can’t picture that night clearly. All I remembered was panic.”

“What did youthinkwas—what was the goal?” I hedged when she seemed lost in the past.

She sighed and rubbed her neck again. “I was trying to show you that it was his dagger. He gave me a dagger with my initials on it just so I could kill you.” She nodded when I snorted. “Yes, a sexist male who thinks we’re all complete morons. Of course. But I wanted to get to you and tell you what happened so you were safe and you could help me.

“I had no idea what to do. Your mother never abused me and was kind, but if she thought for asecondthat I might ever hurt you, she would have stabbed me a million times without remorse.” She met my shocked gaze. “Never doubt that. Your mother was constantly plotting ways to get you out and run that she didn’t think I knew about.

“I used to help her and give her information thinking—I didn’t care about being the coven leader’s daughter. I wanted my mother. I thought she would love me like yours and then—the servants didn’t care like Aurora thought. They would mock me as if I was a bastard. The hidden secret they were annoyed to take care of. You have no idea…”

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