Chapter 2

"Let go of me! Don't touch me!"

Two hulking security guards burst in and seized my arms.

The glass shards still buried in my back tore deeper into the flesh as they dragged me, leaving a smear of blood across the floor.

"Darian!" I fought them with everything I had, kicking wildly, my nails nearly snapping off as I clawed at the doorframe.

"The night of that accident three years ago, I was with you! You drove me home yourself! How could I have possibly been the one behind the wheel, running someone down?!"

Darian's footsteps stopped.

He turned back, his brow drawing into a tight frown, something dark and dangerously irritated flashing across his eyes.

"You dare bring up that night?" He advanced on me step by step, boots crunching over the glass slicked with my own blood.

Then his hand shot out—he grabbed my throat and slammed me back against the doorframe.

"Ugh—"

The air vanished from my lungs. My face flushed crimson as I clawed desperately at his fingers, trying to pry them loose.

"You think I don't know why you were in such a hurry to leave that night?" Darian leaned in close, his face inches from mine. "Because you'd stolen Seraphina's car keys! Because you were eaten alive with jealousy over her! You vicious woman—not only did you kill someone, you tried to smear your own sister with the blood on your hands!"

"I... didn't..."

"It was her... she was high..."

"Enough!" Darian wrenched his hand away.

I crashed to the floor, hands clutching my throat, coughing violently, retching up mouthfuls of sour bile streaked with blood.

"Sister, just accept it already." Seraphina crouched down beside me, her voice dropping to a whisper only the two of us could hear. "The judge sentenced you. The evidence was solid. Why can't you just admit what you did?"

"You really are pathetic, Valerian. Three years have passed—do you honestly think anyone still believes you?"

"The truth is, everyone already knows what really happened. You're nothing but a scapegoat nobody wants anymore."

It felt like a sledgehammer had come down on my skull.

Could it be... the Sterling family... Darian... had orchestrated this together from the start?

"What did you just say?!" I jerked my head up and grabbed a fistful of Seraphina's hair.

"Say that again?! What exactly are you talking about?!"

"Ahh—! It hurts! Darian, help me!"

Seraphina let out a piercing shriek and let herself fall backward, tumbling down the short flight of steps by the entryway.

"Seraphina!"

Her forehead struck the edge of a step, a thin line of blood beading up.

She curled into Darian's arms, trembling all over.

"Darian... I'm so scared... Valerian's trying to kill me..."

"VALERIAN!!!"

Darian set her down and lunged at me, fisting my collar and hauling me up off the ground.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! You unhinged psychopath!"

"She threw herself down there! She did it on purpose—"

A brutal slap cracked across my face.

"And now you're still lying!"

"If anything happens to Seraphina, I will make you pay for it with your worthless life."

Then he shoved me—hard.

I went sailing backward like a kite with its string cut, tumbling straight down the steps.

My skull cracked against the marble floor. Everything went black for an instant. Warm liquid trickled down from my forehead, blurring my vision.

"Darian..." I lay there in a spreading pool of blood, staring through hazy eyes at the man I had loved for seven years, my hand trembling as I reached toward him. "Why... why won't you believe me..."

"Throw her out into the street."

"I'm not leaving... I'm not leaving!" With the last scrap of strength left in me, I wrapped my arms around a nearby pillar, clinging on so hard my nails bent backward and tore, blood running down my fingers.

"I want to see my mother! I want to see Madeline! She knows the truth! She knows everything!"

"Your mother? So you still haven't given up." Darian let out a cold laugh. "Go ahead."