SOPHIA

Nathan and I planned to speak to my ... no, they were not my family. To the Pagemoores.

But it turned out we didn’t have to find them, after all. We were in the dining room eating breakfast when Mrs. Gap announced that Mom and Dad were at the front door.

"Let them in," said Nathan. "We’ll see them in the living room." He turned to me. "Did you get enough to eat?"

I dotted my mouth with a cloth napkin, and nodded. "I’m full. How about you?"

"I’m good. Let’s go."

He took my hand, and we walked down the hallway to the living room. My not-parents were in the living room. Mom was sitting stiffly on the edge of an armchair. Dad was pacing the floor behind her, looking worried.

Not for me, I was sure. But for their own lives.

Nathan squeezed my hand and led me to the couch. He helped me sit and then poured me a cup of tea from the tea set on the coffee table.

"I take it the Willowmarches informed you of our visit yesterday," said Nathan. "Sophia is well aware you’re her adopted parents. Well, adopted is probably not quite correct, either. After all, the Willowmarch patriarch kidnapped her and brought her to you."

"We raised you like our own daughter," said Mom. She twisted her hands in her lap. Her gaze flitted around the room, landing on everything in there, except my gaze. "You were fed, clothed, and educated. You were treated as an upper elite in our circle. You can’t say we were bad to you."

"I can’t say you were good to me, either."

Dad’s face took on a grim expression. "What did you expect, Sophia? Love? That wasn’t possible given you were the child of our family enemy."

"Did I know that? I was three years old. If I hadn’t gotten the Cardigill Ick from Jace, I would still have memories of my early childhood. But I didn’t. I only had you and my brothers. And none of you truly liked me."

Dad opened his mouth, possibly to refute what I said, but he couldn’t. So, he pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Mom clasped her hands together as if to keep them from showing her nervousness. "You had a decent life, Sophia. Even if there is no merit, we still did the hard work of raising a child that wasn’t ours."

"Don’t act like it was an act of ultriusm," said Nathan. "You raised her to marry into the Willowmarches. She was a sacrificial lamb. Her only purpose, other than to serve that asshat Jace with all of her heart and soul, was to get the lamp. Even after Jace was healed by Western Realm medicine, they wanted that damned wish."

Dad came around Mom’s chair and took the one next to her. I saw the look they shared, and it had more than a tinge of guilt. For how they treated me? Hah. I doubted it.

"You knew the Willowmarches were going to burn down Amaranth Manor, did you ask them to burn down Chapter House, too?" It was a trick question because we already knew the answer.

The Willowmarches had made it clear that they colluded with the Pagemoores when it came to destroying evidence about what they’d done fifteen years ago. They’d also conspired to demolish their ancestral homes. Hundreds of years of history and familial connections burned to ash.

We still didn’t have satisfactory answers about why. Sure the Willowmarches wanted the sin of that awful dungeon to be erased and forgotten. Despite what Mr. Willowmarch had said about no bodies, I didn’t believe it. And I didn’t believe there wasn’t something else in that Manor that merited its full destruction. Not when it meant the Willowmarches couldn’t hide from what they or their predecessors had done.

"We lost a lot in that fire," said Mom. "You really think we wanted it to burn down?"

"You made sure grandfather was transferred to your house in the Capital. I bet you took other things you wanted to keep, too. So, no. I don’t believe you lost anything in that fire except what you wanted to disappear." I crossed my arms. "And what was that, mother? Evidence that I wasn’t your biological daughter? Or perhaps the location of the Rosebrights? Is my family’s bodies buried under what’s left of the Chapter House?"

"Nobody killed them," said Dad. "They disappeared into thin air."

"Were you there?" asked Nathan. "Or are you trusting what the Willowmarches said?"

"The Willowmarches who are packing up everything they own and leaving the Northern Realm," I added.

"No doubt you’ll inform the Emperor that the Willowmarches are responsible for his sister’s disappearance."

"The sister who birthed two children," Nathan reminded them. "And one of them is sitting right here. Why has no one thought about the consequences of harming the Emperor’s neice?"

My parents went silent. They both looked at the floor, unable to meet my gaze. Maybe they had thought about it.

"Are you planning on leaving the Capital, too?" I asked.

"No," said Mom. "Why should we? We raised the Emperor’s niece. That’s worth something, is it not?"

I turned to Nathan. "Maybe my family didn’t like them because they’re arrogant and unrepentant."

"It’s possible. People have hated each other for less."

Nathan and I both turned to stare at my not-parents.

"Just tell them the truth," Mom said to Dad. "I’m so tired of all this. It’s draining me."

"You’ve benefitted as much as I have," said Dad. "Don’t pretend like you have shouldered the burden alone."

"I married into the Pagemoores and inherited your mess," said Mom, her voice rising an octave. "I gave you two sons. I took care of your parents. I did my duty as wife and mother. I even raised this white-eyed wolf because you caved in to Old Man Willowmarch’s demands."

"White-eyed wolf," I said, straightening up. "That’s just rude."

"You’re not a Pagemoore," cried my mother. "And you’re an ungrateful whelp. You had a roof over your head and food in your belly. All provided by us."

"Did you not raise her as a lamb to slaughter?" asked Nathan in a deadly calm voice. "Between you and the Willowmarches, you’ve made her pay for sins she hasn’t even committed. You think your paltry shelter and your shitty food is enough payment for what you did to her family? You and the Willowmarches owe her a greater debt than can ever be paid!"