Page 89 of The Royal Art of Revenge

“On my life.”

And, for the first time in my life, I believe a promise.

I believe—no, I trust—that he’s telling me the truth. That he won’t leave me to face this alone. As if this isn’t a situation entirely of my own making, of my own machinations, of my own sick desire for revenge.

As if this isn’t something he didn’t have to have anything to do with at all.

“Just like we practiced,” he murmurs, leaning in.

“Don’t let me trip on the stairs this time,” I mutter back.

He stifles a laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ll catch you if you do. It’ll be quite the show.”

“You aren’t helping.”

The doorman nods at us, and I draw in a deep breath.

It’s go time.

There’s no backing out now.

When these doors open, my entire life will blow up. Everything as I know it will shatter into millions of irreparable pieces, and the cogs of my dreams will finally begin to turn.

I will draw the first weapon. I will take the first blood.

And I will show the Sinclairs exactly who I am.

I’ll show them that my childhood traumas didn’t weaken me. They strengthened me.

They didn’t make me fear.

They made me feared.

And if they don’t fear me, then they’re going to learn to. Very, very quickly.

“Introducing His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and his fiancée, Miss Harriet Sinclair!”

The doors before us are opened, and we take our first steps into the ballroom. There’s almost a hesitation, as if the echo of my name haunts its way around the room. The silence holds, thickening almost suffocatingly, as the air ripples with tangible shock and surprise.

Then, slowly.

Clap.

Clap.

Clap.

Just like that, raucous applause drowns out the classical music being played in the corner.

And, just as Her Majesty promised they would be, my family are at the foot of the stairs.

My father with his face ashen, his jaw slack, his eyes glazed with shock.

Rosalyn with her flushed cheeks, furrowing brow, and clenching jaw.

And Jasmine.

Poor, sweet, innocent Jasmine, gripping onto her mother’s arm, staring up at me as her world crashes around her, as all the pieces of her carefully constructed fantasy melt away into nothingness.