DEREK
For a moment, I didn’t move.
Didn’t breathe.
Maggie’s confession echoed in my ears—loud, ugly, final.
Cassandra.
Cassandra had hired rogues to attack Elena.
The day of our wedding.
I stood rooted to the floor, staring across the small interrogation room at Maggie’s battered figure, my heart thundering in my ears.
Every instinct in me screamed for blood.
For vengeance.
But I made myself think.
Made myself choose.
Maggie had been telling the truth. I felt it. Saw it in the way she shook with guilt, in the way she couldn’t meet Elena’s gaze without crumbling.
And if that was true—
If even half of it was true—
Then Cassandra was going to pay.
I didn’t remember moving.
One moment I was standing stiffly beside Elena; the next I was tearing from the room, my boots hammering
