"The Ashford name is finished. They're selling their own blood off as some made man's whore."
I'd lived through mockery like this twice in my last life.
Once at my own altar. Daphne walked out of the blood-bound union for Lydia, and the humiliation killed my grandmother. The Ashford name became a punchline whispered in every social club across the Seaboard.
Once at my funeral. My body wasn't even in the ground before Maeve offered Lydia an alliance pact right there beside my casket. My entire life, reduced to a joke between two heirs.
The memories hit me and I turned to find my grandmother. Her breathing was ragged, her eyes bloodshot as she stared at the forged proof on the screen. "My Vera would never do something like this!"
Something was wrong. I could see it in the way she swayed, and my heart seized. I begged the people around me to help me get her to the ward. Every single one of them stepped back, terrified of being tied to a woman like me. Men who had once sat at my grandfather's table, who had kissed his ring and sworn loyalty to the Ashford name, turned their backs and melted into the crowd like strangers. The room emptied of allegiance the way a glass empties of wine.
In the end, it was the two blood-bound companions who stepped forward.
Daphne drove. Maeve and I held my grandmother between us, and we raced for the ward.
"Good thing you got here when you did. Any later and we might not have saved her."
I thanked the doctor over and over.
Then I sat at my grandmother's bedside and pulled up the venue's tape. Just as I'd expected, there was Lydia on the footage, swapping the proof herself. Every single image was a fake. Forged composites, all of them.
I took the tape and went out to call the Feds.
The two of them blocked my path.
"It was just a prank. Do you really have to blow it this far out of proportion? Do you have any idea what you'll do to Lydia?"
I stood there, stunned. Then something inside me snapped loose and I screamed.
"What about me? My grandmother almost died! Didn't Lydia think about destroying me? Destroying the entire Ashford family?"
Maeve shoved Lydia behind him and pushed me hard enough to stagger. The corridor light caught the signet ring on his hand as he straightened, and I watched his right fist twitch at his side before it pressed flat against his thigh.
"Give it a rest, Vera! Your grandmother's fine, isn't she? Besides, where there's smoke there's fire. You must've done something shady first for word like that to travel!"
None of it could hurt me anymore. I pushed past them both, numb.
Daphne caught my wrist. His expression was unreadable. He was still. Perfectly, terribly still, the way only he could be, the kind of stillness that made soldiers lower their voices and consiglieri choose their words with surgical care.
"Vera. Don't make this harder on yourself. You know the weight our Families carry. No one on this Seaboard would touch this case."
When I still wouldn't let go, his grip tightened.
"Don't forget your grandmother is still in that ward. One word from me, and the doctors stop treating her."
The ring on his right hand was motionless. His thumb did not move along its inner edge. Not turning. Not restless. Already decided.
"I'll count to three. If you don't hand over the tape, I'll have them pull her off the ventilator."
He dialed a number right in front of me.
"Three."
"Two."
"I was wrong!"
I dropped to my knees, tears streaming down my face. I didn't dare. I didn't dare gamble with my grandmother's life.
Maeve snatched my line and hurled it at the ground. It shattered. Shards bit into my skin.
He looked down at me, cold. "As long as we're standing here, don't even think about touching Lydia."
I sat crumpled on the floor, and it wasn't until their backs disappeared around the corner that the pain finally broke through. Somewhere down the hall a monitor beeped, steady and indifferent. Two lifetimes of grief tore out of me at once, and I sobbed until I couldn't breathe.
The childhood promises were lies. The blood-bound oaths were lies. Only the pain was real.
I don't know how long it was before I dragged myself back to the ward. Terrified that Daphne or Maeve would tamper with her care, I stayed at my grandmother's side for days without leaving once.
The only messages I received were from Lydia. The two of them had taken her traveling, bungee jumping, doing every single thing they'd once promised me and never followed through on.
I blocked her number.
When I looked up, two men in crisp bearing stood at the foot of my grandmother's bed. They inclined their heads to me, the way men do on sovereign ground.
"Miss Ashford, we've been sent by The Order as medical personnel. Please rest assured. While you're away, we will guarantee your grandmother's safety and her health."
Only then did it hit me. It was time to go.
I went back to the Ashford house and threw away everything connected to those two men. Every photograph. Every token. Every memory that smelled of gunpowder and broken oaths.
Then I boarded a plane and never looked back.
Neither Daphne Vale nor Maeve Marlowe was someone I could depend on. I would depend on myself. For my grandmother, for the Ashford name, I would carve out a future worth having.
