The Girl He Sold Returned As The King’s Mate Chapter 13
She had investigated for four years. And for four years, she had buried the truth.
Last year, when Nora returned to a town near Riverbend, Isla immediately had an agent try to buy the house she was renting at a grossly inflated price, hoping to force her out.
If the real estate broker hadn’t found the offer suspicious and kept records of the communication, Nora might not have been sitting here safely today.
Isla’s assistant said, “She told me that even if Evelyn was alive, she’d just be some unregistered woman with a criminal number on her record.”
“She said if the old case was reopened, Adrian’s appointment and her engagement would both be gone.”
Daniel was trembling from head to toe.
“You knew? You knew four years ago?”
Isla shook her head, sobbing.
“Dad, I was too scared to say anything.”
“My whole life, I came after Evelyn. Everything was always for Evelyn.”
“It was only after she disappeared that you were willing to take me to Pack events, that you gave me her mother’s inheritance.”
“If she came back, I’d go back to being the other daughter, the one no one saw, with nothing to my name.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“So you paid to silence a witness?”
“I was just trying to protect the life I had.”
I looked at her.
“The life you wanted to protect was built on the day I was sold.”
“Four years ago, you had the chance to let the truth come out.”
“But you chose to let me stay a ghost, something to be bought and sold.”
Isla covered her face, her shoulders shaking with sobs.
Adrian still stood protectively in front of her.
“This was my fault. I started all of this.”
“Isla was just afraid. She shouldn’t be held to the same standard.”
“I’ll accept any punishment. I only ask that the Crown not revoke my Academy credentials. Send me to the most dangerous border post—let me work to atone for my sins.”
Even now, he was still trying to bargain.
As if thirteen years of studying could cancel out thirteen years of my captivity.
I walked right up to him.
“You value your future a great deal.”
“Because you earned it, day by day, piece by piece.”
“But I survived to this day, day by day, piece by piece, too.”
“No one’s future is worth more than someone else’s life.”