Sebastian’s muscles coiled like a spring wound too tight, his piercing blue eyes burning with barely restrained violence as Lady Cordelia’s mocking laughter echoed through the peaceful clearing. He turned his head slightly toward Evangeline, his expression deadly serious.

“Protect the boys,” he commanded, his voice low and menacing.

Evangeline did not hesitate. She gripped Marcus and Adrian’s hands tightly, pulling them behind her protective embrace. The children remained silent, their young faces filled with confusion and growing fear.

Sebastian took a threatening step forward, his voice sharp as a blade. “What in God’s name are you doing here, Cordelia?”

Lady Cordelia released another cold, eerie laugh, tilting her head as she regarded him with an expression of almost mocking sorrow.

“Why, Sebastian?” she whispered, her voice trembling with manufactured emotion. “Why could you never love me the way you love her?”

Sebastian’s jaw tightened visibly. “Because Evangeline never deceived me with lies and manipulation.”

Lady Cordelia’s eyes darkened instantly, her lips curling into a feral snarl. “Oh, spare me your righteousness!” she spat, her voice now dripping with pure venom. “If you had not been so obsessed with uncovering the truth, you would never have discovered anything! You would still have been mine, still blissfully ignorant, and everything would have remained perfectly as I planned!”

Sebastian growled low in his throat, his fists clenching at his sides. “So you admit your deception?” His voice carried the dangerous quiet of an approaching storm.

Lady Cordelia took a slow, taunting step forward, her movements predatory. “Admit what precisely, Sebastian?” she mocked with theatrical innocence. “That I did whatever was necessary to preserve what belonged to me?”

Evangeline watched from behind Sebastian, her heart hammering against her ribs. Something about Lady Cordelia’s tone, her supreme confidence, sent a sickening chill down her spine.

Marcus clutched at Evangeline’s silk skirts. “Mama,” he whispered fearfully. “She frightens me.”

Evangeline tightened her protective hold on both children, her eyes never leaving Lady Cordelia’s menacing figure. “Stay behind me, my darlings.”

Lady Cordelia’s icy dark eyes flickered toward Evangeline, pure hatred swirling in their depths like a tempest. “You,” she sneered with absolute loathing. “This is entirely your fault.”

Evangeline stiffened. “What accusation do you make?”

Lady Cordelia’s nostrils flared as she jabbed an accusatory finger toward Evangeline. “For five years, Sebastian and I maintained a perfect life together. We had everything; a future, a child, a beautiful arrangement. But then—” she drew a shaky breath, her voice breaking into a savage growl. “Then you had to resurface. He encountered you at that accursed festival, and suddenly, he no longer desired me. He no longer wanted our family. He wanted only you.”

Her expression twisted into something hideous, something beyond mere rage—pure, consuming obsession that bordered on madness.

Sebastian’s expression darkened like a gathering storm. “You were never my family, Cordelia. You deceived me from the beginning. You used me like a pawn in your twisted games. And I will never forgive such treachery.”

Lady Cordelia’s lips trembled momentarily, but then she smirked, the pain in her eyes flickering away, replaced by something far more sinister and calculating.

“You always believed yourself so powerful, Sebastian. So commanding. The mighty Crown Prince of Valdris.”

Sebastian’s breath caught, his every instinct screaming that something was terribly, catastrophically wrong.

Lady Cordelia’s smirk widened into something truly terrifying. “Well, allow me to enlighten you,” she purred with deadly satisfaction.

“I orchestrated everything.”

Evangeline’s heart stopped beating entirely.

Sebastian’s entire body went perfectly still. “What did you say?”

Lady Cordelia’s dark eyes glowed with malicious satisfaction as she took another deliberate step forward, her voice dropping to a whisper that carried the weight of revealed secrets.

“All of it was my design and more bloodshed is coming.”

Evangeline gasped, her blood turning to ice water in her veins. “You—”

Sebastian’s breathing grew labored, his eyes flashing with something absolutely lethal. “You murdered innocent people. You slaughtered diplomats and merchants. And you orchestrated it all to appear as though foreign enemies were responsible.”

Lady Cordelia sighed with mock disappointment, as if explaining something to a particularly slow child. “I was forced to such measures, Sebastian.” Her smirk turned razor-sharp, her expression almost gleeful. “You stand there seething, contemplating whether to kill me where I stand. But here is what you have failed to consider.”

She stepped backward and snapped her fingers with theatrical precision.

Instantly, shadows moved from the surrounding tree line—figures emerging from the darkness like demons from hell. Armed soldiers, mercenaries, dozens of them in black leather and chain mail.

Evangeline gasped, instinctively stepping in front of her children. Sebastian’s royal guards were nowhere to be seen. They were completely surrounded.

Lady Cordelia released a triumphant laugh that echoed through the meadow like the cry of a predatory bird.

“Do not even consider touching me or summoning reinforcements, Sebastian.” She grinned, her eyes alight with absolute madness. “You are entirely surrounded. These soldiers serve me alone.”

Sebastian’s heart pounded against his ribs, but his expression remained controlled. He could see it now—the calculated manipulation, the elaborate traps she had been constructing for years.

Lady Cordelia clasped her hands together with playful mockery, tilting her head like an innocent maiden.

“So what will it be, my darling Sebastian? Will you fight me? Will you risk the lives of Evangeline and your precious sons?”

Sebastian’s breathing was steady, controlled—but every fiber of his being screamed for blood and vengeance.

And then she whispered, her voice like a dagger thrust directly into his soul.

“As I promised you before, Sebastian… if you cannot be mine, you cannot be anyone else’s either.”