Page 215 of Heartless Sinner

“Okay, another rude point for you.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Not sure why Daphne likes you,” she said with a sigh. “I personally prefer nice men.”

“And I prefer women who don’t fucking help plot my father’s death.”

I said the words before I could stop them. Everyone within earshot knew the truth already anyway.

I stared down at the water churning against the hull.

“How many times do you need to be told that she didn’t plot his death?” she said, sounding almost annoyed with me.

“How do you know this shit?”

“I know everything about everything.” She smiled. “Some call me the ears of the castle.”

Since I wasn’t a fan of gossipers, I furrowed my brows and returned to my silence.

“I’ve also been the one comforting Daphne every day since she came back to Calira. And don’t worry, my lips are sealed.” She made a locking gesture over her mouth and pretended to throw an imaginary key into the water. “I have undying loyalty to the royal family.”

Still, I gave her nothing.

“Can you imagine if it were your mom you found bleeding out on the floor?” she kept pushing like a pest. “Or Adelina?”

“No. Nor do I want to.”

“You’d want to kill the entire world.”

“She could’ve told me.”

“And what?” she said with a disgruntled laugh. “What would you have done or said, Brooks?”

“She could’ve trusted me.”

“She could’ve trusted you? Told you she planned to help a group of government officials impeach your father, and you’d have been okay with it?”

Fuck. I hate when people make good points against me.

“She trusted politicians who used her instead of the people she claimed to care about. She could’ve told us for years but kept quiet.”

This time, she was silent for a second.

“She was lost, Brooks. Lost and hurt,” she finally said with brokenness in her voice. “You know Daphne’s heart. She’d have stopped it or told you if she knew it was some murder plot.”

“Then she should’ve done her research on who she was helping first.”

She turned to fully face me. “How much research did you do before killing Peter when you were angry?”

“How the fuck did you⁠—”

“Daphne didn’t tell me that one,” she rushed out, needing to make that clear. “Like I said, I’m a little bird in this castle.” She shrugged flippantly. “I never liked Peter anyway. The asshole used to grab girls’ asses, and the PM would deal with sexual harassment claims on the regular. I’m glad Cory was the twin who lived.”

She looked over my shoulder, and I did the same to see her staring at Cory, deep in conversation with Nico, Cedric, and Enzo.

We’d started being more cordial toward each other, and he’d scored an invite to the wedding.

I still wouldn’t call the fucker my friend or invite him to mine, but I also no longer wanted to slit his throat. That was progress.