Chloe couldn't touch me, not with the Emperor and Empress shielding me. So she'd turned her fury on Ruby instead.

I watched Ruby's broken body twitch with each blow, barely clinging to life, and the tears wouldn't stop.

I seized Homer's sleeve and begged. "My lord, please save Ruby. Every fault is mine, all of it."

"She was only worried about me."

Homer's expression pinched with reluctance. "Penny, she's just a servant. Let the Crown Prince's wife vent her anger and it'll blow over."

I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.

Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?

Mine didn't. Ruby's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of Millhaven Village.

I couldn't hold it in any longer. The words ripped out of me, raw and bleeding. "Is that what you told yourself when you slaughtered Millhaven Village, my lord? That they were just a bunch of lowborn nobodies?"

Homer flinched as if I'd driven a blade between his ribs. His hand shot to my throat and squeezed, his eyes splitting red with fury.

"Penelope, what nonsense are you spouting?!"

I struggled to break free, and the wound below tore open again. Blood soaked through the bedsheets in an instant.

Homer panicked at the sight. He gathered me into his arms, clumsy and desperate. "Penny, stop moving. Please."

I pried his hands off me and glared straight at him. "Homer, you've been lying to me for years. Was it worth it?"

"Hundreds of lives. And my two children. Don't you lose sleep at night?"

Homer's hand hung frozen in midair, trembling beyond his control.

"You know about all of it?"

When I said nothing, he rushed to explain. "Penny, I had no choice. People in Millhaven Village saw you with the Crown Prince. If the pregnancy got out, it would have torn the court apart."

I let out a bitter laugh. "Was it really about the court? Or were you afraid your precious Chloe would lose her power?"

Homer's brow creased. Whatever guilt had been in his eyes vanished, replaced by cold displeasure. "That was all my decision. Chloe had nothing to do with it. Leave her out of this."

Even now, he was still shielding Chloe. The last thread of hope in me snapped.

"Then what about my children? The first one, fine, I'll blame myself for grieving too hard to protect it. But the second?"