Chapter 1

The day before I was supposed to marry Prince William, Nora Sterling set me up and ruined my reputation.

After I was rescued, my family didn't even try to stand up for me. Instead, they made me hand over my engagement to William to Nora.

My mother's gaze scraped over me like I was garbage. She said, "Since you're already ruined, there's no way you can marry Prince William anymore.

"Let Nora take your place and marry him instead."

Nathan Sterling, who had never once been kind to me, sneered, "Nora has always been the perfect one. Had we known you'd crawl into filth, we'd have crowned her from day one."

My father flung a steaming cup of coffee straight at my skull.

He snapped, "I knew you'd never learn anything good after all those years away. We never should've brought you back. You're nothing but trouble.

"Once Nora's married, you can just go drown yourself.

I glared at my so-called family, clenching my fists so hard that my knuckles turned white.

If they wanted me dead, then fine, I would drag them down with me.

*****

My father was right. After being cast out for so many years, I never learned anything decent.

I was a villainess. I killed my first person when I was just nine.

After Nora's birth mother, Bella Thomas, swapped me with her own daughter, she never showed me an ounce of kindness.

She refused to feed me or give me clothes.

She forced me to crouch in the streets, barely dressed, begging for scraps like a stray dog just to survive.

But I never held it against her.

What child could hate the woman they believed gave them life? Loving her just came naturally to me.

Every time I managed to scrape together something from begging, I'd always hand it over to Bella first.

Only after she'd eaten her fill and drunk her fill would I touch whatever pitiful leftovers she didn't want.

But even so, I didn't mind at all. Because as long as she was around, I could still call myself a child with a mother.

Even when she beat me or cursed me out, I still loved her fiercely, no matter what.

When I was nine, famine hit our town. I couldn't beg for food anymore.

Bella, seeing how much I resembled my birth mother, Victoria Sterling, dragged me to a market where desperate parents were trading their children for food.

For the first time ever, she reached out and gently stroked my face, her voice soft and loving, the way an actual mother would. She said, "Sophia, you don't want your mother to starve, do you?

"I gave birth to you. Can you go with them so they'll give me a bag of rice and flour? I need to stay alive."

Hot tears burned my cheeks.

It hit me again just how much I loved her.

I nodded.

I replied, "Yes, Mother.

"But I only have one request. Before I die, will you hold me?"

When I was out begging, I saw it over and over: moms scooping their kids into their arms.

If a boy slipped off the edge of a wagon wheel or scorched his fingers on a kettle hanging over the cook-fire, his mother would run, snatch him up, and clutch him to her chest.

I used to think a mother's hug held real magic that made pain disappear.

How else could a child bawl one second and hush the next?

I wanted Bella to hold me the same way. Maybe if she did, when the stall-keeper came to finish me off, it wouldn't hurt so much.

Bella hugged me. Her arms were soft, gentle, as warm as I'd always dreamed.

But the warmth vanished almost before it began.

In a flash, Bella let go, snatched the sack of cornmeal and slab of salt pork the trader handed over, and walked off without a second glance.

I watched her back as she walked away, and even then, all I felt was love for her.

She gave me life. It was only fair for me to repay her with my own flesh and blood.

The trader didn't kill me.

He saw my face peeking out from all that messy hair and just dropped his knife.

He took me home and told me to call him Dad.

He said it didn't matter if nobody wanted me or if my mom had sold me; he'd be the one to look after me now.

For the first time ever, I actually felt human. I had brand new clothes and real, clean food, not the reeking, rotten scraps I used to beg for on the streets.

I really thought I was finally safe.

But that night, he made me take off all my clothes and stand before him.

His dirty hands grabbed at me, and he claimed I was his now.

I did try to run away, but every time he dragged me back and beat the crap out of me.

The worst was when he stomped on my face, pressing down so hard I coughed up blood, and still he wouldn't let me go.

He even said he'd break my legs so I'd be stuck with him forever.

That day, I knew it was him or me; only one of us would walk away alive.

That night, while he was dead drunk, I set the whole place ablaze. I made sure he never woke up again.

Then I grabbed all the silver coins I'd scrounged up from that bastard and went looking for Bella.

On the way home, my heart was pounding with fear and excitement. I'd killed a man, but I was finally going to see Bella again after all this time.

I couldn't wait to tell Bella the good news: we'd never have to starve again.

Now I could look after her, and she wouldn't have to sell me anymore.

Finally, we could be together again.

But when I got home, I heard Bella inside, having a great time, drinking and chatting away with some new guy she'd just hooked up with.