Chapter 11

Estelle's POV

"Fine. If you won't answer, I'll answer for you."

I turned so everyone in the hall could hear me.

"You're scared because you already know I didn't touch that necklace," I said. "When we got here, Cassius carried that blue box into the house himself. It was closed. It was perfect. He never let it out of his hand."

Cassius's fingers tightened around the box.

"Then he went upstairs and gave it to Delilah before the party," I went on. "And suddenly, like magic, the chain is broken and the diamond is gone. The moment it touched her hands."

I let that hang in the air.

"I think everybody here can do the math."

Whispers rolled across the room. A few guests who had been heading for the door stopped and turned back around.

"So the problem isn't the video," I said, looking straight at my family. "The problem is that you're scared to watch it. Because deep down, you know Delilah broke her own necklace. And you just want me to take the blame for her. Again."

Then I looked at Delilah.

"Isn't that right, Delilah?"

Delilah pressed herself closer to our mother. She didn't say a word. She just shook her head over and over, tears sliding down her cheeks.

My mother stepped forward with her hands raised, like she was trying to calm a wild animal.

"Estelle, please," she begged. "Delilah would never do something like that. And you... you're both my daughters. My two beloved girls. I can't stand to see either of you suffer. Please, let's stop this."

My two beloved girls.

Something inside me snapped.

"Stop," I said. "Just stop."

My mother froze.

"Three years ago, I might have believed that," I said. "Three years ago, I would have cried and thanked you for saying it. I wanted to hear those words so badly."

I took a step toward her.

"But after what you did to me? After you deleted the only proof that I was innocent? After you sent me to that convent to be beaten and starved, and never came to see me even once?" My voice broke, but I kept going. "Hearing you stand here and lie to my face like that... it makes me sick."

My mother's face crumpled. She put her hand over her mouth.

I looked at my father. At Cassius. At Delilah. Then back at my mother.

"You know what? I'll give you exactly what you want."

I reached up and pulled the piece of string out of my hair. It was the only thing I had brought from the convent. I dropped it on the marble floor between us.

"As of tonight, I am no longer a Silverthorn," I said. "I give up your name. I give up every right that comes with it. Your money, your house, your inheritance. I don't want any of it."

Gasps filled the hall.

"I'm done playing your games," I said. "I'm done being part of this family."

"No!" my mother cried. She lunged for my hand, but I stepped back. "No, Estelle, you can't! You don't mean that!"

"I've never meant anything more in my life."

I turned around and walked toward the front doors. My back burned with every step. Blood dripped onto the floor behind me, a little red trail across the white marble.

Nobody stopped me this time.

Just before I reached the doors, I heard Cassius's voice behind me. It wasn't loud. It wasn't angry. It was quiet and shaky, like he was talking to himself.

"Have I..." He swallowed hard. "Have I been wrong about her this whole time?"

I didn't turn around.

He would have to answer that question on his own.