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“Anne I think your son should hear this fro her attention toward the couple sitting on the couch Anne and Lex, Liam and Luca’s parents, look at us, and for so away

Anne gets up and walks toward us, folding her ar in front of them

“None of you should be fighting,” Anne says “Or talking about e”

“But Luca stole—”

“I don’t care what he did, Jill,” ht with these boys Is that understood?”

I lower my eyes, but the need to rebel still slips into rind my teeth “Yes, Mom”

“We were just playing around,” Luca mutters

“Luca” His mother throws him a deadly look

Liah to keep their mouths shut We only seem to make it worse

“Playing or not … there will be no talk of e, understood?” Anne responds

“Sa Jasmine and me a look

I frown Why do they care so much? “Why not?”

“Because the only one who decides who you till oose bumps to my skin, every one of his steps as loud as his voice as he approaches us “Is me”

My lips part, but I have nothing to say Not because I don’t want to, but because it feels like my voice has been stolen away from me

I may not be a real princess, but sometimes, I do feel like one

All locked up in a tower of

And Luca De Vos is waiting for his chance to come and be the cruel prince who rescues me

Over my dead body

Chapter 2

Luca

Age 12

The dead body on the floor doesn’t faze me anymore

I’ve seen plenty before on our trips dohen my father’s men had to kill someone, and he made my brother and me watch

The only thing that’s got un is my own father