Chapter 3His Ruined Queen

I looked at him, at the utter conviction on his face.

I laughed coldly. Me, apologize to Lana? She didn't have the right to hear my apology in her next life, let alone this one.

I turned to leave, but a sound from his phone stopped me dead.

My blood ran cold.

Cole was holding his phone up, a vicious, feral look in his eyes.

"Sloane. Don't make me do this."

It was the video. The one he swore he had destroyed after he’d killed my seven uncles. The recording of my forty hours of humiliation.

Hearing my own screams from that time, a reflexive wave of nausea hit me, and I stumbled to the side, gagging violently.

A flicker of pity crossed Cole's face. He started to move toward me, but just then, Lana burst out of her room.

The sight of me sent her into a frenzy.

"You bitch! You took my baby!" she shrieked. "Cole, our baby is gone! The doctor said I can never have children again!"

Her sobs were theatrical, heart-wrenching.

"I want her on her knees! I want her to beg for our child's forgiveness!"

Cole pulled her into a tight embrace, and any hesitation in his eyes hardened into resolve.

"Sloane, you can have the Blackwood empire, I don't care. But Lana and the baby were innocent. You shouldn't have touched them."

He looked at his watch. "You have five minutes. After that, this video goes public."