I stare at Blaise, feeling the heat rise in my chest. "She's a Kean. Her family destroyed ours."
Blaise shifts uncomfortably. "I'm just saying… Keira wasn't the one who ordered the hit. She was young?—”
“She was about your age. Did you have any trouble wanting the Keans dead at seventeen?”
“They killed our parents. Keira… what could she have possibly done?”
"She knew." My voice hardens. "She knew exactly what her family was planning and never said a word. In fact, she probably fed them information."
“Probably?” Flint arches a brow. “You’re going to marry and torment her on ‘probably’ she’s guilty of something? What if she wasn't?"
"What if she wasn't?" I repeat incredulously. "Are you serious right now?"
Flint and Ash exchange glances as Blaise steps closer. "I get the plan to marry her in terms of gaining family support, but to humiliate her publicly… it feels excessive if she wasn't directly involved."
"She was involved," I spit out, my control slipping. "She was fucking me while her family plotted to murder mine."
All eyes widen, and I realize that it’s first time I admit to my relationship with Keira.
Blaise shakes his head. "That doesn't mean she knew?—"
"Enough!" I slam my empty glass down. "She knew something was coming." How could she not? "She was their spy. She got close to me to learn our weaknesses, our routines. How else would they have known exactly when to strike?"
Blaise stands his ground. "Jenna showed Ronan the passageway. You're making assumptions based on circumstantial?—"
"Our parents burned alive!" The words explode from me. I can’t believe I have to remind them of all we lost. "They died screaming while the Keans watched the house go up in flames. And you want to give her the benefit of the doubt?"
"Did you love her?” Flint asks.
I take a step back, caught off guard by his directness. "What the hell kind of question is that?" I growl.
Flint doesn't back down. "If you were just using each other for information, that's one thing. But if you were actually involved emotionally?—"
"My relationship with Keira is none of your business."
"It is when you're using it to justify how you're treating her now," Blaise counters. "Look, I get that her father is a monster. Hampton deserves everything coming to him. But Keira? She was practically a kid."
"She was old enough to know what she was doing." My fists clench at my sides. "Old enough to betray me. This conversation is over.”
"Why? Because you might have to consider that you're wrong about her?" Blaise pushes. "Phoenix, we've all made mistakes in the name of vengeance. But if you’re marrying her as punishment for something you can’t be sure she did?—"
"I would have married her anyway!" The words burst out even though I don’t want to say them.
The room goes silent. My brothers stare at me, and I feel exposed, raw.
"What?" Blaise asks quietly.
I turn away, hating looking weak in front of my brothers. "Before the fire. I was going to ask her to marry me. I thought she felt the same."
“Dad wouldn’t have allowed that,” Ash says. “He didn’t trust Hampton anymore.”
“I know.” I run a hand through my hair, suddenly unsure of everything I've believed for a decade. “But if Dad saw Hampton's betrayal coming and still got killed, that means someone was feeding him information.”
Flint shrugs. “Hampton had been around enough for years before their falling out to know this house and Dad’s routine.”
I try to reconcile a decade of hatred with this new doubt gnawing at me.
“Besides, if Hampton knew about your relationship, he’d have every reason to push for a marriage between you and Keira. He’d see it as another step closer to power,” Flint finishes.
