Scarlett's POV
The manipulation was perfect. It was a cage built out of my own feelings. If I stayed, I would be the reason they killed themselves. If I left and faked my death, I was their savior—but I would be dead to the world, a secret kept in a Swiss mountain house while they moved on to other women.
I looked at my mother, who was wiping a stray tear, and my father, who looked like a stranger in his royal crest. They had already made their choice. They had chosen the "greater good" over their only daughter a long time ago.
"And if I agree?" I asked, my voice sounding like it belonged to someone else. "The witch… she mutes the bond? They'll feel me die?"
"It will be a sharp, sudden snap," Sir Levi said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Painful, yes. But clean. They will believe you are really dead. And eventually heal."
