Page 161 of Uprising

I attack her again. This time making two more puncture wounds. She screams louder and then she slumps into the chair like she’s fallen unconscious.

Roman steps up slapping her around the face. “You won’t get a reprieve that way.” He states.

“Fuck you.” She snaps at him. “You turned my daughter into a whore.”

“You were the one who did that.” He says back. “First with Paris and then with Darius.”

She looks at me, her head hanging low onto her chest. “I just wanted you to have what I never got.”

“And what’s that?” I snap.

“To be a Blumenfeld. To call yourself that.”

I frown confused. What the fuck is she talking about?

I open my mouth to speak and she cuts across me.

“I had every right to do it. You were my daughter. My flesh and blood. I created you.” She rolls her head back, then looks directly at me. “You were never good enough for him. I told him that. I told him but he wouldn’t listen.”

“I was your daughter.” I spit. Like it makes a difference because clearly to her it didn’t.

“And it should have been me.” She screams. “Me that he married. Me that he acknowledged. Only he wouldn’t do it. He needed Ignatio too much and by the time he didn’t, it was too late.”

“What?” I snap. What the fuck is she talking about?

“He had a plan. He knew he could never marry me, that Verona would never accept it, that our parents would never accept it.”

My stomach twists. For a moment I wonder if she was like me and Roman, that their love was as forbidden as ours. But she wasn’t fighting to be with him. She didn’t do anything to make that happen. She forced me into a relationship instead, so what the fuck was she doing?

“I had to marry Ignatio. I had to ensure Darius had enough support to be Governor.”

“What are you talking about?” I snarl.

She licks her lips, her eyes darting about like she’s actually lost her mind. “I’m so thirsty.”

We haven’t given her anything to eat or drink. We can hear her belly rumbling. Roman jerks his head and the guard that isn’t holding the chair gives her some water. Only a mouthful though. Only enough to wet her mouth.

“Our parents wouldn’t allow it.” She repeats.

“Why not?” I ask.

She draws in a deep breath looking around the room with disdain. “Because of who we were. Because his father and mine were the same.”

My eyes widen. I stumble back. “What?”

“His father had an affair. He slept with my mother. Darius and I are half brother and sister.” She says smiling like she’s so proud of that fact.

“And you wanted to marry him?” I gasp disgusted.

“I deserved the Blumenfeld name.” She cries. “I had as much blood as Darius did. I deserved to be treated the same. To be able to walk through life, treated like a Blumenfeld. Just because my mother wasn’t married to his…” She shuts her eyes then forces them open again. “We didn’t care that we were related. It didn’t matter, not to us. But his father found out, he caught us at the cabin, and they made me marry Ignatio. He argued it was for Darius’s sake…”

I can’t listen to it. Not right now. If she’s Darius’s sister then that makes me his niece. I can feel the bile churning in my stomach. I married my uncle. I had sex with him…

“Rose.” Roman steps back, reaching out for me and I put my hand to stop him.

“You married me to him.” I snarl at my mother. “My own uncle.”

She looks at me and snorts. “I would have sold you to the devil if it got me what I wanted. My blood mixed with his.”