The Scars Of Twenty Stolen Years

It was the first day Yara and I returned to our rightful places.

Quentin, my childhood sweetheart and the man I was supposed to marry, gripped my hand in front of our parents.

"It's you I want, Valerie," he said, his voice firm. "I don't care about your title or your bloodline."

Yara hugged me through her tears, her voice trembling.

"Sister, we will always be family. I would never dream of taking anything that belongs to you."

Everyone told me I was lucky.

I had lost my status as the Vance