Denial and Awakening.
The smell of moist dirt and burning cedar, which typically gave him comfort, permeated the air in Lorenzo's quarters. But it choked him tonight. The bits of the prophesy scattered before him like shards of a broken reality as he sat at the edge of his desk.
Isabella's admission to him tore at his brain. Everything he had been taught, including his duty, his ancestry, and his father's reign, was based on deceit if what she stated was accurate.
There was a knock on the door. Matteo came in, a worried frown on his face. "You look terrible."
Lorenzo let out a breath. "I feel worse."
Across from him, Matteo sat and studied the strewn papers. "I assume she said something you should hear."
Lorenzo combed his black locks with his fingers. She asserts that Antonio falsif
