Hailey's POV
The words cursed bloodline didn't land all at once to my hearing.
So my problem wasn't financial problem, it was spiritual???
They seeped in slowly, like poison under the skin.
My grandfather didn't raise his voice when he said it. He didn't dramatize it. He spoke the way men like him always did when confessing to something monstrous—calmly, as if the truth were a courtesy he was finally extending.
I stood there, documents still spread across the desk, my pulse loud in my ears, and waited for him to explain himself.
"You always wondered why your mother disappeared from society so suddenly," he said, lifting his eyes to mine. "Why were the rumors buried so efficiently? Why did your father changed."
My stomach tightened.
Kingsley was beside me now, clos
