I couldn't hold it in any longer. The words ripped out of me, raw and bleeding. "Is that what you told yourself when you slaughtered Millhaven, Omero? That they were just a bunch of lowborn nobodies?"
Omero flinched as if I'd driven a blade between his ribs. His hand shot to my throat and squeezed, his eyes splitting red with fury.
"Penelope, what nonsense are you spouting?!"
I struggled to break free, and the wound below tore open again. Blood soaked through the bedsheets in an instant.
Omero panicked at the sight. He gathered me into his arms, clumsy and desperate. "Penny, stop moving. Please."
I pried his hands off me and glared straight at him. "Omero, you've been lying to me for years. Was it worth it?"
"Hundreds of lives. And my two children. Don't you lose sleep at night?"
Omero's hand hung frozen in midair, trembling beyond his control. His right hand drifted toward the inside of his left wrist, pressing hard against the pulse point before he caught himself.
"You know about all of it?"
When I said nothing, he rushed to explain. "Penny, I had no choice. People in Millhaven saw you with the Valente heir. If the pregnancy got out, it would have torn the Commission apart."