00:00No, Maya whispered. That's not possible. The woman stepping out of the lead car wore a plain
00:07grey coat. Her dark hair pulled back the way it always was after a night shift. She looked exactly
00:13like the friend who had once covered Maya's rent for a month without being asked, who had stitched
00:19a stranger's forehead in a walk-in clinic and never asked a single question. Priya, Maya said,
00:25stepping onto the cabin's porch before anyone could stop her. What are you doing here? Priya's face
00:32crumpled for just a moment, and then it smoothed into something calm and practiced that Maya had
00:37never seen on it before. I'm sorry, Maya, she said. I really am. I need you to believe that,
00:44even though I know you won't. Marcus's hand tightened on his weapon as he moved to Maya's side.
00:50Miss Reyes, step back inside. Tell us. She's my friend, Maya said, still staring at Priya.
00:58She's been my friend for eight years. Eight years, Priya agreed, quietly. That was never an accident,
01:05Maya. Adrian's mind was racing, pieces sliding into place from a night that felt like a lifetime ago.
01:12The clinic. The reporters arrived within an hour of us getting there. Only three people knew where we
01:19were. Four. If you count my phone call, Priya said. I'm not proud of it. You told them, Maya said,
01:27her voice barely a breath. You leaked our location. You handed me to the press and let me wake up
01:33in a
01:33scandal I never asked for. I was told it would protect you, Priya said. That a public relationship
01:40with the prince would make you untouchable. I believed that for a long time. Who told you?
01:46Daniel asked from the doorway, the pistol steady in his hand. Priya looked at him for the first time,
01:53and something in her expression softened into grief. You, more than anyone, should understand.
01:59I was 19 when they recruited me. Someone had spent years watching your family from a distance,
02:05Mr. Reyes, waiting for you to resurface. They needed someone close to Maya. Someone she would trust
02:11without question. So you became her friend, Maya said, tears finally spilling down her cheeks.
02:18I became your friend on purpose, Priya said. And then somewhere along the way, I actually became
02:24your friend. I don't expect you to believe that, but everything I felt for you was real,
02:30even if how it started wasn't. Only the VIP booking, Adrian said slowly. The private car request
02:37that put Maya behind the wheel the night of the crash. That was you too, the bunny Maya.
02:43Priya nodded, unable to meet Maya's eyes. I arranged it three weeks before it happened.
02:49I was told only that it was routine. I never knew what would follow.
02:54Branches cracked in the tree line. Edmund emerged from the pines beside the cabin,
02:59having watched the cars arrive from the trees exactly as Marcus had instructed.
03:04His own weapon lowered, but ready. Two more vehicles are sitting at the bottom of the track,
03:10he said quietly. Six men, maybe seven. They're staying back, waiting for a signal.
03:17Marguerite rose from the kitchen table and stepped onto the porch beside her son,
03:21calm as ever. Then, whoever is coming intends to speak before anyone bleeds.
03:28He always did prefer conversation to violence, when conversation was sufficient.
03:33Then why? He, Adrian repeated. You know who it is. I've known for twenty years,
03:40Marguerite said. I simply lacked the proof, and the leverage, and the courage to say his name out loud.
03:46The rear door of the second car opened slowly. The man who stepped out was in his seventies,
03:52silver-haired, dressed in an impeccable charcoal coat, leaning lightly on a black cane.
03:58He moved with the unhurried grace of someone who had never once in his life needed to rush.
04:03Edmund's face went pale. That's impossible. I saw the funeral. My mother told me he died in a boating
04:10accident twenty years ago. Everyone saw the funeral, Marguerite said softly. It was very well attended.
04:18The old man stopped at the foot of the porch steps, and inclined his head with perfect,
04:23courteous poise. Hello, Marguerite, he said. It has been a very long time.
04:30Victor, Marguerite said. Victor Ashworth, Lawrence's older brother, and the man who has
04:36been the real architect of every crime in this family's history since before any of these children
04:42were born. Please, Marguerite, Victor said mildly. Architect is such an unflattering word.
04:48I prefer to think of myself as a steward, someone who kept the trade routes flowing,
04:53while lesser men in lesser families squabbled over titles and legitimacy.
04:58You built a fraud that ran for twenty years and ruined dozens of lives, Daniel said.
05:04I built an economy, Victor said, one that fed thousands of families across two kingdoms.
05:10Lawrence was merely my public face, and Bertrand merely a convenient ambition I encouraged.
05:16Neither of them ever understood what they were actually protecting, and when Isabel discovered
05:22your manifests, Adrian demanded, the fury finally rising in his voice, when your men ran her off
05:29that road. Ween it. Victor sighed, and the sound was genuinely regretful. That was never my
05:35instruction, but I will not pretend I mourned the outcome until Dr. Whitmore's little rebellion
05:41in complicated matters. I came with a proposal, Miss Reyes, that I believe is uniquely suited to
05:48you. I'm not interested in anything you have to say, Maya said. Your brother's medical care,
05:55Victor said gently. The treatments your family has struggled to afford for twenty years,
06:00your mother's debts, your father's freedom from a life spent hiding, all of it can be resolved
06:06tonight, permanently, with a single signature. He nodded toward one of his men, who stepped forward,
06:13carrying a slim leather folder. All I ask in return, Victor said, is that Marguerite Hale
06:19and Daniel Reyes never testify about my involvement, that the hearing tomorrow proceeds exactly as
06:26scheduled, with Marguerite accepting responsibility for everything she has confessed to, and nothing
06:32further. Maya stared at the folder, her father's hand tightening on her shoulder. She thought of
06:38Tommy sleeping in the palace guest room, of every month spent doing the math on rent and treatments.
06:44Take your time, Victor said kindly. I am a patient man, but I should tell you what I am prepared
06:51to do,
06:51if the offer is refused. He nodded again, and the second man produced a tablet, turning it toward the
06:59porch, so that everyone could see the live video feed playing on its screen. It showed the palace
07:05guest wing, a small, dimly lit bedroom, a boy asleep in a narrow bed, a stranger in a dark uniform
07:12standing calmly beside him. Tommy, Maya breathed, her whole body going rigid. My people inside your
07:20palace have been very patient as well, Victor said softly. They have had eight years of practice,
07:26thanks to my dear young Priya's excellent reports. He turned his gaze back to Maya, courteous and
07:33completely without mercy. You have until sunrise to decide, he said, whether you sign that folder,
07:40or whether the next feed you watch is not sleeping. Coming up in episode 38, until sunrise, with Tommy
07:48threatened inside the palace, and Victor Ashworth waiting on the porch, Maya, Daniel, and Adrian have
07:56only hours to outmaneuver a man who has been three steps ahead of everyone for twenty years.
