“It’s not a forgery.” Reclaiming his seat, he softens his tone, and his emerald eyes bore into me, willing me to believe him. “Faye gave it to me when you arrived on the island. Her mother kept the journal hidden after your parents died.”

My eyes widen. “How long has Faye known about this?”

“As far as I’m aware, just a few months.”

Betrayal lingers on my tongue like a bitter pill I don’t want to swallow. “How could she not tell me?” The question is rhetorical, laden with stunned disbelief.

Landon answers anyway. “Her mother swore her to secrecy.”

“That’s no excuse! She’s my lady…my best friend since childhood. This doesn’t make any sense.” I narrow my eyes. “Why would she give the journal to you?”

“To ensure I don’t bid in the auction.”

I can’t breathe, can’t think…I don’t want to think. Because thinking means analyzing his explanation, rolling it around in my mind and coming to heartbreaking facts based on inference. It means admitting, even to myself, that what he’s saying might be true. The thought torpedoes through my mind, and I think back to the last two months.

Landon and his kind, secretive eyes.

The way he pushed back against Heath on my behalf at last month’s dinner.

And how he gave me an “out” at the medical examination and was the first to leave when given the choice.

How he didn’t touch me…at all.

“Just say it,” I demand, voice tremoring with devastation.

“You’re my sister.”

I shake my head…denying, denying, denying.

“But I have the Van Buren eyes, and…” As I bite my lip, a tear escapes my lashes.

“Biologically, you’re the daughter of Franklin Astor.” Glancing down at his joined hands, Landon pauses. “You have my father’s smile…not that you’ve had reason to smile since arriving on the island.”

The heaviness of his words, the quiet sadness in them, float between us for several moments, and the raging hurt in my soul ebbs a little. My gaze lands on the abandoned journal sitting between us. I wipe my cheeks, stowing away the anguish to deal with later when I’m alone.

“Did you know before Faye gave you the diary?”

“My father told me last year.”

“Who else knows?”

“No one, other than Faye and her mother.” He rakes a hand through his thick, dark hair, disrupting the combed-back strands. “If the truth comes out that you descend from Evangeline Castle…” Landon lets out a quick breath. “The Brotherhood will void the contract. There will be no auction for marriage.”

My heart skips a hopeful beat. “You mean I’ll be able to leave this place?”

“Where will you go? As the only living relative of King Van Buren, Rowan is the rightful heir to the throne of your lands.” He falls silent, letting the statement settle between us.