|🌴| Shipwrecked Princess |🌺| A Novel |🌺| Complete |🌴|

🌴 Chapter Fifty-One 🌴

James was pleased that everyone remained silent. "So, now we are moving onto William's first betrothal to Princess Janessa Lyalieah of Oshiappa. Now that came as quite a shock to me. It wasn't part of my plan. I was going to find someone for William, someone easy to do away with so I could easily take the throne. I ended up doing just that but I was devastated that betrothal had happened without my knowledge."

Nori waited with braided breath on what he would say next. She could only fear the worst and she had a pretty good idea of what he would say. She didn't want to believe it, but at least she would know who was behind it all.

Mark felt his heart begin to shatter into pieces. He too knew what James was going to admit next. "No - no you didn't . . ." He trailed off, his voice was barely audible to his own family. It felt like the walls around him were beginning to crumble on top of him. "You didn't . . ."

Akira clenched his fists. He was standing in front of the man who had caused his sister's death. He was glad Yohan wasn't here or else his younger brother wouldn't have hesitated to kill him in the most gruesome way for what he had done to Janessa.

Daiyu could only feel awful for her in-laws, since she had never met Janessa, she couldn't feel that attachment like they had. She placed her hand on Akira's arm and rested her head on his bicep. She could only imagine how angry they were at this admission.

Mingmei's breathing hitched as she stared at James with wide eyes. He seemed so proud that he had caused her death, even if he hadn't said it outright yet. She braced herself for him to admit it so she couldn't do anything rash.

James laughed and shook his head. "No interrupting." He chided the foreign royals. "I had to change my plans. It was a tasking effort and took longer than I expected. I at first didn't want to cause any harm to the young girl, but I realized I could never drive a wedge between you. So, I decided to go down a much different path and by that I mean I paid those pirates to only kidnap Janessa and unfortunately she "drowned."."

Nori felt her knees give out on her as she clung to her husband. "No!" She cried, feeling just as awful as the day it happened. She couldn't believe he spoke about her death like it was nothing. "How could you! She was just a child!" She sobbed, tears streaming down her cheek.

Mark held onto his wife, his blood boiling. "You sick man! How could you be so cruel? So cold?" He spat, his jaw clenched. He wanted to punch him, perhaps even do more, but the assassins made it impossible to do anything.

Akira gripped his wife's hands and silently glared daggers at James. He knew if he opened his mouth that some not very nice words would come out. He knew those words wouldn't do them any good so it was best to keep his emotions in check despite his inner emotions acting like a volcano.

Mingmei also glared at James, envisioning her with her hands around his neck, shaking him senseless. "How dare you!" She snapped, her fisted hands shaking at her side. If she got out of this she was going to hurt him badly.

William couldn't believe the man who he thought to be his uncle had caused his best friend to die. "You-you had a hand in Janessa's death?" His eyes darted around Jame's face to see if he was bluffing and he wasn't. "You murdered my best mate?"

Kalirene placed her hand on her son's arm and gave him a sad look. "That is sickening. Not only did you murder the real Morgan, but you had a hand in sweet Janessa's death too?" This whole time the person who had been supposedly family had played a hand in an innocent child's death.

James furrowed his brow as they spoke, keeping a stoic face. Then, he suddenly laughed, shaking his head. "I only paid them, I didn't do it myself." He said as if that made it better. "I also never said she died. She is alive and well, and that is none other than our very own island girl, Essa!" He explained in a sing/song voice with a smirk.