Once Upon a Broken Heart

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-15

Part 2, Chapters 16-19

Part 2, Chapters 20-25

Part 2, Chapters 26-31

Part 2, Chapters 32-36

Part 3, Chapters 37-42

Part 3, Chapters 43-45

Part 3, Chapters 46-50

Part 3, Chapters 51-54

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 3, Chapters 51-54Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 51 Summary

The guards and Tiberius rush into the room. Tiberius sounds just like Apollo when he was cursed, and Evangeline realizes Marisol tricked her again. Tiberius orders that Evangeline be put in his chambers, where he finds the truth spell and drinks it. It doesn’t work right away, and Evangeline stalls by asking why Tiberius left, reminding him he promised to tell her. Tiberius reveals he’s part of the secret organization dedicated to making sure the Valory Arch is never opened.

Tiberius confesses that he’s known all along that Evangeline didn’t kill Apollo, and Evangeline realizes the truth potion is making him tell her things. She stalls him with more questions about the prophecy and the Valory Arch. The prophecy describes her exactly and ends by saying her blood must be willingly given to open the arch.

As a final request, Evangeline asks Tiberius to call in his guards, tell them her crimes, and let one of them kill her. Tiberius’s impaired judgment from the potion makes him agree, but he can’t list Evangeline’s crimes because she’s not actually guilty of anything. Tiberius stutters over trying to blame Evangeline for Apollo’s death, but he can’t and confesses, “Evangeline didn’t kill my brother. I did” (385).

Part 3, Chapter 52 Summary

Tiberius falls to his knees, sobbing. Evangeline can’t help but cry, too, and they pour out their grief. At some point, the guards untie Evangeline and take Tiberius to the dungeon. In the hallway, Marisol comes out of her room, and Tiberius tells her “If I ever see you again, I will kill you, too” (387). Evangeline has Marisol locked in her room and is escorted to a new suite, where she’s reinstated as a princess.

Jacks comes to the palace, and one of the guards offers to take Evangeline to meet him. Instead of bringing her to Jacks, the guard leads Marisol down an abandoned hallway, where another girl Evangeline has never seen before is waiting.

Part 3, Chapter 53 Summary

The girl is Phaedra of the Damned, who has the power to read the secrets of dead people. The guard had her brought to the palace to read Apollo’s secrets, but she couldn’t, which made them realize Apollo was still alive and in a suspended state. They brought the prince to an underground room to protect him and are hopeful Evangeline can revive him. Evangeline tries kissing him, but nothing happens.

Seeing Apollo in such a state makes Evangeline puzzle over everything that’s happened since she bargained with Jacks. The logic, coupled with Jacks’s ability to control emotions and that he needs Evangeline to open the Valory Arch, makes a twisted sort of sense, and with a jolt, Evangeline concludes that everything that’s happened benefits Jacks’s goals. Apollo is likely a bargaining chip to get Evangeline’s willing blood for the Valory Arch. She resolves not to open the arch for him, and she realizes “exactly which door she needed to open next” (402).

Part 3, Chapter 54 Summary

In another part of the palace, a door that hasn’t been opened for a long time stirs, and the “wolf’s head emblem carved upon its center curved its mouth into a smile” (403).

Part 3, Chapters 51-54 Analysis

Evangeline’s truth potion works, if not in the way she expects. Her idea to have Tiberius call the guards shows her quick thinking. She knows Tiberius can’t lie under the potion’s influence, and she uses the guards as witnesses of her innocence. Tiberius doesn’t reveal why he poisoned Apollo, and he doesn’t know Apollo isn’t dead. His grief seems real, however, which suggests that he poisoned Apollo on someone else’s orders or out of a sense of duty, rather than hatred. Tiberius is imprisoned but not executed for his crimes, which suggests he may make an appearance in the sequel. Similarly, Marisol is only imprisoned, which means Evangeline may yet have a use for her stepsister or that Evangeline can’t bring herself to hurt Marisol even after everything she’s done.

Phaedra only appears in these final chapters and is a setup for the conflict and plot of the sequel. Her unique gift helped determine Apollo wasn’t dead and likely foreshadows her power being useful later on. Evangeline’s attempt to kiss Apollo awake echoes how kisses in fairy tales possess power. It may be that a kiss wouldn’t have woken Apollo regardless, or it may be that only true love’s kiss can wake him and that Evangeline is not his true love.

Chapter 53 shows Evangeline’s complex feelings toward Jacks coming together. He has helped and manipulated her at turns, but she sees more places where he’s manipulated her. Furthermore, the ways he’s helped all seem to have been toward achieving his goals. Her thoughts suggest she will align herself against Jacks in the sequel and search for information on the North’s former royals without him. It is unclear if she will ever open the Valory Arch, either for herself or Jacks. The door in Chapter 54 is possibly the door in the library behind which the former royals’ stories are supposedly hidden. The door appears to be alive and eager to be opened, which implies it has its own motives.