Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“I’m furious and scared, but I’m not going to shatter. Stop worrying about handling me and just tell me the damn plan.”
Theo nodded, almost to himself. “You’ll have to withdraw from college or push back to next year. For better or worse, this will be finished within the next nine months.”
“Nine months.” The words tasted of dust on her tongue. Deferring for a year wouldn’t ruin her life, but it would ruin her timeline. She could already picture the triumphant cruelty on her mother’s face when she heard the news, the croon in her voice as she whispered, I always knew you’d fail. Thought you were better than us, but you’re exactly the same. A failure. A fuckup. Blood always outs.
No, I can’t think like that.
It wasn’t the end. She wouldn’t let it be.
“I’m sorry, Meg. I really am. This wasn’t part of the plan.” Theo checked his phone. “Galen, can you meet the courier in the lobby. He should be here shortly.”
Galen nodded and disappeared down the hallway. Seconds later, the sound of the door closing permeated the apartment. She looked at Theo. “A year from now your brother reaches his majority.”
“Half-brother.” He said it with the distracted air of someone who had to correct people constantly. “And yes, my uncle can’t move directly against me in the meantime, but he won’t hesitate to remove anyone who gets too close. They still think they can draw Galen back into the fold.” He shook his head. “If they took you to Thalania, it might even work.”
“We had sex twice. How does that translate to manipulating Galen or hurting you by taking me? It doesn’t make any sense.” People had sex all the time. Emotions didn’t come into it. She couldn’t claim that rule applied to this situation. How could she be in bed with them and not be affected? But there was no reason for Galen’s father or Theo’s uncle to realize that. Not so quickly with so little evidence.
What evidence could he even have? She didn’t even have evidence that this went beyond an intense physical attraction and what appeared to be Theo’s perverse desire to drop large sums of money on her.
“He must have found out that we shared you.” Something like guilt flared over Theo’s face. “We weren’t as discreet as we should have been in the club.”
Despite everything, her body flared hot at the memory of being caged by Galen’s big body while Theo slipped a hand up her dress. “No, we weren’t very discreet.” She stared. “But that still doesn’t answer my question—why me?”
“That moment in the club was the first time we’ve slipped up since I was exiled. Neither of us has been a saint, exactly, but we’ve been careful.”
She blinked. “So he was going to… what? Send his guys to tune me up a little and see if that pulled you out of the woodwork?” Beat her and leave her to see what she did, who she called. If Galen hadn’t arrived in time, or at all, would Meg have called Theo to warn him?
Yes.
She couldn’t even pretend she wouldn’t have.
Theo would have come to her immediately. She might not know him well in the grand scheme of things, but she knew that without a shadow of a doubt. He would have rushed to her—they both would have. And the end result would be the same.
Thank god Galen was there.
Theo shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. Galen stepped in and so they know hurting you will draw us out. That puts you at risk, and there’s not a single thing we can do to stop it at this point.” He watched her closely. “We could set you up somewhere for the time being, but I’d prefer you come with us.”
“Come with you,” she repeated. “Where?”
“Overseas. There is a… discrepancy that led to my being removed from my position as Crown Prince after my father died, and Galen and I intend to rectify it.”
That meant absolutely nothing, but she filed it away to deal with later. Right now she cared less about Theo’s exile than she did about her life tumbling into shambles around her. Selfish? Without a doubt. Meg couldn’t bring herself to feel bad about it. “I don’t have a passport, Theo. How am I supposed to come with you out of the country?” As much as she’d always dreamed of traveling, at the current junction in her life, a passport was a luxury expense. Even if Theo threw money at this problem, there will still be a waiting period.
“Galen’s taken care of it.”
She blinked. “That seems convenient.” How the hell had he pulled that off? Why had he pulled that off? Passports took time and securing one inside of three days had to be impossible, which meant Galen had done it earlier. Perhaps much earlier. What the hell is going on?