Useless.
“Hold on a minute,” Meg murmured. She picked up the birth certificate and held it next to the first marriage certificate. “These are both correct?”
“The marriage certificate is a copy we got from the courthouse in Las Vegas, so it’s official. Safe enough to assume the one Alexis gave us is, too.” It had the right marks, at least.
Meg pointed at the birthdate listed on the marriage certificate. “This is wrong, then.”
Theo frowned and moved closer. The marriage certificate listed Mary’s birth year as 1969. He lifted the birth certificate. It was so old and faded in places, he hadn’t even noticed that the last digit was different. It had just looked like a faded out nine. It wasn’t.
It was a seven.
He did some quick math in his head. “But that would mean she was?—”
“Sixteen when she married her first husband. Which is technically legal if she had at least one parent’s written consent.”
“She didn’t.” That much, he knew. Mary had run away from home. Her parents didn’t even know she was in the States until she was already married.
Galen leaned forward to look. “Not to mention they would have the right birth year if she had parental permission. They didn’t. She lied.” He held Theo’s gaze. “Shelied. It didn’t matter that she never got divorced because the first marriage wasn’t legal in the first place.”
Meg gave him a smile that barely wavered at the edges. “Congratulations, Theo. Or should I say, Your Highness? You were right. You’re the rightful King of Thalania.”
17
They drove Meg to the airport.
Galen stood next to Theo as they watched her work her way through the line to the ticket counter. In a few short hours, she’d be safe on a plane headed back to New York. On a plane out of their lives for good. “You sure about this?”
“Do you love her?”
Galen jerked around, surprise rocking him back on his heels. “What the fuck kind of question is that?”
“One you might as well have shouted your answer to.” Theo gave a small smile. “Have you thought about leaving it all behind? I know you liked New York.”
What was he on about?
Theo answered the question he hadn’t voiced. He held up his phone, the screen displaying an airline ticket with Galen’s name on it. “You should go with her.”
“What?”
“I took you for granted.” Theo slipped his phone into his pocket. “You’ve always been there, and I never put much thought into a day when you might not. It’s not fucking right, Galen. The only reason you don’t leave my side is because you feel like youowe me. You don’t. There was never a debt, and if there had been, you would have repaid it a thousand times over.Ioweyou.” His blue eyes held something akin to grief. “You’ve given half your life to me, sacrificed every chance at happiness you had along the way.”
He was going to fucking kill Theo. Galen closed the distance between them. “I love you, you idiot. You make me happy.”
“I made you happy. Made—past tense. It’s not going to work. Fuck, you know that better than I do.” Theo gave him a sad smile. “You deserve more than to be someone’s dirty little secret.”
“Who’s going to watch your back if I’m not there to cover your ass?” The thought of Theo moving through the tangled politics of Thalania without Galen at his six left him sick to his stomach. Who could he trust with Theo, besides himself?
He stopped short.
What the fuck kind of question was that? He had no business even considering how Theo would function without him, because he had no intention of going anywhere.
“I see that look in your eyes.” If anything, Theo’s smile turned even more bittersweet. “You’re just like our Meg, so focused on the path in front of your feet that you’ve never stopped to wonder if it’s the right one.”
“I’m not leaving you.” It was unthinkable. His life and Theo’s were inextricably linked. They had been for nearly two decades.
Theo cupped his jaw and stroked his thumb across Galen’s bottom lip. “Yes, you are. Go with our girl. I can’t have her—I can’t have either of you—but I think you two could be happy if you both retract your spikes a little.” He dropped his hand. “Besides, she’s going to need someone to stop her from hopping the next flight back to kick my ass the second she checks her bank account.”
For fuck’s sake.“What did you do?”
