“It’s just that…after Gage mentioned Catherine was there at Christmas dinner, it hit me. There are probably women around him.”
Claire’s eyes widened. “You mean like women who are…alive?”
Bea gave her a look, but the corner of her mouth lifted.
Claire sat on the edge of the bed, grabbing a slice of pear. “Bey. Gage is Gage. He’s a billionaire ice king with cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass. You’veseenthe way women look at him.”
“I know.” Bea adjusted the strap of her dress. “But it didn’t feel real until I was back here. Until it wasn’t just me away from him—it was him there without me.”
Withher.
Catherine. And the kind of women who wereborninto the UR. Not women like Bea, who were there on scholarships.
Claire didn’t answer right away.
“It’s not stupid, you know,” she said finally.
“It feels stupid.”
“It’s not.” Claire reached for the hair straightener, passed it to her. “You left. You made a choice. And now you’re doing the mental math—how far is too far, how long is too long. That’s human.”
Bea ran the iron through a strand already perfectly straight, her hand slower than usual.
“It’s been a year since I saw Umma and Papa. Andyou. Seventeen hours is too far to come for a short visit.” She rattled through the list of justifications, trying to convince herself all over again. “It made sense.”
Claire watched her in the mirror. “Until it didn’t.”
“I just think…” Bea sighed. “Maybe coming back for thefullten weeks of summer break was too long.”
Claire raised a brow. “That’s sounding a lot like regret.”
“It’s starting to feel a bit like it too,” Bea admitted. “But the thing is, I can’t go back now. Not just for Gage. That feels desperate. Like I’m throwing myself at him.”
“You mean going back to the country you live in? To the school you go to? To the man you’re dating?”
The trifecta.
The UR. The school. The man.
It wasn’t just that she’d temporarily left the United Republic of Westhaven—the strange, sovereign archipelago built by power, wealth, and legacy. Or that she’d stepped away from St. Ives University, where billionaires were groomed like racehorses. Or even Gage, who wasn’t just her boyfriend but the heir to a kingdom of capital.
It was that she’d booked it without technically telling him first.
Suffice to say, he hadn’t been pleased. There had been consequences.
Sexy. Thorough. And a warning to take with her:
Don’t think for a second I won’t come for you.
Claire leaned in. “There’s a difference between chasing someone and showing up for your life.”
Bea’s smile faltered. Her life. It was getting harder to know where that was exactly. Here, in Toronto, where her parents and Claire lived, where she’d grown up. Or the UR. The place she’d fought to be invited to, and where she was working hard to prove she belonged.
“IfI go back,” Bea finally said it out loud, “it needs to make sense.”
“It already does.” Claire tapped her on the nose. “You just don’t want to admit it yet.”
They didn’t say anything else for a while. The music was slow and low now, layered with distant vocals and liquid chords that felt like they remembered something for her.The city lights blinked behind frosted windows. Her umma was humming in the kitchen again.
