“James, as a member of this royal family, you must do your duty to protect the country!”
“But you’re not asking me to protect the country—you’re asking me to protect your pride. Your pride isn’t worth my sanity.”
“This isn’t about pride!” Patrick slammed his hand against the armchair. “We cannot go to war with Ascor!”
He was unfortunately right about that. This silence from Ascor held a terrible, awful portent of doom. The fact that I still hadn’t heard from my spies weighed on me. Were the monarchs still debating how to respond to Valentina’s elopement? Or were they preparing something nasty in response to the former prince taking off with their daughter?
I honestly didn’t know.
And that wasn’t a good thing.
I stared into Patrick’s eyes and felt what little respect I had for him die a quick death. So this was how it would be?
“For the good of this country, youmusttake the throne and marry her,” Patrick insisted. “There’s no other solution!”
I’d called this man father, once, and meant it. But this moment made it obvious I wasn’t his son, not really, not in his eyes. If I was truly his child, he’d never sacrifice me over the one who had caused him problems for years.
“The reason why Victor’s acting like this,” I said softly, “is because he knows, doesn’t he? You stripping him of name, title, assets—all of it is temporary. He was supposed to spend a year at sea, come back changed and reformed, and be the acceptable crown prince once more. The reason why he thought bringing home a princess to marry would reinstate him was because you, or your wife, told him redemption was possible. Didn’t you?”
The silence spoke volumes, and from the expression on Patrick’s face, I had hit the nail on the head. Beatrice, at least, had the grace to look abashed.
“I suppose parents will always be like this.” I shook my head, not even surprised, just disappointed. I understood Victor’s actions now. Part of the mystery had been solved. “You’ll always sacrifice everything else for your child.”
“You are my child!” Patrick snapped.
“If I was really your child, you’d not trade me in for Victor.” I couldn’t believe he thought me this stupid. My tone sounded harsh to my own ears. “The other way for you to skirt around this is to properly try Victor, as a lord, for daring to abscond with a princess. A stiff prison sentence with no parole would likely soothe the ire with Ascor. Actually, for going against an imperial command and returning when he was supposed to be in exile, he should be beheaded—”
Beatrice half lifted out of her chair, screaming, “Don’t even joke about that!”
“—but of course, being parents, you can’t do that to your own child.”
Beatrice bit off a choked breath, tears standing in her eyes. Maternal love still existed within her for her children, I supposed, despite how badly she handled them. As for me, well, clearly I was the scapegoat. I’d been brought in to offset the burden so they wouldn’t have to sacrifice one of their own children. A burst of unexpected sorrow bloomed beneath my breastbone as all remaining affection for the people I’d once called parents died.
A bitter laugh broke free of my throat. “Well. At least I’m clear on what you really think of me.”
“James, don’t do this,” Patrick pleaded. “Don’t put words into my mouth I didn’t say!”
“You’re denying it, then?”
“I mean it when I say I want you to be king. It’s just, Victor’s still young—”
“He and I are very close in age. You remember that, right?” I’d had no patience with this argument to start with, and none left at this point, so I chose to stick a verbal spear into the target. “What’s the punishment when I don’t obey you?”
Patrick seized in place, eyes growing wide. “Is that all you care about? How you’ll suffer if you don’t do as I ask?”
“Oh, he has a whole plan to put himself into exile,” Beatrice bit off, tone bitter. “He was planning to escape us from the start.”
“Turns out I was right to be paranoid,” I pointed out snidely, glaring right back as she frowned at me.
Patrick slammed his hand down again, and truly, the chair wasn’t going to survive if he kept doing that. “You want to know what’ll happen if you say no? Fine. All the projects you’ve spearheaded will be defunded. King’s Paper will lose its business license and be forced to shut down. You’ll lose your position as prince immediately. You will lose your position, your influence,your birthright, and your money. You’ll be left with nothing. Still don’t want the throne or Valentina, James Kronenscheld?”
I closed my eyes, anger large as a Wrath washing over me. He hadn’t gone quite so far in my first life, hadn’t threatened to take King’s Paper away as well, but I believed he’d do it. He was a petty man by nature, and right now, he was desperate to keep his country and his children out of danger. He’d sacrifice me in the name of the greater good and pat himself on the back later for a choice well made.
I’d receive no mercy from these people.
If it was just a matter of losing the business, I’d be able to make the choice easily. As dear as King’s Paper was to me, it was nothing compared to my Edwin. Money meant nothing in comparison to Edwin. But did I have the right to take Paradise away from myself, my lover, in order to thwart the machination of these two?
Did I dare call this bluff, when I knew it wasn’t a bluff, and doom us all to a repeat of the disasters that would follow this moment?
