I stood slowly, my heart sinking."Tell you what?"
"Don't."She crossed the room and dropped the folder on my desk, right on top of the sabotage reports."Don't insult me by pretending you don't know what I'm talking about."
I looked down at the open contract, at the section on duration and dissolution, and the bottom dropped out of my stomach.
"How did you—?"
"Does it matter?"She crossed her arms."I know now.That's what matters.The marriage is permanent.Forever.Until death or some impossible vote that will never happen."
"I can explain."
"Explain what?That you've been lying to me for weeks?That you let me walk around talking about leaving in six months while you knew I was trapped here forever?"Her voice rose."That you slept with me knowing I thought I could still leave?"
The accusation hit like a physical blow."It wasn't like that."
"Then what was it like, Archie?Enlighten me."
I came around the desk, needing to close the distance between us, but she stepped back.
"Don't come near me."
I stopped."I was going to tell you."
"When?"
"After the six months."I ran a hand through my hair, trying to find words that would make her understand."I thought by then you'd want to stay.That it wouldn't matter anymore because you'd have chosen to be here anyway."
"You thought."She repeated the words like they tasted bitter."You thought you'd just wait until I'd invested six months of my life, and then I'd be so attached I wouldn't care that you'd lied about the single most important term of our arrangement?"
"I thought you'd see that we could make this work.That what we have is real."
"What we have is based on lies!"She was shouting now."The Peter deception, the six-month lie, god knows what else you haven't told me.How am I supposed to believe anything about us is real when the foundation is completely fabricated?"
"The feelings are real.What happened between us, that was real."
"Was it?Or were you just securing your permanent wife's cooperation?"She grabbed the contract from the desk."It says right here I'm expected to produce heirs.Were you thinking about that when you touched me?When you made me feel safe?Were you checking off boxes on your royal duty list?"
"No, I swear."
"You swear what?That you weren't thinking about the heirs we're contractually obligated to produce?That you weren't calculating how to keep me compliant until I was too pregnant to leave?"
"I wasn't thinking about any of that.I was thinking about you.About how much I wanted you, how much I..."I stopped.
"How much you what?"
"How much I was falling for you," I said."I know that doesn't excuse the lie.But when I was with you, I wasn't thinking about duty or heirs or contracts.I was just thinking about you."
Something flickered in her expression.Not forgiveness, but maybe a crack in the anger.A hesitation.
I pressed forward, desperate to widen that crack before it closed."I was wrong not to tell you.I know that.But Betty, you have to understand, I was afraid that if you knew the truth too soon, you'd run before you gave this a real chance."
"So you took the choice away from me entirely."
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to.I was hoping that by the end of six months, you'd choose to stay on your own."
"But I don't get to choose, do I?That's the whole point."She looked down at the contract."This was decided for me.By the Grand Duchess, by political necessity, by everyone except me."
"I know how it looks."
