“Fern.”
“Yes. Fernanda is with me. She also tasked me with something. And even though I’m furious at you because my sister has come to me broken, she says that I still have to tell you this. I have found your father.”
He felt like he had been hit in the chest with a brick. “Explain.”
“I found your father. He’s living in a small village in Spain. New name, new identity. Lots of money. I can have him brought to you.”
“How?”
“I have my ways. But he can be taken captive, and brought to you if you like.”
“Yes. I would very much like that.”
He felt numb. His father was going to face justice.
And while nothing that happened would ever be made right, it would be… Something could be healed.
What about you?
There was something that still felt profoundly broken in him. And even as he prepared to receive the man that he hated more than any other, he felt no real triumph.
Because nothing in the past could truly be fixed.
And he had no idea what he wanted in his future.
It was world news. The former king of Asland had been found, living a secret life in Spain, and had been taken into custody. Imprisoned for crimes against his people, and also for murder.
She had been proud. Because he hadn’t simply killed his father. He had allowed justice to prevail. He would now be sharing a cell with the other man who had destroyed the country.
It was fitting.
And she still felt devastated. Lonely.
She still missed him.
She still wanted him.
But she could be glad that some part of him had found… Perhaps justice would put him on a path to healing.
Perhaps it would placate something in him.
She was sitting by the pool at her brother’s villa. She was more than one margarita into the day, and she was realizing that she needed to get herself together. She wasn’t going to sit in her heavenly plane mourning a man who wouldn’t come to her for the rest of her life.
She could at least be happy that this had given her a small chance to get to know Ricardo a little bit better. But she had also gotten to know his current boyfriend, and she liked him very much, and if Ricardo did his typical thing and blew it all up then she was going to be cross with him. She had told him that last night after dinner and he had only laughed.
“So I should attempt heartbreak like you?”
“You should not be an idiot like my husband. If you have a good thing you should keep it.”
He hadn’t been amused by that.
She took another sip of her margarita and looked out at the pool.
“You should slow down on those,” said her brother, meandering near her lounge chair.
“Why? It’s more fun than thinking.”
“I agree. But you are much smarter than I am. You also engineered justice that was long overdue. Not something I would’ve done.”
