“Did you see my article?”
“I did. It meant everything.”
She moves closer to me, and I catch her scent in the air. “Max, I’m so very sorry about lying to you.”
“I don’t need you to apologize again.”
“You don’t?”
I can no longer resist my overwhelming need to touch her, to feel her warm body next to mine. I wrap her in my arms and hold her close, my heart thudding against my ribs as though it’s trying to escape. “I forgive you wholeheartedly.”
“I never dared hope you'd forgive me,” she replies softly.
“I only hopeyoucan forgiveme.”
She looks up at me, her eyes shining. “For what, Max? You did nothing wrong.”
“I sent you away that day,” I reply, the memory of the look on her face like a physical pain in my chest.
“How could you not? I lied to you.”
“You were only doing what you had to do. I understand that now. You were protecting yourself. I have things to tell you. Important things.”
“What?”
I take her by the hand and together we sit on one of the stone benches. “I did some investigating into what happened with your father.”
She blinks at me in shock. “Why?”
“After you left the palace that day and I’d calmed down, I read Miranda Thorne’s article. It didn’t sit right with me. She seemed to know details about your father's case that were oddly specific.”
“You sound like an investigative journalist.”
“Perhaps that could be a new career for me?” I reply, and we share a smile.
“So, I had Dante do some digging for me.”
“Dante? As in your Air Force friend?”
“Former Air Force, now a private investigator. He searched through all the files. He discovered some inconsistencies and followed through on some of them.”
“And?” she asks, eagerness in her eyes.
“And it would seem your father was innocent.”
Her hand flies to her chest. “What?! Max, how?”
“The man who accused your father of embezzlement and provided most of the evidence against him was Lord Blackwood.”
“Lord Blackwood?” she repeats, aghast.
“Here's the key thing Dante discovered. The financial irregularities didn't stop when your father fled the country. Money continued disappearing from the same royal charities for months afterwards, but it was covered up.”
“But if Papa had been the one stealing?—”
“Exactly. It should have stopped the moment he left the country. But it didn't." I squeeze her hand. "Blackwood had massive gambling debts around that time, debts that were paid off just after your family left Ledonia.”
“I don't understand. How could Lord Blackwood frame my father?”
