He looked down at her now, a bit like she was a bug to be wiped off his shoe. He hadneverused that expression against her. It made her feel worse. Everything about him made her feel worse.
“I’m sure you will choose appropriately.”
She stared at him, fury turning her mute for a good minute or two. He wasn’t even going to make a suggestion? He was going to leave it to her?
Fine.Good, even. Because she was done with this. Done withhim. Her daughter would not live like this, hoping forsomethingfrom her father only to getnothing. Ines didn’t know how to accomplish that just yet, but she’d find a way.
I am the storm.
“Just so you know, you do not need to attend any meals, walks orappointmentstoday. I do not wish to see you or be anywhere near anykingsat the moment. I will let you know when that changes.”
And with that, she marched off.
Chapter Eleven
ALEXANDRE SAT AThis desk, trying to focus on his ever-growing to-do list. Instead, he kept thinking about Ines.
And aprincess. A daughter. His. To protect.
He had protected Evelyne. Not perfectly, but from theworstof things. He still counted it as a partial failure, but this would be different. It had to be. He could protect his princess.
Your daughter.
He was an adult now. The king. He did not have to try to stop the whims of someone else, so she would be… She would be fine.
Names.Ines wanted him to have a say in a name, and he could barely wrap his mind around ababy. A girl. His.
All the ways he’d failed Evelyne felt bigger in his head now. Alex would never lay a hand on his daughter as Enzo had, but that didn’t mean he would begoodat this. He was aking, not a father. Didn’t being a good father require him to be more than a title? He couldn’t be.
He was a protector—ofallin his kingdom, not someone to think of names and futures and…
Adaughter. What was he supposed to do with this? It felt like a terrible unfurling in his chest, painful with claws. It was hard to breathe. Impossible to think of anything beyond that staticky picture on the screen. It hadn’t looked like much more than a blob to Alexandre, but the technician had confidently seen something.
A girl.Hisdaughter.
Gabriel strode in unannounced, but Alex heard his assistant huffing and puffing from behind him. “We have a problem,” Gabriel said seriously, ignoring the flustered assistant.
Alexandre wanted to rap his head on the desk. He had more problems than he could begin to count. Instead, he waved his assistant away. “Hold my calls until we’re done,” he told him.
The assistant frowned at Gabriel but did as he was told, leaving and closing the door behind him as he did.
“General Vinyes is up to something,” Gabriel said once the door was closed.
Alexandre wanted to shout—something he rarely felt toward Gabriel, but he didn’t have time for this nonsense. He had to figure out what to do with adaughter.
And a wife…who’d looked at him like he’d slapped her when he’d told her he trusted her to handle the names. He winced at the memory. Sometimes he behaved in ways he didn’t understand how they hurt people—but he’d known this would hurt her.
He’d hurt her on purpose. And what did that make him? Not the man he claimed to be, certainly. Fists weren’t the only way to hurt someone.
Still, he held his temper at Gabriel’s interruption. By a thread. “This is hardly news. General Vinyes is always up to something. Do you have proof of said wrongdoing?”
“Not exactly. But I’m hearing whispers and—”
Alexandre pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to pinch away the lick of temper with it. “I have told you there’s nothing I can do aboutrumors, Gabriel. I need something real to be able to get rid of him for good without causing more problems than his existence does.”
“It is a bigsomething, Alexandre,” Gabriel said seriously. “And it sounds credible enough I’m considering sending Evelyne and Gabri off to Italy and my parents until we sort out what the threat is and how we can stop it.”
This poked through some of Alexandre’s frustration. Thatwasbig. Gabriel might have no love lost for the general, but if he was worried enough to send Evelyne and Gabri away… “You think it isthatdangerous?”
