“Because I couldn’t stand to see him tear you down,” I snap, the anger finally giving way to a shaky breath.
“I was handling it.” He drags a hand through his hair, pacing a few steps.
“You were being humiliated in front of everyone.”
He looks away, his shoulders sagging. “You don’t understand how this works, Kaori. He’s my father. There are politics, expectations... a certain way things have to be done.” He lowers his gaze. “Playing his game is the only way I can protect the people on my team.”
“You shouldn’t have to let him get away with manipulating you.” My voice wavers. “He shouldn’t own you like that.”
He glances away. “You don’t know him like I do. He always finds your pressure points and leans on them until you break. I don’t know how he does it, but he could give a master class on it.”
“Maybe he could,” I say, stepping closer. “But youdeserve better than to be his target practice, and I’m just not afraid to say it out loud.” I place my hand on his shoulder, feeling the iron-hard tension in his muscles. “Is all of this—the humiliation, the control—really worth the promise you made to your grandmother?”
Theo’s shoulders sag, but he doesn’t give me a direct answer. He just looks at me with a pained sort of exhaustion. “I wish you’d just let him send me back to Orlando, Kaori. Now you’re out of a job.”
“You know what? I don’t care. I won’t work for a bully.” My head starts to throb as the adrenaline begins its inevitable crash. “Look, I need to go grab my things before he has me escorted out. We can talk about the fallout later.” I take a deep breath, lowering my voice so it doesn’t carry. “But before I go... there’s something I need to tell you.”
I glance around at the cluster of engineers. They’re doing a terrible job of pretending to be busy. We can both hear the buzz of their gossip.
“I’ll walk you to the lift,” Theo says.
My pulse is still a frantic drumbeat in my ears as we walk side by side. He presses the call button, the chime echoing in the quiet hallway. The doors slide open, and we step into the small, mirrored box.
“What is it?” he asks. “What did you want to tell me?”
“This is not at all how I imagined this conversation going, but you deserve the truth.”
As much as I’d rather wait until tonight, there’s no telling what an angry Mr. Harris will do. I can’t leave anything to chance. I want Theo to hear the news from me. Not him.
I raise my chin and force myself to meet his gaze head-on. “I’m not who you think I am, Theo.”
Theo’s brow furrows, his confusion genuine. “What are you talking about?”
“My birth name—” My throat tightens, the words feeling like stones I have to push out. “My real name is Her Imperial Highness, Kaori, the Princess Sorahino of Japan.”
Theo blinks once. Twice. Then a short, breathless laugh escapes him. “That’s a good one. For a second, you actually had me. If you’re trying to lift my mood by pulling a page out of Leon’s book, after the craziness of the morning, it’s working.”
He stops laughing when he sees my face. The silence in the lift becomes deafening as he stares at me like I’ve just rewritten the laws of gravity. “You’re serious.”
“I am. The dinner I had last night? It was at Buckingham Palace with Princess Alice and her parents. The king and queen.”
His face goes completely blank. I can’t tell if he’s processing, retreating, or quietly unraveling. This is the moment I’ve been terrified of since the night we met. Everything is shifting. He’ll never see me as just Kaori again.
“You lied to me.” His voice isn’t loud—it’s worse. It’s quiet, controlled, and fraying at the edges. His throat constricts. “I opened myself up to you, Kaori. I told you things I’ve never told anyone.”
“I thought you were someone I could actually trust. Someone who might...” He exhales hard, as if the next word is a physical wound. “Maybe even learn to love me. For me.” His chest rises sharply, his breathing turns shallow and uneven. “How could I be so stupid? To think, for once, that I might actually get what I want?”
What? How can he think I was playing him the whole time?
“Theo,” I whisper, stepping into his space, desperate tobridge the gap. “I never lied to you. Not about the things that matter.”
He shakes his head, looking away, as if the mere sight of me stings. “You left out the most important part of who you are, Kaori. That’s a lie of omission. It’s the same thing.”
“It’snotthe most important part,” I say, my voice trembling despite my best efforts to steady it. “Nothing between us has changed. I’m Kaori first. A princess second. We don’t get to choose our parents any more than a leopard can change its spots.”
He lets out a harsh half laugh, half exhale. “Everything has changed.”
“It doesn’t have to,” I plead. “The person I am when I’m with you... that’s the real me. You’re the first person I’ve ever let get this close.” My voice breaks, but I push through the lump in my throat. “You’re the first person I’ve kissed. The first person I’ve ever wanted a future with. And the first person... the first person I’ve fallen for.”
