Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 31800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
“Thirty-two years ago, His Majesty fathered a child with Lydia Fuller. Your mother’s best friend.”
What the hell?
“He did so while already in a relationship with your mother.”
Was this for real?
“Your mother discovered the affair when she was pregnant with you. She threatened to abort you if your father didn’t swear to cut all ties with Lydia and their son.”
I have a brother, I realize in shock.
An older brother.
I have a brother all this time.
“Your father complied. He tried to make amends with your mother, but she was consumed by bitterness and jealousy.”
Was he saying my mother had good reason to act the way she did?
“She spent years trying to shame him publicly, and he allowed it because he knew he had hurt her first—”
“What are you really saying here, Arav?” I can no longer hold my silence, can no longer control the inner chaos that makes my chest feel like it’s about to explode at any moment.
“Shortly after your parents’ return to Sharasa following their wedding, your mother arranged for certain threats to be issued to Lydia and her son. They agreed to have their deaths faked so that your father would see no reason to contact them.”
“So they’re still alive?”
“Lydia passed away fifteen years ago. Cancer.”
“And my older brother?” The words taste strange, and they have me jerking to my feet and turning my back to Arav. My hands clench and unclench against my sides as I grapple with my new reality.
An older brother.
I still don’t know what to feel or how I should feel about this.
“Your Highness?”
Arav’s somber tone has my lips twisting in a humorless smile as I turn to face him. “I know what you’re thinking, Arav, and I assure you, there is nothing for you to worry about. The throne is his by birthright. I have no trouble with that.”
“I am relieved to hear this, Your Highness.”
My gaze narrows. “But you still don’t sound...assured. Why is that?”
“There is still another matter to consider.”
“Is he here?” I suddenly remember to ask. “Is he onboard?”
Arav looks almost offended that I would even think he’d consider returning to the kingdom empty-handed. “Of course, Your Highness.”
I almost smile. Classic Arav.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“This is a very delicate matter—”
“We’re both grown men,” I say dryly. “I don’t think you have to worry about our sensibilities being delicate.”
“But Your Highness—”
I’m already striding out of the office even when Arav has yet to finish speaking, and the first thing I see is my Scarlette, standing in the main lounge, her hair still slightly tousled from sleep. I’m about to say her name when I notice her pallor—
Something’s wrong.
I move forward, my every thought focused on Scarlette and what I can do to fix things for her. But as soon as I enter the lounge, with the white leather seating arranged in a circle—
What the hell?
That’s when I see who Scarlette is staring at.
“Your Highness,” Arav’s voice is irritatingly calm even though he knows he’s about to detonate a bomb. “May I present your older brother, Mr. Vaughn Fuller?”
Scarlette
Six hours earlier
Everything around me is so shiny, and it has me wishing there’s a pair of sunglasses I can grab to stop my eyes from hurting.
Chrome racks. Chrome-framed mirrors. And even the floors are the same, with every shiny tile causing my wide-eyed reflection to stare back at me.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
I don’t even understand why I’m feeling this way. I was fine when Lykan and I had lunch with Grandma Jackie, and we told her about how the laws of his kingdom have now made us man and wife. I was also fine when Arav asked if he could make an appointment with one of the royal family’s pre-approved stylists.
Any girl would have been over the moon to be in my position. A big, bad wolf—I mean, a tall, dark, and handsome wolf—I mean sheikh—as a husband, and now, a stylist who’s currently curating my wardrobe so that I’d look like a million bucks every time the world sees me by Lykan’s side.
I’m living the life.
Right?
So what have I been hyperventilating for in the past thirty minutes?
Now that I’m away from the sheikh’s magnetic presence, everything that’s happened has been replaying in my mind...and causing me to question my sanity.
The office. His hands. His mouth. The way I completely melted under his touch.
Am I really not going to put up a fight about this?
I know it’s my neck on the chopping block, but...I can pray about this.
Can’t I?
I mean...I can, right?
Or no?
I haven’t even completely closed my eyes when I sense something start to stir—
No, oh no.
And it’s none other than the inner voice of my conscience—
Oh, my darling Scar.
Which unfortunately sounds very much like all the snarky, smarty mean girls I love to hate in the contemporary YA romance novels that I used to devour.