Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

The knots in my gut twisted like a rag with water.

It was black tie and I had nothing to wear.

A servant named Jane, with blonde hair and brown eyes, brought out a tray of fruit with “gourmet” dipping sauce that was basically diluted sugar water. I remember the highly trained chef rolling his eyes every time it was requested.

I reached for a thinly sliced pear.

“Oh, you’re not going to eat it plain, are you?” asked Lottie’s friend Pipa, tilting her head.

“We can’t expect her to know the difference,” Mrs. du Lac said.

Around me soft snickers rose.

I dragged the end of my tongue across my top lip.

“It doesn’t really do anything. We only make it because you request it…” My heart pounded so loud in my chest it roared in my ears, but I smiled sweetly, as if I wasn’t David standing up to Goliath. “But I can’t expect you to know the difference.”

Silence fol

lowed.

Jane looked me in the eyes, and for the first time in months, her gaze wasn’t filled with hate. Almost…respect? Then she quickly left.

For the following hour I said nothing, drinking my tea, but a foreign sense of power filled me. Until whispers started up at my back between two gossiping socialites.

“She’s the one,” one of them said. “The Cinderella.”

“I heard Grayson punched his grandfather because of her.”

Shock rippled down my spine. Grayson was the one who hit his grandfather?

“Grayson has been working hard,” Lottie said loudly, and I wondered if she’d heard them. “He stayed up all night working in his office, and he’s gone to work with his grandfather this morning.”

My hands shook with my tea. I tried to focus on the beautiful flower blossoming in the amber liquid. He’d been with me all night. In my bedroom.

“They’re calling her the Stepsister Slut too,” someone whispered behind me.

“That makes sense.”

I stood, and once again, everyone’s eyes came to me.

“I forgot something,” I mumbled.

“Why doesn’t she just have one of the servants fetch it?” I heard as I entered the hallway.

I can’t do it anymore. I can’t hide who I am. I can’t hide my baby. I’m not going to have her born to someone like me.

Sitting next to Lottie.

Lying.

“Story?”

No.

Not now.

I kept walking, ignoring Grayson.