Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

GRAY

* * *

All around us, flames flickered to life as the servants rushed to light hundreds of candles.

I pushed my way through the crowd gathered around Lottie.

“We need a doctor!” Mr. du Lac yelled, looking around the ballroom filled with CEOs, socialites, and financiers.

Gemma laughed. “I guess this is what you get for calling doctors the working class.”

“Gemma Antoinette,” my mother hissed.

“I already told her if she doesn’t take it easy she could lose the baby,” Mrs. du Lac said. “You shouldn’t even be here.”

Shocked cries of “Pregnant?” rose out.

I stared at Lottie and she stared back.

Pregnant?

Fucking pregnant?

“We don’t typically announce it until the last trimester.” Mrs. du Lac patted

Lottie’s head, held her hand. “Our pregnancies are very rough.”

“She’s pregnant?” I spun at Story’s voice.

She took stuttering steps backward, eyes locked with mine, growing wider with betrayal. Heartbreak.

Looking left and right.

Mouth opening and closing.

“Wait!” I yelled for Snitch.

“Let her go, Grayson,” my mother trilled, bored. “She’s leaving before Christmas, anyway, right?”

I shot my mother a harsh, furious glare, and she met it. A fucking rare time Tansy Crowne didn’t hide behind smiles. In an instant, her face was back to serenity.

“How does your mother know I’m leaving—h-how do you know?”

Story took another step back.

“I was working with my grandfather—I was trying to get you safe, Story. It was before. Before—wait!” I shouted as she took another step back.

“Don’t—get away from me.”

“Wait! It’s not mine.”

She paused on the outskirts of the ballroom. I could see the thorns of distrust in her eyes. I’d barely pushed through them yesterday.

“Are you accusing my daughter of being a whore?” Mr. du Lac said. “Not all of us have your proclivities, Grayson.”

Said the groping drunk.

“Proclivities?” my mother said, voice rising with each syllable. “Have you stopped reading the newspapers, Arthur?”