The Night the King Claimed Her

‘Are you kidding?’ Had he forgotten what he’d said? How he’d said it? She glared at him. ‘You told me to.’

His jaw tightened. ‘You took that as an order to leave the country?’

‘It was an order.’

‘You know I only meant you had to leave at that moment.’

‘Or?’ she challenged him.

He watched her and she felt it—that pull towards him. But it was false.

A muscle ticced in his jaw. ‘I meant then and you know it.’

He was such a liar. ‘No, you didn’t. Because you made sure I wouldn’t come back.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘You followed through.’

He frowned. ‘What?’

‘How was I supposed to stay here when I’d been fired? Some of us have to work for a living. We’re not all born with palaces and crowns and pots of gold.’

‘What do you mean, “fired”?’

She stared at him. ‘Every decision you make impacts on other people’s lives.’

‘Elsie. As far as I’m aware you just disappeared. You didn’t show up when you said you would. Security then informed Amalia that you’d left the country.’

Informed Amalia. Because Felipe already knew. Because she wasn’t going to stay, not just where she wasn’t wanted, where she was doubted, but where she could no longer even work. Her boss had thought he’d found out her past and her secrets and instantly judged her. It didn’t matter that she’d worked hard for him for those two months already. All those days and all that effort she’d put in had meant nothing as soon as suspicion had been raised in his mind.

‘Of course, I had. You cost me my job.’

‘Then you should have come to me,’ he said.

‘Oh, would you have fixed everything?’ She narrowed her gaze on him. ‘You were the one who told him! Would you have bullied my boss into taking me back? Or paid me off? No, thanks.’ She shook her head. He didn’t get it. He never would. The audacity of the man to blame her when he’d been the one to interfere. ‘You asked about my references. They found that video.’

That hurt the most.

‘What video?’ He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘I assure you I didn’t tell anyone anything.’

‘You didn’t?’ And that made everything worse. ‘Of course. That would be inconvenient for you to do personally.’ Too minor. ‘You just let your team do your dirty work for you.’

He was the very definition of spoilt and entitled, privileged and utterly uninformed.

‘Look, Elsie, I don’t know what video you’re talking about and I did not have you fired.’ He huffed a breath.

He was so emphatic she almost believed him.

‘What’s the video even of?’ he demanded.

Elsie froze. He really didn’t know? He really hadn’t seen it? Oh. No.

‘Forget it.’ She shut down.

She could see him thinking through all kinds of possibilities. None of which would be right, but she wasn’t about to open that box. Some things were too personal. Too painful. Too precious.

‘If my men raised doubt in your employer’s mind then I apologise,’ he said carefully. ‘And if they did, it wasn’t on my instruction.’

He’d wrecked her life and didn’t even realise. He’d assumed she’d skipped out with no concern for Amalia. Which told her all she needed to know that he thought about her.

She didn’t know what was worse—thinking he’d had her fired or realising that he was so little interested in her he hadn’t bothered finding out what had really happened. She’d just disappeared and he didn’t particularly care. He was only angry on behalf of his stepsister.