Secrets of a Prince (The Princes of New Sargasso #3) - Carol Moncado Page 0,57

his face struck her as cold, almost evil. “Of course, you have a choice. The only way you’d be required to be here is as an accuser. You’re not an accuser, though. You’re an accomplice.”

She’d been told to expect that accusation, but the barb struck where it was intended. “I’m neither,” she told him. “Merely answered some questions I was asked.”

“If you weren’t an accuser, you wouldn’t be here.”

Minnie gave a disinterested half-shrug. “Because some of the questions I answered apparently led to your arrest, I’m considered an accuser. It’s a technicality, not an actuality.”

“Clearly you didn’t tell them the whole truth. You can’t merely be a witness. If I did what they say I did, you were an accomplice. Or do you deny getting pregnant by someone you thought was Caleb but turned out to be Joshua in order to further your plan of securing me, and eventually yourself, a seat on the Council?”

The idea that she’d been the driving force behind anything was so laughable, Minnie could only stare in disbelief for a moment before she started laughing. “I am not your accomplice. I never have been. If anything, I’m as much of a victim as anyone else.”

Her chair squeaked against the tile floor as she pushed back from the table. She wanted desperately to tell him she hoped he rotted in hell, but knew him well enough he’d manipulate it somehow. She managed to contain it to, “We’re done here.”

The door opened to let her out, but he wasn’t done.

“They’re going to search the house, if they haven’t already. When they get to your apartment, they’re going to find the evidence. See what they say then.”

Minnie didn’t turn but walked out with her head held high. She didn’t let her shoulders slump until she knew he couldn’t see her.

“You did fine,” the same official told her. “He’s desperate and mean.”

“The apartment I lived in was trashed,” she told him. “Joss, that is Prince Joshua and I went over there yesterday. His security team called the authorities, and it was searched. I haven’t been told if they found anything of interest, much less anything that might incriminate me.”

“What about the pregnancy claim?”

Minnie didn’t answer for a moment. “My relationship with Joshua has nothing to do with any of this.” A nice, neutral answer, right?

She knew he wanted her to trap one of the princes - somehow, anyhow - for his own purposes, but she didn’t know what those purposes were.

“Good enough for me, for now anyway.” He motioned to the door. “This way, ma’am. You and your husband are free to go.”

“Thank you.”

“Our pleasure, ma’am.”

As soon as she was back with Joss, she slid her rings back on and gave him a slight nod that she was all right.

They went back down the elevator then through the lines of reporters now yelling questions about their marriage as well as her father. She was first in the car followed immediately by Joss.

For the whole ride back to the palace, they stayed quiet, hand-in-hand. It wasn’t until they reached the apartment that she broke down and cried.

Once Minnie stopped crying, she stayed in Joss’s arms.

“I think I need to talk to your father. I know I can’t talk about what was said with you, and I may not be able to tell him specifics either, but I need to ask a couple of questions.”

Joss let her go and pulled his phone out. “Let me see if he’s available.” He scrolled through the official schedule. “It looks like he’s just in his office, but let me text my assistant. We’ll need to get you one soon, or maybe we can share mine for a while until you have more of your own schedule separate from mine.”

He sent a quick text and waited for a reply. “Let the assistants do their thing whenever you can. They talk to each other regularly and have access to back channels we don’t.”

“Got it.”

A minute later, the response was to give it ninety minutes.

Minnie went and flopped on the lounge. “Of course. I get it. He’s a busy man with lots of things on his schedule besides me, but I really hate the waiting.”

“I know. How about some hot chocolate?” He started for the kitchen. She’d told him once - as NotCharlotte95 - that hot chocolate was her favorite thing, but she didn’t get to have it often.

“That sounds wonderful.”

As he made it, he called to the other room. “Why didn’t you have hot chocolate more