“You win the minute you decide to become a survivor instead of a victim. The minute you accept that you can’t go back and you elect to move forward. You win when you allow the fact that you’ve survived to strengthen you, to make you a better human being than you were before. When you take all the horrible things that happened to you and make something good out of it—that’s a moment of triumph. And you win the minute you let yourself love those three men.” Piper stood and placed a hand on Alea’s shoulder. “I hope you decide to win, because the rest us of love you and want to feel close to you, like family should. We hate that you’ve isolated yourself. We’re all here for you. You just have to decide to join us in the love and laughter. In the light. This is your home. I hope you start acting like we’re your family, too.”
Piper brushed a kiss across her cheek, and it took everything inside Alea not to pull away. Piper must have felt or sensed it because she had the saddest look on her face as she turned away.
And she’d screwed up again. Alea sank to the couch. It seemed like the only thing she was capable of lately. The doors closed behind Piper ,and Alea suddenly felt how very alone she was. Piper’s words rustled around in her brain.
“Lea?” a soft voice called out.
She should lock her doors.
Alea sighed. “Yes, Yas?”
Yasmin walked in, still in her perfectly tailored gown. “I heard there was trouble.”
“It’s nothing.” She didn’t want to bring her cousin in on all the problems of the evening. She really just wanted to shut out the world and go to bed.
“I doubt that.” She spoke with an upper crust British accent, no hint of her Bezakistani roots at all. Yas had worked for years to fit into the English ideal of perfection. She’d bleached her hair a platinum blonde and maintained a slender figure. She wore the right clothes and the right makeup. She was everything Alea wasn’t. Somehow picking out the perfect outfit for the season didn’t matter so much anymore.
Find the good. That’s what Piper had recommended. There was no good. She was wrong.
“Lea? Are you still with me?”
Alea shook her head. “Sorry. I’m really tired.”
“I heard about what Tal and those horrible guards of yours did. Is it true that he gave them complete control over your security?”
“What?”
Yas leaned in, sympathy softening her face. “Tal released those brutes from his service tonight and dedicated them to your protection full time.”
It was the absolute worst outcome. Dane, Cooper, and Landon would be on her case twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. And now they had no reason to be nice about it. They would watch and hover, silent and unsmiling, a constant reminder of how awful she’d been. “Are you sure?”
“Oliver overheard them. You know he’s always been dreadfully concerned about your welfare. It’s very difficult for me to forget that he was interested in you before he was interested in me.”
And this was why she didn’t spend much time with Yas anymore. Her cousin was never content to merely talk. She had to find a way to turn the conversation to herself, usually about how terribly she was being treated. It wasn’t that Yasmin was a bad person. She’d simply always felt like a lesser relation because her parents hadn’t lived in the palace. “We’re just friends, Yas. He married you.”
“I know.” Her eyes turned down. “I just always wonder if he regrets not marrying the real princess.”
Not that again. “Yas, I only have the title because our uncles legally adopted me, and they only did that to protect me. They were still my aunt and uncles. That’s what I called them, not mom and dad. They made certain I didn’t forget my real parents.”
“Still, you’re referred to as a princess and you have the trust fund to go with it. Most men would be interested in marrying into that.”
“Well, it’s Bezakistan. Even as a ‘princess’ who isn’t in line to ascend, if I marry, I’ll be expected to take at least three husbands. Our country is modern compared to some of its neighbors, but it’s still steeped in tradition. Be grateful you got a choice to marry exactly who you want and love.”
Three husbands. Big and broad men who could protect her and care for her if she would only let them. Dane, Coop, and Landon’s faces swam through her thoughts.
Yasmin frowned, turning away slightly. “You might be surprised. Sometimes I think Oliver and his brothers would have been happier with the Bezakistani way of life. But that is neither here nor there. I didn’t come here to talk about my problems. I came to help solve one of yours.”
Alea wasn’t sure how any of her problems could be solved, but Piper’s advice was still fresh in her mind. If she was ever going to have a life, she had to at least try not to shut her loved ones out. “Which problem are you talking about?”
“You need a vacation. I can’t imagine how stressful it is for you here.”
It would be just as stressful in London, and now, thanks to Tal, a big chunk of the problems she was trying to escape—three big ones—would be on her heels. “I don’t think I want to go to London right now, Yasmin. I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think I would make great company.”
“Oliver and I were talking. He’s always the voice of reason. I think you’re right. The last thing you need is to be surrounded by people. But what if you could get away on your own, all alone for a while? Oliver and I were supposed to leave tomorrow morning in our plane for Sydney.” Yas shrugged. “A little alone time before the baby comes.”
“That sounds lovely.” But she wasn’t sure what it had to do with her. She didn’t want to intrude on their babymoon.
A weary look crossed Yasmin’s face. “But the thought of getting on another plane makes me sick. I’d already decided to tell Oliver that I would rather stay here at the palace for a few weeks when he suggested a change of plans. Everything is ready to go at the apartment in Sydney. It’s private. It’s well protected. And no one would know who or where you are. Oliver’s brother already hired security for us. They can just protect you instead.”