Nurses burst into the room, the doctor following behind them, and Fawn couldn’t stop screaming.
“I knooooooooow. I know. I know. I know.”
****
Nick Christakos was the first one to visit the prince, who had been sentenced to jail overnight after being held in contempt. Upon seeing his friend, he rose to his feet immediately, asking tautly, “Did you talk to her?”
“Yes.” Nick’s voice was strained.
The prince swallowed. “And?”
“She’s had to be sedated.”
Ah. The prince slowly held on to the bars of his cell, his fingers tightening until his knuckles turned white.
“That’s not all.” Nick took a deep breath. “I just learned from Fredericka...that aside from requesting you be in court when the video played...” Regret flashed in Nick’s blue eyes. “She had another condition. She had also asked to watch a recording of the proceedings. She had wanted...to see your reaction to the video, and I’m afraid—-”
The prince said harshly, “Just spit it out, Nick.”
“She saw your reaction to what happened, and she thinks...she thinks it disgusted you, the sight of her drinking her pee—-”
Dio.
Torment surged inside of him at the thought that Fawn would believe such a thing—-
Oh God.
That he had made her feel he thought so little of her—-
“I love her,” the prince said hollowly. “I love her, Nick. More than anyone, more than the parents I used to have, more than the parents I have now—-” His breathing turned ragged. “I love her.”
Nick didn’t know what to say, and he whispered bleakly, “I’m sorry, Reid.”
“I thought I was protecting her all this time, and yet I was an idiot. I was a fucking idiot.”
Nick could only gaze at his friend, knowing that the most he could do was let Reid get all the words out.
“I didn’t even think, and goddammit, someone like Meredith Grayson had to be the one to make me see I was such a fucking idiot.” The prince’s voice faded into a raw, agonized whisper. “You all mattered to me. My parents. My friends. You all mattered. But there was a part of me that none of you were able to reach, a part that would ensure I would survive if you all died on me—-”
The prince swallowed.
“But Fawn...she was different, and I think I knew it unconsciously from the very start.”
His eyes closed.
“She reached the part of me, that last part of me no one could touch—-” The prince’s tone became savage. “And that’s why I tried so fucking hard to keep her at a distance. I pushed her so damn hard I didn’t realize I was already killing her—-”
Unable to bear the devastation on his friend’s face, Nick shook his head fiercely, gritting out, “Stop it, Chalkias.”
The prince looked at him with dull green eyes. “I love her, Nick. Go back to her, please. I’m begging you. Please make her hear you and let her know I love her. Please. I’m begging you. Please.”
“I will, Reid. You risked everything for us, so you know Jason and I would do anything for you, but—-” Nick expelled his breath in a mixture of frustration and acute remorse. “It’s just not up to me. I spoke to Bennett, and I saw her, and...it’s bad.”
Nick remembered the one glimpse he had of Fawn Cornwall’s face, the way it had been all carved up—-
He had made it to the hospital just before the doctor had been forced to sedate her, and he didn’t think he would ever forget the way she had screamed.
I know.
I know.
I know.
Almost as if she was echoing Meredith Grayson’s taunting words, affirming what the psychotic killer had manipulated her into believing—-
“What exactly are you saying?” the prince demanded unevenly, the look of defeat on Nick Christakos’ face causing fear for Fawn to skitter down his spine.
“I don’t think whatever I say can or will ever reach her, Reid. It has to be you...and only you. And if you don’t succeed – she’ll be lost to us forever.”
****
Time moved too damn slowly on the night the prince had to spend behind bars, and all he could do was sit on the floor while he punished himself with an endless cycle of images of Fawn’s suffering.
He forced himself to relive every second of it—-
Forced himself to imagine it in the most vivid way possible—-
The way Meredith Grayson’s fingers wrapped around the handle of the knife with a mixture of expertise and eagerness—-