need to prove to me that he cared about me, but in those ten seconds from the door of the bakery to the car, he showed me more than he realizes. He put himself in an uncomfortable situation and stood by my side, even when he didn’t have to.
My heart thuds in my chest. I believe Dante when he says he cares about me. It makes me feel exhilarated and alive…
…and vulnerable.
Thinking that he cares about me opens me up to so much heartache.
But I listen to my therapist’s words. I sit with the uncomfortable feeling, knowing that I can get through it. Knowing it won’t last. Knowing that whatever lies on the other side is worth it.
19
Dante
Media circus doesn’t come close to describing the two weeks that follow the picture of Margot and me. For the thousandth time, I realize how lucky I’ve been in Argyle.
Sitting in the living room with Luca, I watch through the windows as a member of our security team tackles a photographer to the ground in the backyard. His camera goes skidding across the patio, and another photographer’s head pops up above the hedge.
Click, click, click.
Even from inside, I can hear the camera’s shutter—but that might just be an echo in my mind. For the past two weeks, I’ve been dreaming of the sounds of cameras, and waking up thinking a flash is going off in my bedroom.
“I think we might need to move,” Luca grins, glancing at me. “I thought you being here was supposed to help my security situation.”
“So did I.”
The security guard lifts the photographer off the ground, throwing him over his shoulder as another guard rushes to the hedges. Within seconds, the privacy in the backyard is restored. With every day that goes by, the paparazzi are getting more and more daring.
My face, which was once hidden from the public, is now on every newspaper. My name, once a footnote in the history of Argyle, is plastered all over the headlines.
Being a recluse has had the opposite effect that I wanted. Now that my name is front and center, people only want to know more.
I glance at my brother. “At least if it’s me in the news, it takes the heat off you.”
Luca chuckles, shaking his head. He sighs, staring out at the now-empty backyard. “We can’t live like this. Let me call in a favor.”
My brother pulls out his phone. When he says the name ‘Damon,’ I frown. Does he mean Prince Damon? I listen to him say a few words on the phone before hanging up. He glances at me, nodding.
“The royal family of Farcliff will prepare a wing for the four of us at the castle. We’ll be safer up there.”
I let out a sigh. Moving to the castle means relinquishing a lot of control over the security team we have here. If Beckett was able to attempt to murder Luca in the castle once before, what’s to say that he can’t do it again?
But as a big, burly security guard talks into his earpiece outside, scanning the tops of the hedges surrounding Margot’s property, I know it has to be done.
It’s no longer safe for us to stay here.
Luca stretches out on the sofa, staring at me. “So, you and Margot, hey?”
I shrug. “Yeah.”
“You know, I kind of thought you were into men when we were growing up. You never had a girlfriend, never talked about girls, nothing.”
I chuckle. “Did you?”
“Yeah, Theo and I talked about it before my accident. We thought you might have been scared to come out to us.”
I shake my head. “Nah. Just never met someone I liked. I preferred to be alone most of the time. Or at least, that’s what I told myself.”
Luca grunts. “You took the whole thing with Mother really badly.”
My face sours. I’ve told Margot a bit about what happened with our mother, but not the whole story. When our mother cheated on our father, it caused a splash in the papers. When it came out that our father’s brother was her lover, the media were relentless.
When Beckett was born, photographers stormed the castle and every event where our family would be attending. They were vicious and completely shameless.
One morning, I woke up with a photographer climbing through my bedroom window. I had nightmares for weeks, and it started off the whole chain of events that led to my barfing all over my ceremonial uniform and becoming Argyle’s first meme.