hair is a bird’s nest. She’s wringing her hands, keeping her eyes trained on a door just behind me.
I stop in my tracks, and the two bodyguards assigned to me pause.
“Sir?” one of them asks.
I ignore him. “Ivy?”
When she turns her head to look at me, her gaze knocks me back. Her eyes, usually so bright, are full of darkness and pain. She puts her hand to her neck, curling her fingers as if she’s trying to claw her own throat out. Her mouth opens in a silent cry, and my whole body turns cold.
Something’s very, very wrong.
“Ivy,” I repeat, taking a step toward her.
She inhales then. It’s a deep, shuddering breath that makes my blood turn to ice. As I take another step toward her, Ivy collapses into my arms with a sob.
“Margot,” she says between rattling breaths. “It’s Margot.”
I clutch her to my chest as my heart cracks. The pain in Ivy’s face is unbearable.
“Where is she?”
Ivy nods to the door, wiping her face with her hands. She takes a breath, glancing around at the royal procession. Everyone has stopped to watch, from the hospital staff, to the bodyguards, to Damon and Dahlia.
Ivy’s face reddens, and she ducks her head. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and disappears through her sister’s hospital room door.
27
Ivy
Margot’s room is dark. The doctors gave her a sedative, so she’s lying in the bed, immobile. I sink into a chair next to her and let my tears fall from my eyes.
She’s out of danger now, but her bloodstream was full of powerful drugs.
I never saw any of it.
Never guessed that she was using.
Never wondered if she was unhappy.
Never asked her if she was okay.
I mean…heroin?! Who…?
I shake my head.
Guilt and shame churn in my stomach until I feel like I’m going to throw up. I’ve been so busy feeling sorry for myself—so busy being jealous of my sister’s supposedly ‘perfect’ life—that I haven’t even seen how much she’s suffering.
More recently, I’ve been too busy being a horny, hormone-addled mess with love goggles on to notice that she was spiraling.
How long has she been using? People don’t just start with heroin. She must have done lots of drugs in the past couple of years. How did I miss it?
Turning my head when the door opens, I see Prince Luca in the doorway. He steps inside without a word, closing the door behind him.
Kneeling in front of me, the Prince wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into his chest. I melt into him, allowing myself to cry for just a little bit longer.
Luca doesn’t say a word. He just holds me until I can take a full breath again.
“Are they waiting for you?” I ask, nodding to the door.
Luca shakes his head. “I sent everyone away. I’m staying here with you.”
“Luca…”
“Stop. Stop pushing me away. Stop telling me that we can’t be together. You need me right now, and I’m not leaving your side.”
He holds my cheeks in his hands, staring deep into my eyes. His thumbs brush the last of my tears away, and I nod gently.
“Okay,” I whisper.
Luca sits in a chair and pulls me onto his lap. I lay my head on his shoulder, and I tell him what the doctors said. I tell them about the drugs they found in her system. Heroin, and the one that they think caused her to overdose, fentanyl.
“I’ve heard of fentanyl,” the Prince says, stroking my hair.
“What is it?”
“It’s a synthetic opioid. Really strong, and really, really dangerous. In Argyle, it’s becoming a serious problem. Dealers are mixing it with cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, you name it. They’re making it into pills.” He shakes his head. “People overdose often. Your sister isn’t the only one.”
“How do you know that?”
The Prince lets out a sigh. “I’ve taken my fair share of drugs—including opioids. When the doctors wouldn’t give me enough morphine to dull the pain, I looked elsewhere.” He kisses my temple.
“You took fentanyl?” My throat tightens at the thought of the Prince ending up in my sister’s position. My body stiffens.
He shakes his head. “No, thank goodness. At least I had a bit of sense left in this thick head of mine.”
Relaxing into his chest, I let out a sigh.
The Prince stays with me for hours, stroking my head and holding me until we both doze off in the chair. A nurse unceremoniously wakes us up as the sun goes down.
“Visiting hours are over, folks,” she says, checking Margot’s IV bag and marking something down