television on, and my eyes glaze over as I watch something I don’t care about.
I doze off.
When I wake up, I jump off the couch at the sight of a man in the shadows. Hunter steps forward, his face black with anger.
I’d gotten used to his absence while my sister was at the facility. Seeing his sniveling, sneering face turns my stomach. His eyes are full of fire, and his lips curve downward when he sees me wake.
Grabbing my arm, he pulls me up to stand. “I need to talk to you,” Hunter hisses.
I yank my arm away from his grip. “First of all, don’t touch me. Second of all, I’m tired, and I just want to go to bed. Whatever you want to talk about can wait.”
Margot appears in the doorway. Her face is lined, and she won’t meet my eye. She moves to stand next to Hunter.
My heart starts to thump. Something’s wrong. Do they know about Prince Luca?
“What game are you playing right now, Ivy?”
I arch an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“You’re supposed to be supporting your sister, not sabotaging her.”
“Sabotaging her? Everything I do is to support her. I was the one to pick her up from the facility, not you, remember? I brought her to the hospital. I put my entire fucking life on hold for her!”
Margot flinches, and shame burns my cheeks.
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Hunter’s eyes flash, and my anger flares. He nods to the door. “What about that silly bakery, huh? You think that helps Margot? Your face plastered all over the internet trying to leech off her fame.”
“Leech?”
I don’t like Hunter on a good day. And today? Today I can’t fucking stand him. I make a mental note to get the locks changed and never, ever give him a key.
Shaking my head, I cross my arms. “Listen, Hunter, I know you think you’re the most important person in the Kingdom, but newsflash: you’re not. You have no right to shit on me the way you’ve done for the past few years. You’re my sister’s agent. You work for her. Nothing more.”
Hunter arches an eyebrow, and his eyes turn flinty. He pulls out his phone, tapping on it a couple of times before turning the screen toward me.
If my cheeks were hot before, now they’re on fire. Hunter shows me a picture, and I know exactly when it was taken—just a few hours ago. I have my hand over the Prince’s crotch, and our kiss is open-mouthed and downright dirty.
It looks intimate. It was intimate. Five minutes earlier, the Prince was buried inside me telling me he loved me.
My heart thumps, and I look away from the screen. Hunter scrolls down, and I see a picture of the Prince kissing me on the deck of the yacht. The headline screams:
Mystery Woman: Identified!
Hunter arches an eyebrow. “You’re not even going to try to explain this?”
“What is there to explain?” I growl, taking a step toward Hunter. Margot still hasn’t looked at me. Her face is shuttered, and I hate that she hasn’t said a word.
“Well, for one, what fucking game you’re trying to play here.” Hunter points between the photo and me, arching an eyebrow as if it’s completely impossible that the Prince would be interested in me.
Pain pierces my heart, because that’s exactly what I believed for a long time.
Hunter knows my insecurities, and he digs them out from the depths where they hide.
Squaring my shoulders, I shake my head. I’m not going to let him tear me down like this. The Prince loves me. He told me so. Luca has been the single most supportive, loving person I’ve ever met. He’s made me realize how much I’ve been ignoring my own dreams.
He’s made me feel worthy.
Before tears fill my eyes, I jerk my chin toward the door. “Leave.”
“No, I’m not leaving before you explain yourself. Our teams worked very hard on crafting the perfect relationship between the Prince and Margot. She goes to fucking therapy and you swoop in and snatch him away?”
“I didn’t snatch anything,” I snap. “They were never together.”
Margot makes a noise, finally lifting her eyes up to mine. “And whose fault is that?”
I swallow thickly. “We love each other.” My voice is small, and suddenly love doesn’t seem like enough.
Hunter just laughs, the noise peppering my chest like a million tiny knives.
“Fuck you, Hunter,” I snap.
“No, fuck you, Ivy,” Margot says. “I think it’s time for you to leave. You want to be independent? You want to