a desk beside a photo of Margot and Ivy when they were little girls. I pick up the photo, staring at the open-mouthed laugh on Margot’s frozen face.
There’s a lightness in her eyes that I didn’t see in her today.
That’s what growing older in the public eye does, I guess. Dims your smile. I’ve seen it in Theo, in Luca, and even in Beckett. They’ve all spent their lives in front of the cameras, under intense scrutiny, and they’ve all become more guarded than they were before.
I saw it in my parents. It tore my mother and father apart, and it might be the reason my mother, the Queen, went to look for love in other places. Like the King’s brother’s bed.
Shaking my head, I bring myself back to the present. Now is not the time to dwell on the past. I put the photo back down and turn to look at my brother. Luca arches an eyebrow.
“So? What’s the news?”
I take a deep breath. “Beckett is still in the wind. Theo has upped security at all the airports and ports, but he could have slipped away from Argyle already. The truth is, we don’t know where he is.”
Luca nods. Our half-brother was here in Farcliff with Luca, and we’ve just discovered that he attempted to swap out Luca’s painkillers for dangerously powerful drugs. Had Luca taken them, he would almost certainly have overdosed.
“Still no idea why he wanted to kill you?” I ask.
Luca sighs, slumping down onto a chair. “When he attacked me…” He shakes his head. “He just said he’d been jealous of me. Said he loved Cara and thought she would start seeing him after I was injured. He didn’t like seeing me with Margot.”
“But you were never with Margot.” My voice is hard. I frown, not liking the pang that shoots through my chest.
Luca shakes his head. “Nah. It was all just publicity, like I was supposed to do. Ivy’s always been the one.”
I nod, the tension in my shoulders easing.
Am I jealous?
“Theo wants me to bring you home,” I say after a pause.
Luca arches an eyebrow. “Are you Theo’s little lapdog now? You go and fetch for him?”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t be an idiot, Luca. You’ll be safer in Argyle. The systems we’ve developed are world-class. Here in Farcliff, we’re exposed.”
“I can’t leave Ivy. Beckett knows how much I care about her, and if he really wants to hurt me, the easiest way to do it is through her. I have to stay.”
“So, bring her. Let’s go back to Argyle together.”
“Why is it safer there?” His eyebrows draw together. “If they think Beckett is still in Argyle, wouldn’t it be safer for us to stay here?”
“We don’t know where he is, Luca,” I explain. “And we don’t know who to trust here.”
Luca lets out a sigh, shaking his head. “No. I’m not going back. Ivy just re-opened the bakery. We have to stay. And if she’s here, I’m here. That’s non-negotiable. Let Beckett come here and try to kill me again.”
I turn away from him, crossing my arms. Staring out the window, I try to find the words to explain what I’m thinking. Luca spent five years away from Argyle. I went from having my best friend and brother at my side every day, to not even seeing him once.
After the accident that broke his back, Luca spent years recovering in Singapore. He refused to let us come visit him.
I missed him. Now, I want him to come home.
But when I look at my brother again, I see a different man. He picks up the same photo that I’d been looking at, and his eyes soften.
I know he’s not looking at Margot’s laughing face. He’s looking at Ivy.
Luca’s in love.
My brother has always been fiercely loyal. He loved Cara, now our Queen, from the time he was five or six years old. Growing up, I always thought they’d end up together.
When she married Theo, I thought Luca would never come back home.
But he did. He loves Argyle. He loves our family…
…and now, he loves Ivy, too.
I have to respect that.
I nod, making a decision. “I’m staying too, then.”
Luca’s eyebrow arches. “What?”
“I’m staying with you.”
“Wouldn’t you be safer in Argyle?”
“Maybe,” I say. “But I…I care about you, Luca.” A lump forms in my throat. It’s not often that we talk to each other like this, but I need to get the words out. “I missed you. And I’m not going to leave you here on