Page 103 of His Prince

I let out a surprised laugh. “Did he? That’s wild.”

“It is. I can’t believe he did that. He was very proud too. Showed me one night and I nearly fainted.”

“I can’t believe he did that.”

“Me either. It’s so fun.”

He waggles his hand at me, showing me his missing finger, still wrapped in gauze. “I guess I earned it.”

“I guess you did,” I say and then snuggle up to him on the blanket. “I’m sorry that happened to you. I should have come home…”

“No, there’s nothing you could have done. It’s fine. It’s over. Everything is on the mend. I barely notice it anymore. And your dad keeps me very distracted.”

“Oh god, don’t tell me any details.”

“I won’t, but when I say your dad is a Daddy…”

I muffle his mouth with my palm, and he giggles beneath me. And as happy as I am for him, for how content he is, I’m jealous, disgustingly so. I want that. I want it so bad and can’t have it. Not at all. Mikhail was never going to let me in, was never going to love me.

And it doesn’t matter now anyways. It’s over.

As soon as I can, I’m packing up and leaving.

22

MIKHAIL

“You need to tell him,” Nina hisses at me, her face set in anger. I’ve never seen her so worked up. Never in the hundred years she’s been alive.

“He doesn’t want to know.”

“He needs to know.”

“He doesn’t fucking care. About me. About them. He wants an excuse to leave. I’ll let him have it.”

She huffs and then tosses a pillow at me. It hits me on the side of the face, and I glower at her.

“Do not look at me like that, boy. You are being an idiot.”

I throw the pillow on the ground, and she stares at it.

“I was an idiot for ever thinking I should marry again.”

And even then I remember the long chats we had and how he opened up to me. Something about him called to me, even if I didn’t know what it was.

He was always honest, pure and so good.

Even if I didn’t deserve it, he was perfect.

“You are, but look who you married. And you’re throwing him away.”

“I am. He deserves better.”

She throws another pillow at me, this one with buttons on it. Something Angel bought, I’m sure, and it knocks into my nose painfully.

I stand up, and in a rage, I grip the corners and tear it in half. The stuffing spills out, buttons flying across the room. Not that Nina cares. She just folds her arms across her chest, some of the stuffing landing in her hair.

She looks ridiculous.