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He narrowed his eyes. What on earth? Last night, they’d settled things. Maybe not verbally, but after the night they’d shared she had to recognize what they meant to each other. He’d come to retrieve her and bring her back to her rightful place, beside him on the throne of Alma. But now she was crying, looking so achingly sad. His gut clenched seeing her that way. “I don’t understand.”
He sat beside her and she unraveled her legs to face him, her eyes swollen from tears. “I can’t be with you. I can’t...”
“Sweetheart, my perfect princess, of course you belong with me. We don’t have to rush into a wedding, if that’s your concern. Whatever it is, we’ll work it out. Just tell me. It kills me to see you in so much pain.”
She rose then, yet her body slumped in defeat, her long hair falling onto her face. “That’s just it, Juan Carlos,” she said, shoving her hair aside. “I’m not your perfect princess. I’m nobody’s princess. I’m a fraud. I don’t have an ounce of royal blood in my body. I cannot marry you. Ever.”
Juan Carlos blinked several times, absorbing her words. He rose slowly, his heart pounding, his body shaking. “What you do mean you’re not a princess?”
“I’m not. I never was. It’s all a lie my family told after they migrated to the United States after World War II.”
Portia spent the next few minutes explaining her family’s duplicity to him. She gave him very little to hold on to as she presented the cold cruel facts that tore his life into shreds. Everything she told him made sense, yet nothing made sense. This couldn’t be happening. Suddenly, he looked at Portia Lindstrom differently. She’d lied to him. Why? “How long have you known this?”
“I found out a little more than a week ago while researching our...my wedding rituals.”
Juan Carlos stood ramrod stiff, his shoulders back and his heart breaking. “Yet you came to me and lied about the reasons for breaking it off between us. You told me you weren’t ready to marry. You gave me excuses about your career and your love of the States. You knew, and yet you lied. How many other lies have you told me, Portia?”
“I didn’t know what to do when I found out. Who to turn to. I’d just found out I’m...I’m an imposter.” She spit the word out as if saying it stung her tongue. “I had trouble facing it, Juan Carlos.”
His voice rose. “You should have trusted me with the truth. Or maybe you didn’t want anyone to know the real truth? Maybe you wanted to keep on with the deception? Being of royal blood has its privileges. If I hadn’t shown up here, what were you going to do? Live the lie forever?”
Her words from last week rang in his ears. I’m fond of you. This isn’t going to work. I don’t want to get married. I don’t want children.
Had the woman he loved been nothing but a gold digger? Had her hard-to-get act been a ploy? All the warmth he had nestled inside evaporated. Last night had meant nothing to her. She’d deceived him over and over during the past few weeks. She’d broken off her engagement to him, but she hadn’t revealed the truth to anyone. Of course, her precious career would suffer. She’d hidden the truth because she couldn’t afford another scandal. She needed the art world to believe that she was a princess. So, of course, she had to come to him with lies about why she was breaking off their engagement in order to keep her secret.
“I took the bait and you reeled me in, didn’t you, Portia? Then what happened? You ran scared when I offered marriage? Did you have a bout of conscience? Or did you finally realize you’d get caught if you didn’t break it off with me? You couldn’t marry me and risk being found out. Just think what would happen to your career if you were discovered to be a fraud. You’d never survive another scandal. Not professionally. No one in their right mind would hire you so you lied your way out of our engagement.”
Her tears gone now, she squeezed her eyes closed for a second. As he waited, her breathing steadied and when she opened her eyes again, they were twin pinpoints of blue, focused on him. “You see things in black-and-white, Juan Carlos. There is no room for grays in your narrow line of vision. You only wanted me when I fit into your plans, but now you know the truth. I’m not royal. I’m flawed and can’t be a part of your unblemished world.”
His lips tightened. “You should’ve told me the truth, Portia.”
“Another point against me. I’m human. I make mistakes.” She folded her arms across her stomach. “Now that you have the truth, what are you going to do with it?”
