Page 44 of Retrograde

“Me too,” I admitted. “We’ll take better care of her and make sure she has a home she’s safe in.”

“I think that would be great because she gave me a chance to go to school and I’ve always wanted that,” she rasped. “We have to give her a chance at a life she hasn’t had either. And fun.”

“We will,” I promised. “It was great you helped, just make sure others don’t find out.”

Her eyes went bug wide. “Oh, no, not ever.” She gestured between the two of them. “We were both there. We didn’t even tell Raquel. Could you imagine what people might say if they learned?”

The second one snorted. “Someone would be in the media spreading lies that the royal family was broke or something.”

They laughed like the idea was insane and made a few comments about how horrible the media was to Sagan before wishing me well and moving on. I nodded and tried my best to act normal because the reality of what I’d been missing hit me like a ton of bricks.

No, more like a wholemountainfell on my stupid ass.

It had been right in front of my face the whole fucking time. Every single sign was there from her calling in someone like Myriam Metcalf to—I’d missed it. I’d fucking missed it.

But for some reason, I still needed to hear it.

I caught her before our lunch meeting and told her I needed a few minutes in private, hopefully making everyone assume that something security-related had come up… And honestly, I didn’t know that it wasn’t the truth.

Because if the royal family was truly broke, that was ahugesecurity issue and a massive fucking—everything. It was a massive fuckingeverything.

Darren wasn’t there yet and Fraser was still handling something for Sagan, so I pulled her into her father’s study and then further into the room so no one in the hallway could even overhear us. Thewhat the fucklook she gave me would normally amuse me but not when things were so serious.

“Are you broke?” I whispered, trying to say it gently, but honestly the shock was too much for me and I couldn’t like wrap my fucking mind around it. “Don’t lie to me. It’s the only thing that fits—”

“Yes.”

“And I have been staring at this incomplete puzzle that has been driving me fucking crazy. But even thinking that the De la Rosas are broke is—”

“Yes.”

“Fucking insane. Like how could the royal family ever gobrokewhen they own so much wealth and land and—it’s just not possible but—”

“Yes.”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense with what—what did you say?”

The look she gave me like she wanted to smack me was almost endearing. “I saidyesthree times. Yes. Yes, I’m broke. Yes, that’s the mess I inherited.” She snickered and moved away from me, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“There’s more?” I whispered, still trying to process that it was actually true.

She sighed and sat on the arm of one of the huge chairs. “For the record, I’m only telling you because I know you and you’ll dig and dig until—just leave it alone, okay?”

“I’ll try,” I hedged, sighing when she gave me another look. “You don’t think it’s a security issue or like—”

She snickered but then chuckled a bit before it snowballed into a full laugh. “Yeah, I’d say it’s a fucking security issue when the Queen of Thovudin is so fucking broke—in massivedebteven that she has to use her second dragon’s magic for an alter ego to participate in dangerous,illegal, underground fights to fucking survive.”

My brain exploded. There was nothing else—no other way to describe what happened. My brain just exploded—unplugged—whatever the right term.

I realized I was sitting without making the decision.

I also didn’t care but needed to hurry because we had a meeting.

“Part of me really thought you were going to tell me I’d fucking cracked from the stress and like what was wrong with me?” I whispered. “And then you tell me you’re indebt?”

“Not that much anymore.” She smirked and gave a half shrug, honestly looking like she was glad to have someone to say this to now. “I’m a damn good fighter. Myriam issmartand—we’ve been raking it in.”

But then she glanced away.