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Tittering, Victoria sank next to her daughter. “Those are the perks of being his wife, my love. We’re nothing if not transparent with each other. Your father only kept a few details to himself to protect you.”

“To protect me from what, Mama? I’m not some pampered, airhead princess who walks around in la-la land. My dad has never shielded us from who he is and what he does.”

“Seeing it and living it are two different things, baby. We’ve been blessed not to be directly affected by your father’s way of living, but we were never naïve enough to think the consequences of it wouldn’t affect us. You have to know how serious this is.”

“I do,” Aella insisted. “I haven’t been able to sleep since I found out what happened. It’s terrifying.”

“Then why are you giving your father so much hell?”

“Because in all this time, I never considered I might have to resort to being a prisoner to keep my life intact. I don’t know that man, Ma. Who’s to say I’d be in good hands with him?”

Crossing her legs at the ankle, Victoria sighed. “Well, if you weren’t, Cassius would have your father to deal with. He may be older, but Severo is just as vicious and ruthless as he was the day I met him.”

“That man is as soft as cotton,” Aella teased, giggling.

“With you girls, yes,” Victoria rolled her eyes. “That’s why you’re both so spoiled now.”

Aella shot her an incredulous look. “And you aren’t?”

“I’m his wife. I’m supposed to be spoiled,” Victoria grinned before dropping a bomb. “I’ve never discussed this with you or your sister, but as much as I love your father, it wasn’t my decision to marry him, either.”

“What?”

“Yup. Before we met, I had my whole life planned with a man I’d have moved the moon and the stars for. Then my father got into deep debt with Severo’s family that he couldn’t pay, and, well, let’s just say I’m the reason he can still walk. Let alone breathe.”

“Wait, wait—Daddy basically bought you?” Fire flooded Aella’s veins.

“It was my decision. Your father was just as against it as I was. My bookkeeping knowledge made me an asset, and here we are. And we fought it. Trust me. I don’t think your father and I spoke in full sentences with each other for a full year after being married. I was bitter about the love I lost, and he hated giving up his freedom. He still didn’t give up his freedom for a while, as evidenced by your sister’s existence.”

Aella winced, knowing her mother wasn’t referring to Ilaria.

Deciding to shift the conversation in a different direction to keep it from going off the rails, she asked, “So what happened? Because looking at you two now, there’s no way I would have ever thought you hated each other.”

“We hated the circumstances, not each other. Once we realized that, it made it easy to find common ground and grow to love one another. It was easy to let go of the idea of the life I thought I wanted when I realized that while I was willing to move the moon and the stars for the man I thought I wanted, your father was willing to cross oceans and shift galaxies for me. When we finally let our guard down, Severo showed me a love I never dreamed possible. He left no doubt in my mind that he worshipped me. How the hell could I not fall in love with that? It was the only thing that kept me from leaving him once I found out he fathered an outside child.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No. He hurt me, and it was a wound that took years to heal. But he’s never stopped trying to make it up to me, despite me never asking him to.”

Pulling her lip between her teeth, Aella shook her head. “I love that things have worked out for the two of you. But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen to me. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with someone who makes me miserable.”

“Why are you so stuck on the idea that things won’t work?” Victoria smoothed her daughter’s hair. “There’s a possibility they could.”

“This isn’t a fairytale, Ma. It’s a crazy situation with an even crazier solution. I highly doubt it comes with a happy ending.”

“At least talk to the man and see what comes out of it. Because, as much as none of us like it, one thing is for certain, Aella—you are the heir to your father’s highly coveted throne. And you have to understand there are those willing to do whatever they can to snatch it from you.”

“Because I’m a woman?” Aella spat.

“Like it or not, my love, there are narrow-minded people in this world who equate women with weakness. We know how much of your father’s daughter you are. The world doesn’t.”

“So I’ll show them,” Aella sneered.

Victoria offered a soft smile. “I know you will, sweetheart. But as cliché as it sounds, there’s a reason men are referred to as protectors and providers. They carry the heavy loads so we don’t have to.”

With a shake of her head, Aella glanced at her watch. “I hear you, Ma.”

Victoria snickered, climbing to her feet. “You don’t, but one day, I think you will. Call it mother’s intuition.”