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The gala was going well. Sofia had delivered the opening speech and the event had moved on to the auction part of the evening. Theo had been with her as she had met with a few of the child ambassadors for the charity—and she couldn’t help but smile at his surprise at how well she knew them. This had been her first charity, and would always have a special place in her heart. As an adult, she’d struggled with the secrecy and care around her father, so she simply couldn’t imagine how much worse it was for children.
He had barely left her side all evening. And it had been both wonderful and terrible. She hadn’t realised just how alone she had felt without companionship, without someone by her side since Antoine had died. Her parents had retreated to their estate, and she felt as if she had been alone for so long. But having Theo beside her made her feel stronger, more capable. It made the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders so much lighter to bear.
The thought of having him beside her in the future made her feel more capable of the things she wanted to do for Iondorra. And for the first time, perhaps ever, she began to relish the idea of the changes, could feel the power and energy there, to do even the larger things she wanted to accomplish. Now she began to hope that they might actually weather the storm that would hit once her father’s diagnosis was made public.
She cast a glance around the hotel’s grand ballroom, but couldn’t see where Theo was. But his absence failed to dim the thrill and excitement that had filled her when trying on the beautiful wedding dress, and suddenly the hopes for her future were almost too much for her to bear.
She looked around the room, once again, for a glimpse of the man she loved with all of her heart. She wanted to tell him. An urgency she couldn’t explain began to wind within her chest. As if something, time perhaps, was running away from her.
Finally she caught sight of him on the veranda, speaking to a young woman with long dark hair that she recognised as Maria Rohan de Luen—Sebastian’s young sister. They appeared to be arguing, which confused her, drawing her to the couple. The sliding floor-to-ceiling French windows were slightly open, the gauzy white curtains shifting in the breeze, doing very little to disguise their words.
* * *
‘But you can’t!’ The hurt in Maria’s voice slashed him. Theo truly hadn’t realised the extent of her feelings.
‘Maria, please.’
‘No. You said...you said that you weren’t going to go through with it. You said that you were doing it to teach her a lesson! She hurt you and you were going to leave her at the altar! You can’t marry her, Theo!’
He searched his mind for explanations, something that would lessen the pain, but he didn’t know what to say.
‘Maria—’
His words were cut off the moment Maria’s whole demeanour changed. Shocked and wide-eyed, she was no longer looking at him, but over his shoulder...and every single hair on his body lifted as if touched by the same electric lightning bolt that had struck Maria still.
Horror filled him before he’d even turned and he barely registered Maria’s flight from the veranda wrapping around the ground floor of the hotel.
Sofia.
He’d never seen her look the way she did in that moment. All the lies and mistruths he’d imagined he’d seen in her features were nothing compared to the raw pain and shock vibrating from her now.
‘What did she mean?’
‘Sofia—’
‘Is it true?’ she demanded, her voice breaking over the words.
Sofia saw the moment that fear and panic truly entered him. It froze him as if he thought that should he move, should he speak, it would set into motion a chain of events he could not take back.
Finally he moved, his long legs pacing wide steps across the wooden veranda, each one feeling as if it took him further and further away from her, even as it closed the distance between them. She’d hoped, in some far corner of her heart, that Maria had lied, had misunderstood somehow. But she knew that hope was futile.
‘Yes,’ he said simply. And her whole world came crashing down. ‘When I first met you again in Paris that night, I had a plan. I thought that I was being merciful, offering you a silent, unknown chance to apologise and release yourself of a path that would lead to your eventual humiliation. When you didn’t, when you refused, I had the photographer find us in the garden—I even chose which photo he should use. And yes, when I forced your hand to agree to our engagement I knew that I wouldn’t go through with the marriage. That on the day of our wedding you would be at the church filled with hundreds of guests and filmed by thousands...and I would leave you waiting as you once left me waiting.’
His voice had gained a power, a guttural tone that suggested he was almost trying to convince himself that he’d been right. That he’d been justified. Hearing the words on his lips sliced away the soft layers of her heart, until the knife struck stone.
Because that was what Sofia needed most now. A heart of stone. Because she loved this man. This man who would have hurt her, yes, but even worse hurt her country. The humiliation wouldn’t have been hers alone to bear. It would have been theirs. And that devastated her. The one thing she had been raised and trained to do, to put her country first, and she had nearly failed even before the crown came to rest on her head.
‘But I had changed my mind, Sofia. I didn’t know... I didn’t know about your father, about why you were forced to leave that day, about any of it. I didn’t understand.’
Desperate pain filled her completely. Pain and anger, an anger that felt almost uncontainable. ‘It wasn’t for you to understand, Theo!’ She wanted to lash out, to howl her hurt, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Not here, with hundreds of people behind them. She had been ruthlessly trained to bear the weight of the crown and she would not betray them now by giving Theo the humiliation he had once so desperately wanted. ‘But it is for me to protect my country and people from those who would do it harm, even those I love. Especially those I love. For years I have done so for my father. And now I’ll do it for you.’
‘But you don’t have to. Sofia, I want to marry you. I want to be standing at the top of the aisle you walk down in five days’ time. Sofia, I—’
‘I think you’ve done enough, don’t you? You will have what you wanted. I will break the engagement. My humiliation will still happen for you. It will just not quite be as public as you wished.’
Theo let loose a growl. ‘That is not what I want. This doesn’t have to happen.’
‘You think I can trust you, after this?’
