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His general had finally located the rebels.
And with Remi’s own news this morning that his new wife was pregnant, and a public announcement was imminent, any immediate threat to Montegova and his family were effectively neutralised.
By ordering Violet back, wasn?
??t he compounding his sins by acting as his bloodthirsty ancestors had in centuries past? The simple truth was that she didn’t want him. Had no interest in his royal pedigree, his wealth...nothing.
Accepting the stark truth took several swigs from his favourite vintage cognac. But an hour later Zak was still clear-eyed, his pain just as all-consuming. With a grimace, he tossed the mostly full bottle aside. He’d suffered through his father’s betrayal, through the scandal of Jules’s arrival in their lives, had put out several different fires in the name of family since then.
He would handle this too.
First thing tomorrow he’d instruct his lawyers to begin the process of claiming his child.
And you’re happy with her hating you even more than she does now?
He growled at the inner voice. It persisted, his conscience...an almost evangelic need to make Violet happy despite her rejection of him forcing him to reconsider that action.
Desperate, he mentally replayed their last conversation at the breakfast table.
‘Zach, I think you should know I’m considering...’
His heart leapt, defying his usual circumspection and cynicism. Considering what? Accepting his proposal?
Had he shut her off too soon, fearing the very rejection she’d delivered such a short time later? He dragged frantic fingers through his hair. Had he destroyed any chance of making her his? Dio mio... Or becoming hers?
He reached for the phone, this time to summon his pilot to turn the plane around for a completely different reason. To plead for the woman he loved.
Instead, the phone rang.
Wild hope flaring in his heart, he picked it up.
Margot Barringhall’s panicked voice cut through his greeting. ‘Zak... Your Highness, we have a problem.’
Ice doused his veins. ‘What is it?’
‘I don’t know how it happened but... Violet just called me. I... She knows about you paying off my debts, about the house in Montegova... She knows everything—’
His vision blurred for a moment, that wild hope dying a swift, merciless death. ‘How?’ Even as the hoarse demand erupted from his throat, he knew.
She’d overheard him.
Heard and had rightly condemned him for his actions. Dread spiralled through him. ‘Did you explain things to her?’
‘No... I couldn’t, could I? I signed the NDA—’
Zak bit back a snarl, the thought that she would leave her daughter to suffer just so she wouldn’t lose out financially making him want to lash out.
But he couldn’t. The blame was his alone. He’d acted without consulting her, taken steps to mitigate circumstances that might never have arisen. For all he knew, Margot Barringhall could’ve surprised him the way her daughter had already stunned him.
But hard lessons that’d shaped his life had urged him to react in the only way he knew how. He refocused as Margot’s undisguised panic drilled into his skull.
‘She’s threatening to disown me, Zak. She wants nothing to do with me. I might never meet my grandchild. I... You need to do something. Please. I can’t lose her.’
Zak hung up, his skin ashen, his mouth a thin white line. Margot Barringhall may have discovered her humanity too late to salvage her relationship with her daughter. And if Violet was threatening to disown her own mother, what chance did he have with her?
He’d faced down tyrants and dictators in his time in the military, thwarted threats against his family. Why did the thought of dealing with one woman terrify him?
Because she wasn’t just any woman.
