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“What?” I sat up straighter, my hands dropping. “Are they insane? Because Gale isn’t pardoning Ambrose, they think we will just kill people now?”
“They are saying, ma’am, that…it was done to prevent her from speaking out,” he replied, showing me some of the screenshots he’d taken from online.
I had given up my social media the moment I came into this family. There was someone who was supposed to handle all of that. Wolfgang had finally found the right person to run mine and Gale’s official account. I tried looking in on everyone once in a while, but I just couldn’t handle all of it. A lot of it was kind, but a lot…too much was negative, and I found I needed a dozen good comments just to make up for one bad one. It was driving me crazy.
That was why everyone said whatever the hell they wanted without any regard for if it was true or not.
“My dear, don’t let this get you down. Whenever any member of the nobility dies before sixty, there are always conspiracies thrown at the royal family and anyone attached to them,” Arabella mused, completely unbothered, ringing the tiny cowbell beside her chair, which let her personal maid know to come in. “Have them bring more of this cake for me. It is splendid.”
“Grandmama, you can’t keep eating all this sugar,” Eliza said as she entered the room in ripped jeans and an oversized sweater with Persephone in her arms. She curtsied to me first, then the rest of the room before looking at her grandmother. “It’s not good for your health.”
“My health is perfect, thank you, and I am old enough to eat whatever I please! As life keeps reminding us, it is too short to waste.”
Eliza frowned, coming around to sit on the arm of the chair, petting Persephone on the head. “I heard about the news. I know she was…but either way, it’s a horrible way to die like that.”
The sweets carts rolled up to Arabella’s side, causing Eliza to go on lecturing her grandmother.
“Horrible indeed,” it looked like Elspeth mouthed to herself as she glared over at Arabella as the older woman happily focused on the new piece of cake being brought to her.
What was that?
“Ma’am,” Wolfgang called, taking my attention. When I looked at him, he was holding a phone in his hands tightly. “Your mother. I told her you were unavailable, but she’s called twice already.”
“Oh no. I can’t have you getting your head shaved,” I joked, remembering what she’d told him.
“Please.” He smiled and nodded.
Rising from the chair, I took the phone from him, going to the corner. “Mom? Are you okay? What is it?”
“I swear there are some days I really regret letting you marry into that family without a bigger fight. In fact, I regret setting this whole thing in motion!”
“What? Where is this coming from?”
“They killed that girl!”
“Huh?” I exclaimed. “Mom—”
“Sabina. The moment I heard it about it, I knew it.”
“Not you, too.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, Mom, I don’t need you believing in—”
“Right after the wedding, that grandmother of theirs told me to handle Augusta, or they would because they had methods for people who ran their mouths to the press, Odette! I got a bad feeling. I knew it wasn’t just a slip of the tongue.”
I…I…didn’t know what to say.
Turning away farther, I whispered harshly into the phone, “Mom, do you get what you are saying? We aren’t talking about gossip; we are talking about murder. Real-life murder. A crime. I know they are royals and seem completely unhuman sometimes, but they are just a regular family with crowns. They don’t plot to kill people.”
“Odette, the richer and more important a person or family is, the harder they try to do things. Didn’t you see it when the press turned on that girl? Are you telling me they aren’t capable of doing anything?”
“Putting out bad press is one thing, but they wouldn’t go that far. Gale was so shocked—”
“Just because he’s King doesn’t mean he knows everything, either. I’m telling you, that grandmother of his...watch out for her. If you need me, I’ll be on the next flight, I swear. I don’t feel safe leaving you there on your own now.”
Slowly I turned back around, looking at what seemed to me was just an old…pushy…grandmother. Eliza was sitting while playing with the dog. Arabella was eating sweets. It was all normal to me…and yet the way Elspeth looked down, held her tea, and inhaled like she…was unable to bring herself to look at them. It was like she felt me staring and looked up at me. We stared at each other a long time before she blinked and looked away, drinking her tea gently.
Just like that, I had a pit in a stomach.
“Do I need to come back?”
