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That piqued Emma’s curiosity. “Really?” The former King, now Prince—Kon had explained that was the title his father had chosen upon abdication in favor of his eldest son—and the Countess?
“Well, Lady Solomia moved into our palace within a month of the marriage. And she seems very happy to be there.”
“Her daughter is there... Isn’t that reason enough?”
“The Countess and my dad spend a lot of time together.” Kon sounded disgruntled and a little confused by that.
“Do you mind?”
“No.” He grimaced. “Maybe a little, but I know I shouldn’t. It’s strange though.” For once he did not look like a prince, but an adult man trying to come to terms with changes in his family he hadn’t seen coming. “I don’t know how either Nataliya or Nikolai feel about it.”
Emma hid an indulgent smile. These moments when Kon showed his own imperfections made him feel more relatable and touchable in her life.
“I’m just glad Mickey is going to have some extended family, surrogate grandmother included.” There would always be a part of Emma that wished her own parents could be in Mickey’s life too. And her own.
She missed them.
“Would you want to renew your relationship with your parents, if you could?” Kon asked, once again firmly on her wavelength.
“I think so. If I wasn’t afraid of their rejection, I probably would have reached out to them again already,” she admitted. “But that last phone call, it devastated me.”
And she’d been absolutely unwilling to open Mickey’s life to their potential rejection.
“They’ve had five years to miss you, to wonder about their grandchild.”
“If they miss me at all.” It was that if that made it impossible for Emma to contact them.
She’d missed them so badly after only the months of her pregnancy, she’d been sure their hearts would have softened. Emma had been wrong and hurt so very badly because of it.
“I’m sure they do.” Kon sounded so convinced of his own belief.
Emma wished she could share it. “You never met them.”
“But you talked about them. They love you.”
“You couldn’t tell that by the way they pushed me from their lives.”
“Is that why you’re hesitating about marrying me?” he asked. “Even though I’m asking for a future with you, you can’t bring yourself to trust me. But it’s not just what I did to you that you have to overcome,” he said like he was discovering something new. “Your parents, the rest of your family...and me. We all did the same thing to you and all that emotion is still tangled.”
He was right about the rest of her family. Emma had never been close to her cousins as they were so much older, but her aunts and uncles had always been wonderful to her. Until they all agreed to close ranks with her parents and shun her for keeping a baby without the benefit of marriage.
Kon was also right that all that pain and rejection were mixed up inside her.
Emma looked off into the distance, but the view of the mountains offered little solace and no answers. “You’re pretty insightful for a prince.”
“I’m also a COO, and believe me, both roles require insight into how the human psyche works.”
“I suppose they do.” She sighed. “I miss my parents. Still,” she admitted. “They were good parents. I know they loved me, even if that love wasn’t unconditional like mine is for Mickey.” Emma could not imagine anything her son could do that would cause her to reject him.
“Maybe they saw themselves as loving you when they rejected you. Tough love.”
She shrugged, wishing she could believe that. “All I know is that they rejected me and my son. And that still hurts.”
Maybe her continued estrangement from her parents did play a significant role in Emma’s refusal to commit to a lifetime with Kon.
Parents made a lifetime commitment when they had children, adopted or otherwise. Her parents had broken that commitment to Emma, and she didn’t know if she could trust Kon to keep his promises in the future.
After all, they’d loved Emma and he did not.
