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She was proud of what she’d managed to accomplish for her and her son. “Not what you’re used to?”
“I can see you here. Your love of color and interesting shapes. It’s everywhere. You’ve really bought into the whole Southwestern motif, haven’t you?”
Was he referring to the house, or the way she was dressed in a striped poncho-style shirt, denim capris and sandals with conches on the top? Probably both.
“This is my home now.” She’d found a sense of belonging and acceptance in The City Different.
“So, you have gone native?” he teased.
She shrugged. “I think we have more important things to talk about than my sense of style.”
He sighed, and then nodded, looking pained. “I gave instructions.”
“Instructions?”
“Before. After we broke up.”
“What sort of instructions?” As if she didn’t know, but he could spell it out.
“I told my PAA to block all attempts at contact.”
Well, that explained the lack of response to her emails, messages left on his work voice mail and letters sent to his office. It did not explain his ignoring the letters she’d sent to the palace in Mirrus or her attempts to contact him via his role as Prince.
Then again, she wouldn’t have been on the approved contacts list and in that case it was unlikely he’d even had to give instructions to palace staff.
“I wonder if I had written about the pregnancy instead of leaving numerous messages asking you to call me, if your PAA would have ignored those instructions.”
“I told her not to read anything from you, that there was nothing you had to say that I wanted to hear.” And clearly he did not like admitting this.
Every strained line of his gorgeous face and his supertense posture testified to that fact.
“So, whose fault exactly is it that Mickey has gone nearly five years without meeting his father?” she asked, insisting Konstantin admit his culpability.
He had broken up with her and broken her heart. Fine. But he’d also abandoned their son and that would never be fine with her.
And maybe she wouldn’t need him to admit his guilt if he hadn’t kept harping on how she should have tried harder.
“You should have tried harder.”
Was he kidding? Fury began to bubble up inside Emma and her best attempts at releasing it were not working. This man!
“I really can’t believe you! You are such a product of your privilege,” she indicted with exasperation. “Are you telling me you would have welcomed a media storm, naming you the father of my illegitimate child, Your Highness? Because that was the only option left open to me.”
His expression left no doubt how little he liked that idea. “You could have gone to someone in my family and told them.”
“You think I had the resources to fly to Mirrus and try to get an audience with royalty?” This man was not for real.
“You could have sold some jewelry.”
“Trust me, I’ve sold every stinking, meaningless present you ever gave me so I could do my best by my son. But what about the way things went down over five years ago would have given me any belief that wasting precious financial resources trying to talk to your family would have made any difference?”
“I realize now that I should have left you an opening to contact me, but if you had just contacted the palace, insisted of speaking to one of my family... They would have listened and gotten a message to me.”
Could he even hear himself? “You think if I called the palace and insisted on speaking to one of the royal family, I’d just be put through? What planet do you live on? Anyway, that just goes to show how much you know. I did email your sister-in-law.”
Queen Tiana had been the only one Emma could find contact information for.
Of course, it had been an email associated with her position at a children’s charity, so the initial email had been circumspect. And talking to that selfish whack job had been a huge mistake that only made Emma’s precarious situation feel even more so.
