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Put like that, I can see how this might be confusing. But it didn’t happen like that.
“First of all, we didn’t break up—”
“That’s not what her roommate said,” Vance shrugs.That fucking roommate.This is probably her doing, but that’s a conversation for tomorrow.
I hold up a hand. “Are you here to lecture me, or do you actually want my answers?”
Ezra crosses his legs and waves his hand in my direction while looking at Vance. “Let him talk. It might be bullshit, but at least we’ll know for sure if he’s lost his fucking mind or not.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I am in my right mind,” I say, though I’m not sure if someone whowasn’twould admit it. “Alize and I didn’t break up. She’s still my Courtesan. I just gave her some space that she needed.” So she wouldn’t fucking kill herself.
They don’t seem to buy it, but at least they don’t press me on it any further.
“And faking her identity?”
“She didn’t fake it,” I say. “Well, she did but not for the reasons you think. I knew about it, and I know why. It wasn’t as big of a deal as the announcement made it seem.”
Ezra grunts, running his hands over his face. “You gotta realize how it looks, though.”
“The engagement was the only thing I could come up with to stop the Chancellor from having her killed.” It’s fake, I want to tell them, but somehow it doesn’t feel right to say. It doesn’t exactlyfeelfake. It feels right, actually.
I would have asked her to be my wife eventually. Why not enjoy how it makes me feel?
“That’s fair,” Vance says. “I’m surprised that Martin even let you off with that.”
“He didn’t. I have to finance the construction of a new botany building, too.”
Vance clicks his tongue. “Of course, there it is.”
“Do you know who snitched?” Ezra says.
He’s watching me closely—even closer than Vance is. It’s the fucking lunatic in him, always calculating, always observant. Ezra sees and remembers everything, even if he doesn’t act like it. If I had to guess, he’s the most skeptical of what I’m telling them.
I shake my head. “No, I don’t. She thinks I did it, but you guys both know that’s not my style.” I take a deep breath. “She’s treating me like I’m her fucking enemy even though I’ve been jumping through hoops to keep her safe. I need to find out who did. To fix things.”
Vance kneads his jaw. Ezra looks down at the silver rings on his hand, spinning them in thought.
“We’ll help you,” Ezra says, finally. “But that really isn’t your biggest problem.”
I raise an eyebrow. What couldpossiblybe more important than fixing things with Alize? He answers the question in my eyes promptly.
“I’m sure you can tell that people don’t like what you did,” Ezra says. “Like,weget it, but we’re also your best friends. The school thinks you’re siding with a spy.”
“Yes, I can tell.” Their glares make it evident. To them, I’ve probably robbed them of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “But I don’t give a fuck. Did you expect me to let her die?”
“That’s not what he’s saying, Alex, and you fucking know it,” Vance cuts in. “We know you lo—like Alize, a lot. We want to see you happy, and when you were with her, you were the calmest we’ve ever seen you.”He runs a hand through his damp hair. “But, the whole situation looks bad from the outside and you’re vying for Head Kingmaker. The last thing we need is the brothers grumbling about thisnow, a few weeks away from the elections.”
Fuck, I hadn’t even thought of that.
Not that it would have changed what I did. But, fuck. I dig the heels of my palms into my eyes. I’m trapped in a fucking nightmare—Alize hates me, and the goal I’ve worked for for the past three years might be slipping out of my fingers.
“But we can still make it work,” Ezra says. “You just need to listen to us.”
I pause, lowering my hands to look at them. Both he and Vance are leaning forward, looking at me intently. So, we’ve shifted from the discovery part of the intervention, to where they want to boss me around. Why the fuck do they think I should to listen to them?
“So that is what this is all about? You motherfuckers want to force me to listen to you?”
Ezra scoffs, a small smile twists his lips. “You’re a stubborn fuck, you know that?”
