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“You’re not stepping foot in this fucking house w—”
I cut him off. “Or what, sir?”
There’s silence. A heavy, stunned silence. I can’t believe I spoke, and I’m certain he’s shocked I interrupted him. I’ve never done it before. My heart is beating so loud he might be able to hear it through the phone.
“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” he growls.
I take a deep breath. I’m already in deep shit, I better just go all in.
“I'm talking to you, sir,” I say. “What will you do if I don’t break it off with her? Because I have no intention to.”
He gives a mirthless laugh. It’s dripping with disdain. “Martin called me and told me everything about that fucking meeting you got called into. About the donation to keep that bitch—”
“Her name is Alize.”
Another hiss. “To keep that bitch,Alize, enrolled there. I didn’t tell him you were fucking bluffing to give you an chance to end this shit quietly.” What he means is that he thought he could use it to his advantage. “But it has to end. This fucking engagement is bad for business.”
Of course he would say that.
If the students here at Saint Frederic University are still so hostile to Alize, if it’s even damaging my reputation as leader of Kingmaker House, then there’s no doubt the same would be happening in the real world. Griffin Duke’s heir, the Empire Syndicate’s prince taking a supposedsnitchas a wife? Tongues are wagging.
I don’t care though.
I need Alize. Without her, none of this matters.
But that’s not something I can tell my father. He wouldn’t understand. Love doesn’t exist in his world—only manipulative decisions that help him advance his interests. My mum suffered for loving him, and in the end, she died.
That will not be my fate.
“I didn’t call you to talk about this,” I finally say. “The more pressing matter is that I’m brokering deals with a few families to ensure my re-election.”
He doesn’t reply for a few moments.
His anger is palpable, I can practically feel the heat of it through the phone. I bet every bone in his body is screaming at him to bend me into submission, to rage and throw a fit until he has me subdued. But he can’t. He needs me.
In the end, good sense prevails.
“What do you need, Alexander?”
TWENTY-ONE
ALIZE
A hunger strikeis easier in theory.
After a point, water only does so much. I might not be dehydrated, but I have little energy all the same. My heart beats in my head, blurring my vision, and even lying down is exhausting. Despite this, I made it through the night.
I even managed to sleep for a few hours.
When I open my eyes the next morning, my room is freezing. In my delirium last night, I forgot to close one of the windows. If it weren’t for the thick sheets on my bed, things would have gone much differently.
Surprisingly, I feel a little stronger.
When I googled the effects of not eating, they mentioned there would be a point when the hunger would subside and my body would move from trying to force me to eat, to burning up the fat reserves I have to power my body.
Fortunately for me, I have plenty of reserves.
The headache is gone now. I may have more energy, I don’t exactly feel like myself.
