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“Kate!” Emile rounded the corner into the kitchen with a pile of empty plates. “You’ll be pleased to know that…”
He stopped his sentence midway through when he spotted her expression, his own smile falling.
“What is this?” Kate demanded, brandishing the letter at him.
Emile went pale, and Kate felt her heart plunge. That wasn’t the reaction of someone who had a reasonable explanation for why they were keeping secrets.
“Kate, I can explain.”
“Can you? Because it seems as though you were planning on leaving without saying anything.”
Her voice was shaking and she was barely holding back the flood of tears that threatened to spill. How could this have happened? She had let her guard down for the first time in years, and really truly opened her heart to Emile, and now he was going to leave. Not just leave her. Leave the entire goddamn country. And she’d be left alone. Again. Running the cafe all by herself and nursing a broken heart.
“That’s not what this is. I was waiting…”
“Waiting for what? For me to fall completely in love with you before you broke my heart?”
“Kate…” His voice had softened, but Kate couldn’t bear to hear it. Couldn’t bear to have him explain how he was going back to be the prince of another country and how she couldn’t possibly compete.
How could everything she had compare with everything that he had? The thought spiked its way through her and she almost doubled over with the pain of it. She wouldn’t be enough. She wasn’t princess material. Far from it. This wasn’t some Cinderella story with a fairy-tale ending.
Emile put the plates he was carrying on the counter and reached out to her, but she flinched away and she saw the pain in his face at her rejection. It was nothing compared to the agony that was stirring inside her.
“Kate,” he said again. “Let’s talk about this.”
Kate didn’t want to talk about it. Didn’t want to hear all of his reasons why she wasn’t good enough, why their life together wasn’t good enough and why he couldn’t possibly stay. She’d not been good enough for her parents. She’d not been good enough to keep any of her employees. She’d not been good enough to get the money for the community hub. She knew it all already.
“No, Emile. I don’t want to hear it. I think it’s best if you just get your things and leave.”
“What? You’re kicking me out?” His face turned thunderous. It reminded her of how he had looked the first time she had spotted him, outside the cafe on the first day.
“No, you’re leaving. And it’s better to do that now than for us to have some long, drawn-out conversation about it first. I’ll finish up here. Get your things and get out before I’m home.”
“You’re being irrational, Kate.”
The words stung.
“Well, chalk it up as another reason why it’s better to be off living in a palace without me.” She didn’t even recognize her own voice as she spoke, it was too laced with pain and regret.
Emile paused, his chest heaving and his fists curled by his sides.
The sound of clattering plates and chatter came from the other side of the kitchen wall, the familiar noises of the cafe at breakfast time. It felt like an anchor in a storm. Kate had to get herself together. The cafe was the only thing grounding her right now.
“Emile. You need to go,” she said, more firmly, grabbing her apron from the hook on the wall and tying it over her head like she had done thousands of times before.
Emile looked as though he was going to protest, but instead he turned on his heel and stalked away without another word.
It was for the best, Kate thought, crumpling the letter from the palace and throwing it into the bin. She had been okay without him before. She would be okay without him again. Wouldn’t she?
CHAPTER23
EMILE
When you had been without luxury for a while, everything about it seemed surprising. It had been so easy to call the palace and get the concierge to arrange his travel. There had been cold bottled water in the back of the car that came to pick him up. Someone to carry his bags onto the plane. A glass of champagne presented to him by a pretty flight attendant.
In theory, Emile should be more relaxed than he had been in weeks. He only had to ask if there was something he wanted. In fact, he didn’t even have to ask. It was as though everyone around him was anticipating his every need, offering him snacks and drinks and blankets before he’d even thought to want them. Was this what his life had been like before? It seemed so alien now.
The palace had chartered a private jet for him to return to Charcieux and he was grateful to not have to wait around at the airport. He didn’t think he’d have had the strength to not turn back if he’d been faced with queues and hours of waiting. As it was, the decision was taken out of his hands and he was already thousands of feet in the air before he could properly catch his breath. Ever since Kate had turned up in the cafe with the letter from his parents, he’d been running on pure adrenaline and now, as he slumped in his seat, he felt completely depleted.
