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“It’s the CFO at Frost Bay Beverages. I…oh my gods. Rolf, can you make a quick detour?” Kala asks, leaning forward to address our driver.
“Darling, it’s 8 a.m. on a Sunday; what could be happening now?” I ask.
Rolf apologizes. “I’m so sorry, Your Highness; I’m under strict orders to escort the two of you to the palace immediately.”
Kala sits back, frustration lining her face. “I can’t believe this.”
“What is it?” I ask again.
She says nothing but gives me a stony look, then hands me her phone. There, I read the message.
“King Otto has called an emergency meeting of the board of directors. I think he’s going to demand full repayment of the loans immediately. We’re sunk.”
I turn to Kala. “How can he do that? My father is not on your board of directors.”
Her face is pale. “He is on the board now. He bought most of the shares while we were on our honeymoon.”
I sit up straight in my seat. “How? How did he manage that?”
“The way he stranded us together on that island without access to outside communication? He knows I’m a workaholic. He wanted me out of the way so he could take over the company.”
Her words sink in, but it still doesn’t make any sense. “I’m no accountant, but he can’t use palace revenue to buy up a for-profit business. Pretty sure that goes against protocol for the royal family. The palace owns the land, but the businesses belong to businesses…”
Kala blows out a slow breath. “Yes. Except if said company is in arrears on the lease of the land…and has borrowed from the palace again multiple times over putting the company up as collateral…it’s a perfectly legal way to collect on that debt.”
But why would this be happening now when we both kept up our ends of the bargain?
“But you agreed to marry me because your family owed the palace money,” I remind her. “You gave up your life for your father’s mistakes. The wedding was simply a financial transaction, was it not?”
Kala simply stares at me, shaking her head. Then, her eyes brim with angry tears. “You idiot! I agreed to marry you because I loved you!”
She…she loves me?
The mental and emotional whiplash is intense. “I…how…but…”
My wife mutters to herself as she tugs a tissue from her handbag. “I’m such a moron.” Dabbing under her eyes and nose, she shakes her head.
“Hey. No one talks like that about my wife.”
Kala scoffs wetly and turns away, staring out the window.
Raw emotions take over. I have nothing nearby to numb my pain at seeing her cry. The discomfort simply is allowed to jab at me like a hundred needles. “Look at me, Kala.”
She sniffs and continues to stare out the window.
“Kala.”
“No.”
Calmly, I say, “I’m going to touch you now.”
Her answer is soft, almost a whisper. “Do what you must.”
I take her shoulders in hand and turn her toward me. She doesn’t resist.
“We’re talking about this. Right now.”
“Okay,” she says weakly.
