AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Somehow, we manage to get some sleep. Vittoria comes early with the details for our flight.
“First flight from the airport.” She hands me the itinerary.
I knew Alex couldn’t wait to get rid of me. She turns to go.
“Wait,” I call out, and she turns back.
I point to the dress that I hung carefully up on the rack in the corner of the room. “Nicolai’s fiancée, Katerina. I want her to have that. Can you arrange that?”
“It will be done.” Vittoria curtsies and leaves.
I hope Katerina will be thrilled. She will make a beautiful bride. I have the crazy thought that the dress deserves to have a happy ending, even if I don’t get one.
Lily and I shower and dress quickly. We eat fabulous pastries in the limo, like a decadent parting gift. Lily looks ruefully at them and mutters something about watching her diet. I hate-eat one, and Lily follows.
“Fuck it,” she says, her mouth full of Danish. They probably call it something else here.
The airport is our arrival in reverse. We settle into first class, and the flight attendant reminds us that alcohol is free. Lily and I look at each other.
“Maybe after lunch.” We both agree.
She offers me the window seat, but I decline. I don’t want to see the beautiful vast lands, with all its mountains and coasts and steppes, getting smaller and smaller. I already know I’m never going to see Alex again.
The plane immediately begins accelerating on the tarmac. I resist the urge to jump up and demand to be let off.
Then I remember the look on his face the night before. He’ll never forgive me. And I can’t blame him.
33
ALEXIS
After the engagement party, I hid myself in the darkest corner of the palace. I wallowed in a mixture of anger and self-pity for an entire week, refusing to speak to anyone.
Janice's tirade achieved its aim of exposing the King – my father, my real father – and his dalliance with my mother, Lily Adams. But it also had the unforeseen consequence of drawing attention to other scandals in the court.
An investigator uncovered evidence of Janice embezzling money from the kingdom, nominally for my care. It was only for care of herself. I was a means to get extra cash and a path to higher status.
The stress of the investigation drove her to a mental hospital. I don't plan on visiting her there, or in her prison cell.
You’re still my son. She sent that message. I was surprised she had a phone.
I was never your son. You were never a mother to me. Please don’t message me again.
It felt clean.
Another week goes by. The King is doing better, and he sits with me in the courtyard. The perfect weather reminds me of the Texas ranch I miss so much, and the perfect days I spent with a woman I didn’t yet know would be the one I wanted to be mine forever.
His voice is almost at full strength from before the illness.
"Alexis, my love. My sweet first son. I owe you an apology. And an explanation.”
And thirty years of my life returned to me.But I just nod. I’m willing to listen first before telling him my opinion. Only because he’s King.
“I've always been burdened with shame, not for who you are but for my own cowardice. I've wished countless times that I'd had the strength to follow my heart. I should have stood up to my mother, the Queen. I should have stood up against the system. I should have used the press. There were so many things I could have done. But I gave up my life."
My throat is constricted. The King continues.
"I could have abdicated the throne, and I didn’t. Your mother was gone, left for America. And I didn’t want to lose you, too. The best that I could do to hold on to you was to beg them to let you be adopted."
