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We’re supposed to fly commercial, and that’s definitely not a commercial plane.
My throat goes dry. My skin feels clammy.
“What’s this?” I haven’t heard that fearful voice in years.
Not sincehim.
“Hm?" My sister blinks. “Oh, yeah—Nic told us to use his jet. It’s free today, and the pilots are on call this week. It’ll drop us off closer to the mountain, and his driver will take us up to the house, so we don’t need to wait for a cab or whatever.”
She says all this like it’s the most natural thing in the world, which I guess, to her, it is. Her life has been full of these little attentions for the last decade. Drivers to take her to school, maids to help her braid her hair or do her makeup. She’s a little princess.
I don’t resent her for it. I’m glad her life’s a fairy tale.
I just wish there was an ocean between myself and the name Valmont, which is impossible, because my own sister will be one in, what, five years? They’ve decided to marry after college.
That was our initial plan, too.
Then I saw behind the curtain and refused to commit my entire life to someone who could never make me happy.
I was right to. What happened after I stopped the engagement made that crystal clear. Bella might have hit the fiancé lottery, but I got a huge dick.
A monster.
I clear my throat and shake my head, attempting to physically remove all thoughts of Alessandro out of my head. It’s not about me.
“Right. His jet.” I try to make it sound like it’s no big deal at all. “Is he going to be in the mountains, too?”
I practically stop breathing.
The Valmont brothers might be five years apart, but it’s common knowledge that they’re thick as thieves. They play the same sports—tennis and polo—the same instrument—piano—attend the same school, and unless Nic is on a date with my sister, they tend to hang out together, too.
“No—not yet anyway. There’s some sort of aptitude test he has to go through now he’s eighteen.”
“The royal assessment,” I parrot absently.
I remember Less going through it, too.
Back in the eighteen hundreds, they crowned an actual psychopath because of his birthright. His wife thankfully did the right thing and murdered him within the first year of his bloody rule. But after that, the House of Lords voted that anyone high enough in the peerage had to pass a general health review at eighteen. The Valmonts are pretty high in line for the throne of Anderia—top twenty.
I smile. Less wouldn’t miss his little brother’s assessment.
“Yes, that,” Bella says, just as an attendant in a familiar blue and silver uniform—the Valmont colors—approaches us.
“Miss Fort,” the pretty blonde says with a nod to my sister. Her nod isn’t as deep or friendly when she turns to me. “Miss Fort.”
I straighten my spine.
It’s not my first time getting the cold shoulder because of “spurning” Alex, but I’m no longer used to it. In fact, I forgot all about it until now.
One of the main reasons I left Anderia.
God, what was I thinking, coming back here?
“We’ll take care of your luggage,” she adds, signaling the two other staff members behind her, who rush to take the ski bag and my carry-on luggage from Bella and me.
“I had a suitcase, too,” I say. “It was supposed to be brought to my connection.”
“All handled, ma’am, it’s already in the hold. Now, if you would follow me. Your flight is ready.”
