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Today, she carried their second child in her body, and she wouldn’t let me forget. There were three palace guards at my door, inside my office. The entire floor always gets cleared when Kamila or Fylox come around. When Kamila’s pregnant, they post ten guards around her—three inside of my office, seven outside.
I was glad Måns wasn’t part of her detail.
“What was more important than showing up for Jordan yesterday?” Kamila bluntly asked while I hid behind my laptop. “And turn that off. Look at me when I speak to you. This isn’t you, Ivy. What’s going on?”
I shut my laptop, and I took a deep breath.
Kamila and I know each other. She helped me get a job and housing when I first came to Katantia, back when she had the immediate aftermath of the deadly tsunami to deal with. She had just become queen, but she was needed by thousands, but she chose to help me. Sure, I was a psychiatrist, and my services have now been sold out for years, but still.
Once everything settled and people digested the fact that a woman had become their queen, she started coming to my office. She sought my help.
I gave it to her.
Kamila’s addict and abusive past didn’t make it easy for the young queen.
We knew each other well, but why did it feel like we were strangers now that I had a different role? I wasn’t simply her employee anymore. I was the woman who had broken her promise last night.
Was there any use in snitching on Måns? He was the one who didn’t let me in.
“I had an unexpected visit from my past,” I revealed.
Kamila wasn’t impressed. “I don’t care. Felicita cooked for you, and you disappointed her. Jordan was sad throughout the dinner, and eventually, Alex, and he got into a fight. Now, I’m sure the fight escalated because things have been brewing between them for a while, but your absence didn’t help. My husband doesn’t think it’s wise of Jordan to mingle with the help.”
She was doing this to get a rise out of me, and fuck, if it worked. “I’m the help?”
My accusatory tone got to the ice-cold queen, and for a moment, she considered slipping back into the role of being my patient. She sobered up quickly, and she masked her emotions. “You’re one of our most trusted employees. Business and pleasure don’t mix well in your world, I hear.”
“I had every intention of being there.” I hid my trembling fingers under the table.
“You weren’t, though. I won’t forget that. Ever,” Kamila said. She took a deep breath. “Seriously, baby? Now is the time you decide to move? Your fathers and I have been trying to get you to move for so long!”
Kamila rubbed her round belly, talking to it. I wanted to reach out and feel the movement, too, but I didn’t. Mom and daughter were having a moment, and I didn’t want to intrude. Kamila’s tone changed, and the shaking of my fingers stopped. She wasn’t here to hurt me, but the men standing at my door were surely friends with Måns. Behind their queen’s back, they glared at me. Måns’ vendetta against me was tiring.
“How is she doing?” I inquired, curious about the next royal baby. She was due soon, and everyone was tense about it.
“Great,” Kamila clipped.
“Have you decided on a name?”
“Yes.”
“Will you tell me?”
“No, not anymore. You’ve lost my trust.” She sighed, rubbing her face. “I’m so emotional lately, and Alex and Fylox fighting doesn’t make it any easier. Couldn’t Jordan have waited a little while to get a girlfriend? Everything’s happening so fast!”
I had to disagree. I’d waited fifty long therapy sessions to get where I was with Jordan last night. I’d messed up royally, but I hadn’t intended to. I was innocent, and when I saw Jordan, I’d tell him to his face. “Jordan’s been waiting for years for something to call his own.”
“And you’re all that?” Kamila inquired, tilting her head to the side and taking me in with condemnation crawling out of her eyeballs.
“Yes, I am!”
“Honey, just because he fucked you a couple of times, that doesn’t mean you’re going to be his now.” I clenched my fists, biting my tongue. I went red, and I forgot about the orgy of guards. They’d crush me in an instant if I moved to hurt the pregnant queen. I didn’t fucking care! She wouldn’t disrespect what I had with Jordan. “It takes a lot more than that.”
“How do you mean?” I inquired, crossing my legs under the table. “Is there a special skill for it? Does he have to kidnap me for me to be his? How do you know that I won’t be Jordan’s?”
“First of all, you messed up by bailing on dinner last night,” Kamila argued. She squinted her eyes at me. “Second, a man like Jordan doesn’t own women. He’s still in love with his ex-wife, and he has never been able to let go of that relationship. Alex says his dad probably hasn’t slept with a lot of women since his mom.”
“Alex knows a lot of things about his dad. Isn’t that curious?” I bit back. I’d seen the way Jordan behaved around his ex-wife, and the punch to my gut came to wreck me. I wouldn’t break in front of Kamila. “He knows so much yet so little.”
