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“I didn’t teach you well enough, it seems. Your little affair with the janitor’s daughter got out of control, and ended up causing your fiancee emotional and reputational harm. But good that you’re back in time to deal with the problem, so I don’t have to clean your mess.”
It seems to be an effort for Sade to take his eyes off of me, and the pain is almost physical for me too when he does. But now he drags them over to Gertrude, who stares up at him like a woman who’s out for blood–my blood. Her lust for revenge is palpable in the air. What’s also palpable is that she’s not content with being Sade’s arranged marriage. She wants to own him, like a princess used to getting her way.
“A mess.” The word is a lurking shadow in Sade’s mouth. “Is that what we have here?”
“You still ask?” Gertrude replies through gritted teeth, her glossy lips tightening as she speaks. “You made a fool out of me on campus when you attacked my cousin for her.”
“You shouldn’t have been on campus in the first place. You don’t study at Norton King’s.”
“Our schools and faculties often have projects together. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to go to your campus.”
“You didn’t have to this time. You arranged for it when you heard about Justine and me.”
“You and Justine?” she shrieks. “And what exactly is this thing betweenyou and Justine? Because it’s obviously more than just you unloading in her mouth behind the stairs, the way you did with other girls.”
Sade doesn’t reply. He just keeps staring down at her, while I’m holding my breath. Who am I kidding, I want to hear it again. The things the girls told me back on campus, that he might be in love with me–I long to hear it from his mouth.
A noise tears through the laden silence.
Micah leans with his back against the bookcase, metal swooshing when he swipes up a knife from one of the leathers strapped to his thighs. Lennard’s face snaps up like someone pinched him, ripping his attention away from me for the first time. Micah meets it with his signature villainous grin and starts expertly playing with the blade, throwing it up and catching it by the hilt again. And again.
“She means nothing to me,” Sade speaks.
A boulder squashes my heart, and then drops into my stomach.
“But I did use her for my needs, and it seemed like protecting her from the police was the least I could do.”
“At the expense ofmyreputation?” Gertrude insists. She angles her body to him, holding up a sharp-nailed finger, even though her moves are infused with renewed hope. “People asked questions after you didn’t deny she was your girlfriend, Sade. Remember? When the policeassumedshe was? That put me in a very bad light.”
“Like I said, it was circumstances. It won’t happen again.”
Gertrude’s glare slashes over to me like a knife.
“And you won’t see her again? You won’t put yourself on display with her on campus again?”
“I will if it comes to her protection.” A pause. “I promised her when she had a breakdown because of the police.”
“Another moment of weakness?” This time it’s Romano speaking. Though his tone is calm, there’s something neurotic behind it.
Sade takes his time shifting his gaze back to his adoptive father, and a condescending smile pulls at his lips.
“Now, Dad, we both know neither I nor Micah have weaknesses. You made sure of that. What I did was entirely self-serving, and when I say ‘self’, I mean this entire family. We wouldn't want to be involved in a missing person scandal, would we?”
Romano waves a dismissive hand, while Micah listens attentively, staring at the duke like a vulture. “For that you don’t need to make promises to anybody. You know nothing in the world of mere mortals can touch us.” There he is, the real Romano Royales, and his thought patterns.
“No, not us. But our staff.” Sade starts pacing slowly, his hand with those deadly bruised knuckles tracing the back of Lennard’s chair. Lennard’s spine stiffens, his eyes darting left and right, as if he’s just become aware of a tiger on the prowl behind him. “We’re powerful beyond belief for mere mortals, as you call them, but we do have enemies. Enemies that are constantly trying to find cracks in our defenses to get to us. And that includes your family’s defenses, Gertrude.” He stops behind her chair, lowering himself slowly to her ear, yet speaking loud enough for all of us to hear. “It’s what I told your cousin up in the gallery. Has it occurred to you that the whole Dean Rowland and police thing is just a stunt to frame the Royales? And that they’re using the daughter of our employee, one living in our home, to do that? Nobody can touch us, but they can touch our satellites.”
So he was just calculating all along. And I was just a pawn in the web of strategies in his brilliant head. Sade is known around campus for being able to see five moves ahead of any opponent, and Micah for drawing up the most wicked plans to take opponents down like some kind of modern-day Impaler.
Well, fuck me.
Wait, Sade already did that. In more ways than one.
The look on Gertrude’s face changes gradually with each one of his words. Almost as if dawning comprehension sets in. Romano is quiet, even though he doesn’t seem entirely convinced, suspicion still furrowing his brow. As for Lennard, he doesn’t look as intimidating as he did before two warlords in black were flanking his seat. Without me even noticing it, Micah stalked closer like a slithering viper.
“I’m surprised that Carlton didn’t mention anything to that effect to you,” Sade concludes, straightening up, a sculpted god behind his rich heiress fiancee.
“We didn’t talk after that day on campus,” she mutters, but then resumes her high-brow stance.
