Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 141385 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141385 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Aw, look at that. We even have the same hobbies.”
He pauses with his glass raised to his lips, but I can see his smile, as warped as it is through the crystalline pattern. “Why do you want to marry me, Harriet?”
“I told you this last week. This agreement was always mine, and being the Crown Princess would offer me protection if I fuck something up when tearing my family’s life apart. You have power and resources I can’t access unless I’m your wife.” I shrug. “I’m sorry if you were expecting me to say I’m madly in love with you or anything like that, but I won’t lie. The first step to ruining their lives is taking the one thing Jasmine wants more than anything, and unfortunately for you, that is you.”
“What if I told you I could cancel the agreement with the Sinclairs and not marry Jasmine? Would you still want to marry me?”
I pause. I’ve never considered that. “Under what circumstances could you cancel it?”
“You,” he says simply. “I don’t want to marry her, and you are the get out of jail card I’ve been looking for. As I told you at the palace, my parents and I will do everything we can to make sure everything in your life is righted. We can hire legal counsel to void that agreement you signed with your father and get you full, unrestricted access to your trust fund, including removing him as trustee and installing an impartial third party. We can even help you move and get a new identity somewhere else if that’s what you want. With that all considered, their deceit in keeping your return quiet would be enough to show them untrustworthy.”
Huh.
How about that?
“And, if you decline the childhood marriage arrangements, the deal itself would be considered settled,” he continues. “That’s it. In the eyes of the Royal Family, the agreement was always for a marriage between the crown prince and Harriet Sinclair. If you refuse…” He shrugs. “It’s over.”
“It’s over? So, all I have to do is stand up, say I refuse to marry you, accept your offer of help to rebuild my life, and then none of it matters? I can leave and do whatever I want?”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“Then, no.”
“No, what?”
“No. My request that you marry me still stands.” I lower my hand, sitting up straighter. “I’m not changing my mind.”
CHAPTER TWELVE – HATTIE
“You’re not?” Crown Prince Finley stands up straight, finally setting his glass down. “You could escape all of this, Hattie. Get away from those people you hate. Not have the burden of being a royal.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I push myself up to standing and walk over to the island, stopping on the other side of it. “Do you think stopping Jasmine from marrying you is the only reason I suggested this? I’m not holding some petty grudge against some innocent girl who just happened to end up in my life, Your Royal Highness. Nothing that has happened to me was by chance. None of it was a coincidence.”
He says nothing. He merely watches me, keeping his intense gaze transfixed on mine, occasionally tapping his fingers against the side of his half-full glass.
“None of it happened because of some unfortunate luck or mere happenstance. There was no greater power with some ‘everything happens for a reason bullshit.’ No—I’m not standing here because I want to simply leave the Sinclairs. Everything is because of them. When I say I want to ruin them, I don’t mean fuck up a business deal. I mean I want to ruin every second of every day of their lives until they don’t want to live anymore.”
My fingers curl into my hand. My nails dig into my palm, but I barely feel the sting. It’s a sensation I’m so accustomed to; it’s grounding and calming in all the wrong ways, but I can’t help it.
It holds me here.
Where I can breathe.
Where I can be.
Where I’m alive.
“I want them to cry to me and beg for me to leave them alone. I want them to barely scrape by while they’re forced to watch me reach heights they can’t even dream of climbing up to. I want to leave them with nothing but the ashes of what they dared to take from me. I want to ruin their fucking lives.”
“You—”
“Marrying you so Jasmine can’t isn’t just about taking back something I perceive to be mine. It’s about taking away the thing she covets more than anything in this world. You. Your power. Your crown. The eventual seat of the most powerful woman in this country.” I beat back the bubbling anger that’s twisting and tightening in my chest. “I want her to stand there and watch as I become Crown Princess of Askurg. As I marry you. As I kiss you at the altar. As I bear your children.”