A Nordic King(94)

“Yes, well. Apparently, I thought I couldn’t tell you this. And now I have no choice.”

“What is it?” His voice is low now, prepared for the worst.

“I have a past.” I stare ahead in the darkness, feeling that darkness creep into my soul. “I did some bad things.”

“I’m sure you did,” he says softly, running his hand down my naked back. “I know about your past. We’ve all done bad things.”

“My name isn’t Aurora James.”

The bomb goes off, leaving only silence behind, like when a star implodes in space.

“What are you talking about? What is it then?”

“My given name was Rory Jameson. I changed it, to separate myself from my past.”

“Okay, well. That’s fine. You’re still Aurora to me.”

God, he’s so understanding, so good. He doesn’t get it.

“Rory Jameson did some bad things.”

I hear him swallow. “What did Rory Jameson do?”

I take in a deep, shaking breath, knowing it won’t steady me or make things easier. “She met a guy called Dan. She fell in love with him because she didn’t know any better. She was too young. He was old enough. He got her into drugs, an escape from her shitty life. Later, he got her on the road, helping him commit crime. She stole some wallets, mostly. Then shoplifted. Finally she helped him rob a friend’s house. She was never caught, neither was he, they just kept driving on and using until one day it all caught up to them. He was doing a drug deal, the guy tried to screw him over, take his stuff. I was there, and I shouldn’t have been. The guy came for me, Dan attacked the guy. Killed him. It was self-defense, sure, but that didn’t really matter given the circumstances.”

I pause, afraid to glance at him. I’m wringing my hands together until they’ve gone numb. “We were both arrested. I was tried for drug use and being an accessory, but it was later dropped. Dan went to prison. It wasn’t just the manslaughter account. It was years and years of theft and robberies and money laundering and drug dealing. Things that happened even before he met me. Even I didn’t realize the extent of the person he was and the things he’d done. But by the time I realized it, he was put away and I had to make a new life for myself. I altered my name a bit, moved to Brisbane, was pretty much homeless for a month before I could get a job. Then I worked and worked and saved and saved and left for Europe, never to return.”

I hear him exhale sharply from his nose, the only noise in the room. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

I gnaw on my lip, bracing for the blow. “Because I’m stupid.” I open up the phone and pull up the article and hand it to him. “I’m very stupid.”





Chapter 22





Aksel





I stare at the phone in my hands, mind still reeling from the bombshell Aurora just dropped in my lap, only to find another one.

A worse one.

I read the article in a daze.

An article that reiterates everything that Aurora just confessed to me but without any of the real details and idiosyncrasies. An article that paints Aurora as a lying, half-wit villain, trailer trash that weaseled her way into the Danish royal family.

An article that ruins all that she’s worked so hard for.

A life as Aurora James.

And yet, as I sit here, my world splintering off, my heart in jagged pieces, I’m angry. I’m angry and I’m hurt.

How could she do this to me?

How could she keep it all to herself?

How could she not trust me after all the trust I placed in her?

Why wasn’t I good enough for that?

“Aksel,” she says. “Please, say something.”

I stare at her beautiful face and I only feel the pain in that she never gave me her all, never let me into the truth.

She never let me in.

“How could you do that?” I whisper.

“I’m sorry,” she says, crestfallen and crumbling and I know she’s in pain too. “I was so stupid and young and—”

“No,” I say, sharper than I meant to. “Not that. How could you not tell me the truth?”

“You wouldn’t have understood.”

“Not understood?!” I cry out. “How dare you say that to me!”

She stares at me in shock for a moment before she yells back, “You would have acted like this!”

“No!” I yell. “I wouldn’t have. Aurora, for fuck’s sake, you kept this from me and now I’m finding out from a fucking tabloid. What the fuck were you thinking? We could have prevented this if you trusted me enough with it!”

Her mouth opens, chin trembling.

“Fuck,” I growl. I get out of bed and slip on my pajama pants from the floor, trying to think, needing space. My hands go into my hair, pulling, trying to get my temper under control.

“Aksel, I am sorry,” she says again. “Please.”

“Please nothing.” I turn to face her, breathing hard, my heart pinching in my chest like it’s in a vice. “I confessed to you my biggest secret, my crime, and you just kept yours to yourself. I trusted you with it because I trust you and your big heart, but it’s obvious you don’t trust me at all.”