Inheriting a SECRET (Corrigan & Co. #7)(46)

“I gave you permission to stand against me.”

“I couldn’t do that. You’re my family.”

“So is Reina, and your other friends. They’re family, too, or at least I thought you felt that way. I fully expected you to stand with your wife.”

“You were obviously wrong,” Reina says, and then practically runs from the room. Matt goes after her, and I wouldn’t want to be him right now. Actually, I’m not sure I really want to be me right now, either.

* * *

Darcy

Brayden is looking shell-shocked, and I don’t blame him. I’ve had my mind blown a little, and he’s had so much more revealed to him than I did. I wait until everyone else has filed from the room except for Noah and Jen before turning back to him.

“Talk to me, Crown.”

“How much of it was real?”

“With us? All of it.”

“So you just happened to have sworn an oath to my father, and then ended up being my fake fiancée. Oh, and then you were ‘in love’ with me.”

“You chose me to be your fake fiancée. I would’ve never volunteered for this mission. I didn’t want to fall in love with you, but I did. Don’t you dare try to belittle what I feel with your damn finger quotes.”

“Oh come on. Your brother pretends to be my best friend and you let me f*ck you. I don’t know who betrayed me the most.”

“Brayden, I wasn’t pretending to be your best friend, but I will kill you if you talk about my sister in any other way than with respect.”

“Respect? Where was the respect for me when you were lying to me?”

“He didn’t lie to you. He was eleven years old, for God’s sake. I left him here alone, and he found a friend. You’re his best friend, Jen’s like his sister, and I’m just a stranger he hadn’t seen for ten years.”

“Shit. That’s how I beat you when we were fencing. Noah said I was like a sister to him, and you were gutted. Now I feel like an even bigger bitch,” Jen says to me.

“It’s okay. I should’ve had tougher skin. I’m glad he had you and Brayden. It means a lot to me that he’s always had you.”

“You need to leave. I want both of you off of the island tomorrow.”

“This is my home,” Noah says.

“Not anymore.”

“Stop being such a prat, Bray,” Jen says, “Noah will be my guest if he’s no longer yours. He can stay at my house.”

“Fine. As long as I don’t have to see him.”

“You don’t mean that. C’mon, man.”

“I do mean it. You’re the children of a master con artist, and I let you both con me. It won’t happen again.”

“It never happened. Yes, I had to keep my oath a secret, but you have to know that what happened between us was real. And Noah’s really your friend.”

“Just go, Darcy. Get off of my island.”

I’m not going to beg him to listen to me, or to love me. “As you wish, Your Highness,” I say with an exaggerated bow. I pull my engagement ring off, and once again, toss it to him. I throw him his precious jewels, too.

I start to walk out of the room with Noah and Jen, but Brayden’s voice stops us. “Where are you going, Jen?”

“I’m making sure my friends are settled in my house.”

“And then you’ll be back, right?”

“Not tonight. I’m staying with Darcy.”

“You’re going to leave me alone to be with the people who conned us?”

“No, I’m leaving you alone to be with your best friend—who has had your back for ten bloody years—and the woman who gave up ten years of having a real life to honor a promise to our fathers. And then fell in love with you. Because she does love you. Everyone can see it, and you know it, even if you insist on acting like a prat.”

“Just go on and let yourself keep being conned. Nothing with them was real.”

“Bray, you know that’s not true. Please believe me.” My brother is practically begging him, and it’s too much for me.

I walk up to him, get right in his face, and match his glare with one of my own. “You need to stop hurting my brother. Say whatever the f*ck you want about me—call me a thief, a con artist, even a whore for spreading my legs for you, because I was stupid enough to believe you cared for me. But do not act like my brother has wronged you. I saw how close you were when I first met you, and I was thankful then that he had you all those years when I had to stay away from him. From what I’ve seen and heard, you’ve always had him, too. He did nothing wrong. Nothing.”

“He knew about the jewels, and why you had them.”

“Yes, and he also knew that if the truth behind the theft was revealed, Derrick would stop at nothing to kill you, Steven, and Jen. Or he’d just kill the two of you and then force her into marriage and rape her every night when he was crowned. Is that what you wanted?”

“No,” he says quietly. “What I wanted was to figure out a way to keep you by my side forever. I was willing to fight my country for you, to somehow make them change that old law.”

“Crown,” I say, feeling my eyes fill with tears.

“Don’t call me that,” he says, standing tall once again. “We’ll never be those nicknames again. It’s over, Darcy. For good this time.”