Royal Chase

I put my face on, and then the ivory sheath dress with a silver lace overlay that I had so excitedly picked out weeks ago for this night.

The doorbell rang, and I could hear voices downstairs. My family, Sterling’s family, close friends, so many people were there to celebrate.

I came downstairs with a smile glued to my face. I said hello and hugged people and pretended like everything was fine.

And hoped that no one could see how devastated I truly was.

Sterling came in, and I had thought that there might have been something—a moment, a spark, anything. But there wasn’t. I knew then that I had made the absolute right choice in letting him go.

He came to greet me, and I offered him my cheek. I didn’t like the reminder of Dante, but I didn’t want him to kiss me, either. He didn’t seem to notice. “Lemon! I haven’t seen you in so long!”

I thought, And whose fault is that?

He studied me for a moment. “You look tired.” They should really give boys in high school a class entitled, “Things You Should Never Say to a Woman.”

“You look like you’ve got some lines around your eyes. Although, I suppose that’s what plastic surgery’s for, right?” He actually laughed. Kat was right. He was a jerk. How did I not see that before?

“What if I get fat? Is that what plastic surgery’s for, too?” He seemed a little bit surprised by the venom in my voice.

“Don’t be silly. That’s what diets and exercise are for. Excuse me a second, but I need to go thank your parents for hosting this evening.” He walked away.

Dante had at least said he would love me despite those things. Dante. A sharp pain pierced my heart. How could I be thinking of him right then? He didn’t deserve it.

Ellis Wetherly sauntered in the front door carrying a bottle of wine. I just got cheated on again, and the woman who helped the very first guy to ever cheat on me was in my house. That white-hot rage roared to life inside me, and my gaze flicked over to the antique candlesticks on my right. She was lucky I was more scared of getting blood on my mother’s hardwood floor than I was angry.

It had been six years since she’d screwed me over, and I still disliked her just as much as I had back then. “Lemon, honey. How are you?”

She hugged me, but I didn’t return her greeting. “What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t you know?” She gave me a puzzled look, but I could tell she knew exactly what she was doing and how much she enjoyed doing it. “I work at Sterling’s daddy’s law firm as an associate.”

He had told me he had to stay up all night with the other associates. I wondered if she was one of them, and what kind of work they’d been up to. “Are you working with Sterling?”

She gave me a catlike smile. “We do work together. Intimately.”

I didn’t know if she was just trying to mess with me, but in that moment I knew what was happening with them like I knew with Abigail and Burdette. No wonder he turned his phone off. They were sleeping together.

Strangely enough, the murderous anger faded. I just didn’t care. “I hope the two of you will be very happy together,” I said, and she looked both confused and shocked as I walked off.

I went out on to the back porch, needing to have a second to myself. It definitely said something that Dante’s cheating had sent me into a downward spiral that made me wonder whether I should seek psychiatric care, and Sterling’s wasn’t even a blip on the radar.

Looking up at the stars, I had a moment where I wondered whether I had misunderstood the situation at the mansion. What if that was Rafe? Something had felt off about him, but I had assumed it was the anger and the cheating. But what if it wasn’t? What if he had really been there? But wouldn’t I have known that?

Was it possible? Anything was possible. The South could rise again. Possible, but not probable.

What if I had been wrong?

I wasn’t. If I had been wrong, Dante would have been here by now. He would have called his private plane and would have been in Atlanta before I got here. He would have called. He would have ridden up in his shining armor on his white horse to take me back to his castle, all his quests completed. Something.