┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓ Broken ┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛ Chapter 22: Broken (Rhys' POV) I don't know what I was thinking, what went through my head, or why I acted on impulse and actually kissed her. I wanted to but I hadn't intended to. But now that I did, I didn't want to stop. She remained frozen under me for several seconds before she looped her arms around my neck and pulled me in closer, kissing me back. This is wrong. I shouldn't be doing this to her, she doesn't deserve this, she deserves the truth. But the truth can hurt her. And what she doesn't know can't. That's why I'm refraining from telling her. If he finds out that she knows… Liam wasn't always obsessed with being prince. Of course, growing up around and in royalty, most little boys and girls look forward to their crowning to become a prince or princess. He thought he would be the prince. But he only became obsessive after his parents told him he'd never get that chance, that it would be me instead. And it's painfully obvious that they wanted him to hate me. It's because of them that the whole idea of becoming prince became his priority and only purpose in life. It's all he thinks about. Replacing me and being the prince. He thinks that because he's the only other son of the family, even if it's not my blood, that somehow makes him second in line to the throne. But that's not true. If I don't become king, my dad would rule until I have a child who would have to take over. So whether I become future king or not, my child would. If not my child, my wife would be the queen. Not Liam. We both stopped at the same time, realizing what we were doing. She took in a sharp breath, pulling her hands to herself, one covering her mouth. "What is wrong with you?" She scolded, giving my arm a hard hit. "I don't know," I mumbled. She rolled her eyes, giving me a push and trying to walk past me and into the bathroom but I put my hands on the vanity, keeping her there. She blinked, staring up at me. She was nervous and angry and probably confused. "I'll tell you." What? I will? Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I'll tell you everything." No. No, I won't. "Right now?" she asked. I sighed, staring at her eyes for a while. "If you're not going to-" "Right now. I'll tell you right now." She stared at me quietly before nodding slowly. "Fine. Let me change." "Hmm." I stepped back. She grabbed a fresh nightgown and robe, this one a dark purple, before going into the bathroom. As she shut the door and I walked to the closet to grab my own clothes, I let out a frustrated breath. "Shit," I mumbled, undoing the sleeves of my shirt and then unbuttoning it all the way. I shrugged it off and then traded my pants for sweatpants. When she came out of the bathroom, her makeup was all off, she was in the nightgown, and her hair was pulled back into a bun with a claw clip. She put her dress away from dry-cleaning with my suit from tonight before sitting on the bed while I leaned on my desk, watching her. "Rhys," she sighed, sitting up against the headboard. "Don't tell me if you don't want to. But then don't expect me to be okay with that and give you another chance. I'm not walking into battle blind again." "Well then, I just have to suck it up and do it, don't I? Because I want to be with you again and if that means telling you, then I will. I just have to find better ways to keep you safe." All the rules that I made for myself from the day I left her up until now are about to be broken. Broken is an understatement. I promised myself I would never tell her. But it looks like if I don't tell her, I'll never be able to be with her again. "I told you about Liam. You know now what he's after and what kind of person he is." She nodded, staring at me. "It's him," I sighed, "he's the reason I left you." She blinked, staring at me blankly. She seemed numb. I took in a breath, running a hand through my hair out of agitation. "While we were together, there was one time that he saw us. We were in the backyard. I still don't know when exactly he saw us, he never told me that, but at some point, he did. He knew that at the time I was about to be crowned prince, he knew the rules I had to live by, he knew that I wasn't allowed to be with a girl who wasn't a princess. You know that too, don't you? I told you. "Back then, my parents were thinking about my marriage already. They wanted me to marry a princess at first. I was only twenty-one so I was able to get out of it by saying I wasn't ready to get married yet. You were only eighteen. That made it worse because of our age gap. And he knew we were together before that. If he made any false claims, if he even suggested that we had sex before you turned eighteen, we'd be in a lot of trouble. I could go to jail, my title of the prince be damned. A crime is a crime in Kilthorne." "We didn't commit any crime," she gritted. "That's not what people would think if he spread false rumors. I didn't want my future to be ruined and I didn't want yours to be ruined either. If people believed him, the entire kingdom would have eyes on you. They'd think of you in a certain way, they'd give you snide remarks, it wouldn't be good, Ava. It would ruin your life more than it would ruin mine. I couldn't afford to let that happen to you." "Did he threaten you with that?" I nodded softly. "He said he would tell everybody that we were together. He didn't have any proof at the time, so I had to think fast before he got any. I tried a lot, Ava. I really tried to find a solution, a way for us to stay together. But if we did, it could have ended in disaster. I didn't have a choice, no matter how hard I tried to find a way to make it work, I couldn't. I had to let you go." She ground her teeth, looking away from me and staring at the door. "You wouldn't have if you loved me." "I let you go because I love you. I couldn't see you go down because of me, or just because you were with me. You didn't deserve that. You also didn't deserve what I did to you, but if I let Liam do what he planned, both our futures would be ruined, quite possibly forever." I sighed, pushing myself off the desk and walking around the bed, sitting in front of her. "I let you go because I loved you too much, not because I didn't love you enough. I couldn't let him destroy you." "So you did it yourself?" I nodded slowly, guilt blooming in my chest. "Yeah, I did." We both sat quietly for a moment. "So, what do you want from me now, Rhys? Do you want me to forgive you and act like nothing happened? Like you didn't do what you did? You want me to make myself fall in love with you again?" "No. I just want you to consider giving me another chance. I want you to stop holding yourself back. If you like me, love me, hate me, whatever it is, I want you to show it. I just don't want you to be indifferent. And that's exactly what we've been since we got married." "And you hate it?" "Yeah, I hate it." She let out a heavy sigh. "I hate it too," she whispered mostly to herself. "But I can't forgive you, Rhys. Not yet." "I understand that." She thought for a minute before asking, "But all this has already happened. So why were you so hesitant to tell me now?" "Because history always repeats itself." She frowned in confusion. "It's almost the same situation we're in again. We're together, except this time, we're meant to be. But I'll become king. And Liam won't like it, which means he'll try to stop it from happening, again. I'm worried he'll bring out the past to prove to the council that I won't be responsible as king." "So? That doesn't mean he gets to be king, he has no experience as a prince." "That doesn't matter. If he manages to convince the council, persuade them with words or proof or money, whatever it takes… Then it won't look too good for us. We'd face bad publicity, people would talk, I could lose the chance of being king, my father could be forced to step down and…" I trailed off with a sigh. "And Liam could become king," she finished for me while staring off into the distance. "Right," I mumbled. She blinked in confusion, turning to me. "How did he find out that we were together? He rarely came to the palace on his own and his family stopped coming by then." I shrugged, "So?" "So it's not possible for him to have caught us. It's less than likely." "What are you suggesting?" She sat up straighter, scooting back on the bed. "I'm not suggesting anything, I'm asking. What if someone told him?" "Who would tell him?" She thought for a minute before cocking her head to one side. "Someone he persuaded with words or money. Someone who needed money at the time." My brows furrowed while I fell into thought. Someone who needed money at the time? That means it must be someone who asked my father for a loan but was denied. "If a loan was denied, it's in the records." "The library?" She lifted a brow. I nodded. "Let's check." She shrugged, sliding off the bed and standing up. "Let's check." . . . . . Chapter 22