Page 113 of Ruthless Prince
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Stephen’s eyes flickered with fevered intensity as he watched me from across the table. I lifted my glass and smiled athim.
He dropped his gaze from mine and rubbed his wife’s hand again. “Let’s just listen to them,” he muttered. “They obviously want to be together, and we’re only going to push Willow away if we refuse to acknowledge or support therelationship.”
Coward.
Quinn cleared her throat, shoulders drooping. “I’m sorry, Logan. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just very shocked and concerned about this… news,” she saidstiffly.
“Iunderstand.”
“I hate to say it, but what will people think of me?” she went on. “Optics are everything for someone in my position. Do you have any idea what this will look like to the public? My daughter running off to live with some of my biggest rivals….” She trailed off for a second and shook her head. “I don’t think either of you have thought thisthrough.”
“We have, and we’re going to get married no matter what anyone else thinks,” I replied. “We aren’t asking for anyone’s blessing. We’re just making theannouncement.”
Her eyes narrowed again. “I see,” she saidfrostily.
“We can’t help being in love,” I added, squeezing Willow under the table again. She jerked away for a second before relaxing and pasting on another happy smile.Goodgirl.
“Right.” Quinn let out an injured sniff. “I just can’t believe you two would ambush me likethis.”
“It’s not an ambush. We were hoping you’d be happy for us,” I said. I focused my gaze right on her flinty gray eyes and leaned forward. “My parents were delighted to hear that Willow and I would be moving in with them. Mom’s really missed having another girl around the house to keep her company, ever since Chloe had her accident. I’m sure you know all about that, don’tyou?”
Quinn’s face paled, and she coughed nervously. “Right. Yes, of course,” she muttered. “PoorChloe.”
Fuckingbitch.
“Yes. Poor Chloe,” I said, still staring right ather.
She avoided my gaze and looked at Willow again. “Does this mean you’re going to support his family from now on?” she asked, brows rising. “You’re just going to throw away all your beliefs and switch sides, no matter how it might affect mycareer?”
“She’s allowed to have her own views,” I cut in. “She doesn’t have to go along with everything yousay.”
“My daughter can speak for herself, thank you very much,” Quinn snapped, nostrils flaring as she glared in my direction. She turned back to Willow, who was now bone white and trembling again. “Seriously, darling, are you happy with this?” she asked, face softening. “Is this really what you want? You want to leave home and marryhim?”
Willow bit her bottom lip and rubbed the back of her head. She flashed a quick glance in my direction before turning back to her mother. “Yes,” she said softly. “This is exactly what Iwant.”
21
Willow
Afaint whirringsound from the study made my ears prick up, and I leapt from my seat and raced over to the nearestwindow.
I pulled the curtains aside and looked down at the gray-shingled triple garage which stood near the back entrance to the estate. I’d learned by now that Logan usually parked outside the garage under an overhanging roof extension, because the building was already so full of glitzy cars that his main one couldn’t fit without some seriousrearrangements.
Right now, it was gone, meaning he was still at work and couldn’t catch me doing anything. With a slight smile, I hurried over to the dumbwaiter in my study. It was silent now, but I knew a message had been waiting for me for a couple of minutes. It made the same whirring sound every time a new one got sentup.
My heart jackhammered in my chest as I opened the wooden panel and lifted the silver dome off the cloche tray nestled within. At the sight before me, my spirits lifted for the first time inweeks.
Yes!
I’d been exchanging notes with a young maid for almost two weeks now. At first, she thought my request for help was a stupid prank. Her response was something along the lines of ‘Ha, very funny’, but I kepttrying.
I eventually found out her name was Anna. She was a new employee at Thorne House, working to save enough money for college. A couple of weeks ago, she’d been fetching some drinks from the kitchen for Elizabeth when she heard the old dumbwaiter rumbling, and that was when she discovered my first message with the plea forhelp.
I kept telling her my situation was serious, but she kept thinking it was some sort of elaborate joke that she was meant to play along with. Even when I told her exactly who I was and what had been done to me in this place, she informed me that Logan had already told all the staff members that I was a notorious prankster. Apparently, while I liked to be left alone in my room most of the time, I still loved a good joke, so they shouldn’t be surprised if I tried to pull something weird on one or more ofthem.
It was frustrating, to say the least. No matter what I said, Anna didn’t seem to believe that I wasserious.
In a last ditch effort to convince her, I told her to try and get on cleaning duty for my suite. The maids were given strict instructions to not speak to me or even look at me when they cleaned my room or brought me food, and Logan was always there watching us to make sure they followed therules.
