Page 35 of Royal Reluctance

“To Hettie?” Gunnar cries. “But you helped her get out of town.Ihelped her get out of town.”

I found out later that when Hettie left, she had wanted to do it quietly, without fuss. Without saying goodbye to me. Spencer had helped her, enlisting Gunnar to stop by her sister Mabel’s place to pick up a few last-minute things.

I knew nothing about this, and when a picture of Gunnar at Mabel’s late at night was shown to Kate, his girlfriend at the time, I believed the worst of him. I even reprimanded him about ruining things with Kate.

It wasn’t until years later that I found out what really happened.

“Yeah,” I say, bowing my head. Yet something else to feel guilty about. At least it worked out for the best—Gunnar moved on with Stella, and Kate forgave him, even before she knew the truth. Still, I hate that I was responsible for my little brother getting his heart broken.

Odin shakes his head. “I don’t understand.”

Kalle refills my glass, his expression serious as he pushes it toward me.

“No use trying, I’ve got more to tell you.” I take another long mouthful of beer and set the glass down with a resolve I don’t feel. “I married Hettie in a secret wedding that no one knew about except Abigail Locke and Spence.”

They round on Spencer, who raises his hands in surrender. “Dude,” Gunnar accuses.

“And then she left town,” I continue.

“And now she’s back.” Kalle shrugs as all eyes turn to him. “I heard Mabel talking to Tyler.”

Heads turn to where Mabel Crow, Hettie’s older sister and Kalle’s new manager, is watching us from across the room. She wiggles her fingers at us.

“She’s back,” I confirm in a tired voice. “And she brought her daughter.Ourdaughter.”

“Shut the front door,” Odin breathes. “Spence, you should have told us about that.”

“That was news to me,” Spencer says heavily.

“Didyouknow?” Gunnar asks me.

“I did not.”

“What does this mean?” Odin demands. “For the line of succession.”

“I don’t really care about that. I’ve got a kid.” I stare into my beer. “What am I supposed to do?”

“What do you want to do?” Kalle counters. “I mean about Hettie, for starters. She came back, so does that mean—”

I cut him off with a shake of my head. “She wants a divorce.”

Gunnar grimaces. “You can’t really blame her.”

“Why did she leave in the first place?” Odin asks.

This is what I didn’t want to get into. There’s a lot of emotions around Mom’s death and I know I’m not the only one who hasn’t dealt with them.

“The wedding was two days before Mom died.”

Three expressions of understanding face me. “Ah.” Odin nods. Gunnar bows his head.

“You were a mess after that,” Kalle reminds me.

“We all were,” Odin adds.

“I wondered if that had something to do with it,” Gunnar muses. “I mean, I didn’t know about any wedding, but anyonewho saw you and Hettie knew it was the real deal. You were just so—” He claps his hands together.

“Joined at the hip?” Odin offers.

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