Page 46 of The Prince and the Double Shot
“You're what? Consort? I don’t want to be your consort, Phillipe of Grandir. I’m not the kind of person who can share someone they love.”
“And you're saying I am?” He gasped.
“I don’t know what I’m saying, ok. You are the one that…”
“It’s all you could ever be! Ok! I have to live by the laws of my people, but I’m not sure that they would ever accept you, Zane. It’s too much.”
“Phil, I…”
“Listen. I’m going to find my own way back to the hotel. I need time to think and… Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I’ve never told anyone.”
“I… I can’t right now, Zane. I’m… I’m sorry.”
He didn’t even look back as he walked away. I had no idea how he got home, but when I found the strength to go back to my car, he was nowhere to be found.
I knew what it was I had to do.
PHIL
Iam so utterly messed up right now. I had to leave him standing on the beach, and it was the second hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But what choice did I have?
He lied to me.
I bit my bottom lip as I concentrated on a small seedling I had taken from the garden.
Omission of something so… huge was in itself a lie, right? His people and mine still had an uneasy truce after three hundred years. The Tranquilles still lived in fear of the mountains. According to the accords, neither people could cross the borders into each other’s land. For years, there were small skirmishes between families that got into squabbles on the borders when the Montagnes came too close to the valleys. That had been many, many years ago. Our border guards always took care of it. But my people would never be ok with my consort being a…
He didn’t want to be my consort. He almost spat it at me in anger.
He didn’t actually lie – I reminded myself as I gently twined the roots of one seedling onto another. A small, dwarf plant that would bloom just in time for the ball. Sheena had asked me to help with some arrangements, and instead of cuttingflowers, I was making something alive and special that you could find nowhere else. Sadly, their life span would be shorter than normal, but they could thrive like this for a few years.
Not telling the truth was a lie.
But what if he really didn’t know who I was? That changed everything.
Nothing.
It changed nothing.
He was a Montagne, and I was a Tranquille. I was a prince, and he was… whatever he was.
I loved my country and he… He defended his. But he ran away. He left it and came to America for whatever reason. Broken? He thought he was born broken, and that drove a wedge between him and his family for some reason. There was so much I didn’t understand. How could I do anything about our situation when I was living in the dark?
Zane’s secrets had secrets.
It was too much.
How can I trust him when he’s kept himself a… I never pushed him. I never made it a non-negotiable, a line in the sand where I needed to know.
I was as much to blame for the surprise as he was.
Still…
The secret was his. It was his to give, and he withheld it from me. Maybe he knew who I was, and maybe he didn’t. But the truth changed everything.
Except for how I felt.
