Page 58 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

“Well, Diamandis, we aren’t just friends anymore. We are brothers.”

Brothers.

Diamandis nodded. “I appreciate the offer to stay, but I feel as though this is something I’d rather do on my own. Perhaps...perhaps we should have a family dinner tonight. The four of us.”

Lysias bowed. “Gladly, Your Majesty.”

And he only sounded alittlemocking as he said it. He took his leave and Diamandis gave the signal for Marias to be sent in.

Marias entered Diamandis’s office with a stiff body and an inscrutable expression.

“Have a seat, Marias,” Diamandis instructed, taking his own seat behind his desk. He looked down at the older man and began. “I have a few questions to ask you to determine how we should move forward at this current juncture in our working relationship.”

“Very well.”

“I have taken many things you said at face value over the years, Marias. I have trusted your guidance, your discretion, and your dedication to the crown.”

“Yes, and you did not question it at all until you let your feelings for a woman cloud your reasoning.”

Diamandis raised an eyebrow but did not let his temper take over. “Perhaps,” he agreed equitably. “I’d like to discuss the coup with you.”

Marias’s mouth firmed. “As you wish.”

“If you could go back and change anything, would you? Before, during, after?”

Marias’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “I would do whatever it took to steer your father toward an action that would have saved his life.”

“Like what?”

“What do you mean?”

“What specific action would you have advised him of that you feel would have saved his life?”

Marias blinked. “Why, not trusting your uncle, of course.”

“And why didn’t you advise him of this in the time leading up to the coup?”

“I did. Your father did not listen because your mother begged him to give her brother a place on the council.”

Diamandis would once have believed this. He looked down at the notes he’d taken as he’d gone over records. “Unfortunately, I have gone back over the council logs from the months leading up to the coup and there is, in fact, not one word spoken against my uncle by you, or anyone else.” Love had not poisoned his father, not by any stretch of the imagination. “No evidence anywhere of you counseling my father to listen to his brain, not his heart.”

Marias huffed and fidgeted in his chair. “They were private conversations.”

“There is no evidence of any meetings you would have had with my father privately. You were merely an alternate at this time, an associate council member who spent more time in administration than in one-to-one face time with the king. Is this not true?”

Marias seethed and said nothing. Diamandis, on the other hand, felt nothing but ice all the way through.

“It makes sense why you might have wanted to ascend those ranks. Why you thought, with someone else on the throne, you might have a better chance at a higher position.”

“You have let your littlewifepoison your mind.”

Even then, Diamandis’s temper did not jump, because of course this was not true. There were many things his feelings for Katerina might have affected, but this was not one of them. “Katerina has always been most reasonable, most levelheaded. I can see why this would be difficult to see as she has never cared for you, but she never let that sway her. I cannot say the same for you. Quite an emotional response for a man so determined I should have none.”

“I do not know what it is you wish to accomplish, or what the queen or your brother-in-law wish to accomplish, but if you let these...these...schemershave some influence over you—”

“Neither Katerina nor Lysias has done anything but support me these past few weeks.Me, yes. Not the crown.”

“Youarethe crown.”

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