Page 116 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

Kareem straightened his hunched shoulders and rubbed his jaw with one hand. “Thank you for coming. Shehryar said you were headed to the stables, so I apologise for disturbing your plans, but this was,” —he visibly swallowed— “urgent. I needed the three of you here.”

Urgent equalled bad. It always equalled bad.

“Did something happen?” I managed, but to my ears, it sounded like I was ten feet under water.

Kareem’s gaze trailed from Shehryar to Kai, then lingered on me before moving to his private secretary who’d situated himself next to the sofa. “Sully and I sat down for a meeting after breakfast to discuss some changes to my schedule for the first few days back in Jahandar.” He turned back to the three of us. “I hadn’t checked my emails for a few days, so we decided to read through a few.

“That was when I saw an email in my junk inbox. From yesterday.” His jaw clenched, his eyes darkened, and dread dripped off the tip of my fingers like blood. “I don’t recognise the email address, neither did they give any indication of who they were. But…”

There was a moment of pin-drop silence as he reached for the closed laptop on the coffee table. He opened it and typed something out. With a few swipes and a click on the mouse pad, a quiet voice played out.

My voice.

With a regretful wince, Kareem turned the laptop around.

Just as audio me said, “I’m not my mother’s real daughter. I’m Father’s illegitimate child.”

Shehryar shifted, Kai made a quiet sound, and I…

Someone silently laughed in my face as they stepped on a trigger, destroying the warm, happy bubble around me in a violent explosion.

That night. The video on Kareem’s screen was of that night. In Kai’s bedroom. When I told him about my illegitimacy. Taken from the side, a blur of black along the bottom, but it was still clear it was us.

Ringing. Only ringing.

No voice. No heartbeat. No breaths. Just ringing. That was all I could hear.

A piercing scream of noise rang in my ears as my charred skin burned numb. My insides went cold as the life dripped out of every blackened pore. I sat still, completely frozen and unblinking. Because one slight move would send my ashes dispersing into the air, never to be found again.

Everything I’d hoped for—a bright future with someone I loved—gone. Just like that.

Because the one thing I had always feared and worried and fretted over had happened.

Someone had taken a video. Someone knew.

Someone had evidence of my truth.

Kareem roughly turned the laptop back to him and slammed a finger down on the spacebar.

Silence. So loud. So painful. So destructive.

“There…” Kareem croaked, scrubbing a hand over his face. “There is another recording of you two…together.” Bile rose in my throat in understanding as his disturbed gaze lowered from mine.

A sex tape. He meant a sex tape.

“But that is it.” He shook his head weakly. “There’s no demand for money, no explanation as to how or why they have these recordings, although it is clear that someone bugged the room.”

Numbly, I felt Kai stir next to me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.

“The only thing the email says is…” He swiped on the mousepad and read, “The prince was my target, but your half-sister did a splendid job of stealing the show, Your Majesty.”

Silence.

“If Prince Kai was the target,” Shehryar said, his voice strained, “then Your Majesty can’t be the only person who received this email.”

Kareem nodded. “I agree. I think, Kai, your parents might have been sent the same email.”

Everything inside me came tumbling down so hard the ground underneath my feet shook.

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