Page 66 of Jonathon, After All

“Delicious,” he agreed and the starved look had returned to his eyes when they met Jonathon’s. “What shall we do today, after our meeting with Sabine?” Leo asked briskly, smiling as he changed the subject.

“I have a few ideas,” Jonathon replied with a suggestive arch of his brow.

“You must save them for later. I was hoping you could show me more of your city. I’ve visited Max a few times over the years, but he only knows the popular places.” Leo continued to feed Jonathon French toast, eggs, and fruit as they discussed their plans.

Eventually, Jonathon pushed his plate away and refused to eat another bite; he was so full, he would have preferred a nap before facing Sabine. Leo pulled back his chair and offered Jonathon an arm, promising that her visit would be brief and that it would not ruin their day.

She was waiting in the living room, her hands clasped in front of her and her gaze cast down as Markus passed Leo a folder.

Leo held it up as he regarded her. “These are the terms of your separation from the House of Hessen,” he told Sabine and her eyes snapped to his.

“Leo, please! I beg of you, dear—” she started but he hissed loudly, shushing as he handed the folder to Jonathon.

“Never call me that again,” he told her, his tone severe. “And you will beg him,” he said and pointed at Jonathon.

“Very well.” She nodded quickly and offered Jonathon a weak smile. “Let me explain. If you two still want me to go, I will.”

Leo’s neck swiveled and he squinted at her. “You will?” He snorted and chuckled wryly. “You will go because he wishes it, not because you choose,” he corrected her, his voice rising. “What can you say to justify your lies, the manipulation? You have done real damage here, Sabine,” he said, waving at Jonathon.

She nodded jerkily at Jonathon, her eyes brimming with tears. “I see that now, and I swear, I was only trying to protect Leo and I thought I had given you both a clean, easy break.”

“Easy?” Jonathon shouted back, then covered his mouth, reeling and offended. “How could you think that was easy? What about the last ten years looked clean?”

“I didn’t know how much of that was about Leo. I did it to protect him and you went so wild, I convinced myself that I had been right about you,” Sabine admitted. “I’m deeply sorry for not seeing that it was my doing.”

Leo made an exasperated sound. “Protecting me from him? We had a plan and we could have kept it quiet until the timing was better.”

“They didn’t want you anymore!” Sabine said in a loud whisper. “The Foundation made it very clear that I had a month to get you into shape and you had to be a changed man when you appeared for that ceremony.”

“What are you talking about?” Leo sneered, shaking his head. “No one said anything about that to me.”

“They couldn’t!” She clutched her forehead in distress. “You had just had that attack and you had been so sick. I promised them you would be well and ready to perform. How were you going to recover if you knew there were already plans to replace you with Theo?”

“No…” Leo pointed hard, looking furious. “I knew they liked Theo better, but someone would have said something if it had gotten to that point.”

“It’s true,” Markus said as he stepped between them. “There were rumors when I was brought on that my position might be temporary, depending on how smoothly the transition went.”

Leo drew back, looking appalled. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Markus cocked a brow and stared him down. “Would you tell your new boss that?” He didn’t wait for Leo to answer. “No, you would not. You would do everything in your goddamn power to limit the stress around the workplace and keep your job.”

“That’s all I was doing!” Sabine said quickly but Markus turned on her.

“That’s not all you were doing.” He wagged a finger at Sabine, smirking when her jaw fell. “I couldn’t understand why Leo never picked up on any of your hints because it was obvious that you were in love with him. There were rumors about that little bit of matchmaking, too,”

he said accusatively.

“That wasn’t my idea,” she objected, her eyes were huge as they swung to Leo’s. “I didn’t care about any of that,” she said and Markus shrugged.

“You were still a plant. The Foundation had their eye on you from the very beginning. That’s why you waited a year to go to Oxford. At first, I thought you were only in it for the title so I looked into your background, but it didn’t take long for me to see that you loved him. And I could see that Leo wasn’t interested—would never be—because there was someone else. I never knew who until he chased Mr. Hawthorne out of the gala.”

Jonathon cleared his throat sheepishly. “I heard the same thing from Muriel when we were in Austria,” he said and Leo’s face twisted.

“I wasn’t that blind! I knew they would have preferred if I had chosen Sabine but there was nothing there so it didn’t work. Although, I didn’t realize our friendship was arranged,” he said to her, shaking his head.

Sabine looked sick as she nodded. “I’ve always been ashamed of that, but I was always loyal to you and I’ve given the last twenty years of my life—everything—to your dreams. Not because the Foundation or my parents made me do it. I truly did love you, as a friend and then…” She blushed, still unable to bring her eyes to Leo’s. “I stopped hoping you would feel the same, but I did think that we might come to an understanding one day if you didn’t find someone else. That had nothing to do with Mr. Hawthorne or Schönbühel, though. All I cared about was getting us through that ceremony and making sure you held onto that title because I believed in you and your dreams.”

“That doesn’t excuse what you did,” Leo said. “You took advantage of my weaknesses and manipulated us like we were children. I can’t forgive that.”

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