Page 51 of Lily and the Billionaire Prince

At least…

He thought it was Lily.

She was supposed to be sleep-disheveled in her pajamas, not fully dressed with her coat and suitcase in hand. Most off-putting of all, her voluptuous, thick hair, one of his favorite features about her, was sheared short.

Tiredness and redness rimmed her eyes, and her expression sank as her eyes met his.

Henrik’s heart plummeted as well. Bewildered and guarded, he climbed a few steps to meet her on the landing. “What is this?” he asked, stroking the side of her face.

She closed her eyes while a tear trickled free.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Her lower lip trembled, and she shook her head as though she couldn’t speak. Unable to watch her cry, Henrik rubbed away the errant tears with his thumbs.

“Don’t cry, darling,” he said. “This was meant to be a happy surprise.”

She found her voice. “This was a surprise for me?”

“For who else?” he said with a laugh. “Come now, we must put this orchestra to good use.”

He took her hand. She yanked it free.

“I’m leaving, Henrik.” Her pronouncement had so much finality. More tears welled in her eyes.

“Leaving?” He said the word as if it was a foreign concept. “Is that why you cut your hair? So I wouldn’t find you?” He could think of no other reason. What had his father said to her?

More tears escaped. More head shaking. “No. You aren’t the one I’m worried about.”

So her issue was with his father. Henrik ground his teeth. “Whatever the King said to you, I hope you’ll disregard it this instant. He doesn’t have my well-being in mind—only the kingdom’s.”

“It’s not him either.” Her words were so choked, he could barely make them out.

“Tell me,” he pleaded. “What can I do to convince you to stay?”

Her shoulders sagged, and she let him carry her suitcase down the stairs so the two of them stood between the orchestra and the front door.

She glanced toward the door with longing, and then resolve descended within her expression. She folded her arms, but not in stubbornness. Something told him the gesture was more of a self-conscious attempt to hold herself together. “Once I tell you,” she said, “you won’t want me to stay.”

“Tell me,” he insisted again. He wished they could go somewhere private, somewhere they didn’t have an audience. He wondered if the orchestra members could hear them over the music’s soft strains. Probably.

Lily blinked out tears and cast her eyes to the elaborate ceiling with its marble trusses. “My ex-boyfriend, Damon, is a jerk.”

“We’ve already established that fact,” Henrik said with a smile, hoping to win one in return. When she didn’t smile back, his brows gathered. “I’m not like him, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not,” she said. “He was possessive and controlling. When I didn’t give him what he wanted, he found ways to take it out on me.”

Anger surged. Henrik’s muscles quivered, and he couldn’t control his tone quite as easily as he hoped. “Did he hit you?” If he did, so help him, Henrik would live to make sure this man regretted such an action.

“He was more tactful than that,” Lily said. Henrik could see the war going on in her mind evident on her face. “I refused to move in with him, so he got mean. He poisoned a few of my cats. I found them dead.”

“That awful man,” Henrik said. What a terrible, low-caliber thing to do, especially to someone who loved animals as much as Lily did.

Her tears heightened. “That wasn’t the worst of it. He worked at my parents’ company and found out about a deal I was trying to arrange with a famous celebrity to be the spokesman of King Toothpaste. He hacked into my account and added himself to the email chain—”

“Hewhat?” If Henrik thought he’d been angry before, it was nothing to the rage flooding through him now. He’d never been a violent man, but he could picture himself approaching this lowlife and punching the living daylights out of him.

“My parents trusted me so much that they left the entire thing for me to handle. And I completely screwed it up, Henrik. They lost thousands of dollars because the celebrity fell through and they were no longer able to push their line like they’d planned. So much went wrong, and it was all my fault.”

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