Page 33 of Lily and the Billionaire Prince

The idea had been to change her name. To slip into the sidelines and start a new life, a new existence, one where Damon could never find her again. This running away to Europe, however, would be the opposite of hiding. If she agreed to marry Prince Henrik, her whereabouts would certainly be known, and Damon would bombard her for the benefits. Lily couldn’t do that to Henrik.

Lily sighed in the stillness, admiring her breath puffing from her open mouth, and paused to glance at her old elementary school. She wasn’t surprised where her feet were leading her. She’d had the thought to visit her parents’ home, which was about a block away from the school, if for nothing else than to give Mom and Dad a final, distant farewell before she left as she’d intended. But that had been the plan when she’d intended on changing her name. What was she going to do now?

Staying in Florida wasn’t an option once she returned. Though she had a wonderful job, she was one screw-up away from losing it. What would the Elirs think if they knew she was the reason her parents had lost such an important account? They certainly would find out if Damon carried out his threat. He didn’t care that doing so would put her in breach of her contract not to share the information.

And then there were her fur babies. The thought of leaving them all behind hurt. But she needed peace of mind. She considered taking one of her cats with her, at least, and finding good homes for the rest. Lily needed to be away from Damon like she needed food and water to survive. Perhaps he would give up the constant threats if he could no longer find her to make them.

On the off chance that he did leak the emails that had destroyed her future with her parents’ company, coward that she was, she wouldn’t be around to witness everyone’s disappointment and harsh response to them. Even if Patrick Billingsworth’s agent found her, she could deal with whatever he would throw at her without bearing the shame of everyone knowing about it.

“I’ll have to let Henrik down easy,” she decided, not liking the idea any more than leaving the Elirs’ employment or her beloved pets. She turned the corner, and the Hope estate came into view. A solid clamor of longing struck her as surely as if her heart was a gong that had been hit.

Lily approached the gate surrounding the mansion estate she’d grown up in, and tears burned her eyes all over again. How much of her life had she thrown away? How much she’d lost because of her decision to date Damon Neely. Even now Damon was the true reason she couldn’t allow herself to give in to Henrik’s request. She’d paid dearly for her association with him and would continue to do so.

Memories of conversations, of her parents’ disappointed looks and their threats of disinheritance, threats she’d never taken seriously enough, panged with renewed stings. She was ostracized by them, and she couldn’t be the reason Henrik faced something similar with his family.

Though he’d claimed to pick her, she wasn’t royal material, and her acceptance could only lead to problems for him and his parents too. She had her fake ID. She had the means to leave and live until she could find work as her new self. That was the best option.

Soft voices trailed from down the unshoveled sidewalk surrounding her parents’ estate, and the last people Lily expected to see rounded the corner.

“Mom?” she breathed. “Dad?”

Mom’s red hair was tucked beneath a knitted hat, her arm hooked around Dad’s. Their breath preceded them in little puffs. The two of them stopped and stared at her.

Lily lived as if that single moment was a world all of its own. Would they ignore her? Turn without a word? She knew they often walked in the mornings, but she didn’t think they would go walking Christmas morning.

“Lily?” Mom’s voice was soft and filled with surprise.

Relief stole over her. They weren’t going to ignore her. She took a few more steps. “Hi,” she said. The shouts the three of them had exchanged the last time they’d stood this close to one another stampeded through her memory. “Merry Christmas,” Lily said, not knowing what else to say.

“You too,” Mom said. She’d been the angrier of Lily’s parents, but Dad had been the one to threaten disinheritance and carry it out. Lily didn’t care so much about the money and position as she did the last words Dad had said:

“If you stay with someone like Damon, then you are no daughter of mine.”

Mom had added,“If you leave with him now, don’t bother coming back.”

Lily hadn’t taken them seriously. Sure, they were upset that she’d botched the account with Patrick Billingsworth, but they didn’t know exactly how, and she wasn’t about to let them know Damon had played a part. She’d only been heading out for a night bowling with Damon and had come back to find a moving truck being packed with her belongings. She’d begged for them to understand, to see things from her point of view. She’d shouted how selfish they were for not considering the fact that she and Ethan might want something different with their lives than their parents wanted for them.

Bringing Ethan up had been the final straw for Dad.

Not knowing where else to go, Lily had gone to Snow’s house. Damon had been so angry about her disinheritance, he’d threatened to demand money from the Hopes. When that hadn’t worked, he’d targeted Lily and things had flipped downward so fast Lily had hardly been able to believe that had been the same man who’d been so sugar-sweet to her before. And then she’d ended things only to remember that Damon had access to the emails she’d deleted.

She’d tried making things up with her parents. Tried going to them for help. Nothing worked and moving away from Damon had seemed like the only option.

But she was back home now. She stood face-to-face with her parents, and they weren’t walking away from her.

“How have you been?” Dad asked.

Lily was heartened by the question. Maybe her visit here had been good. Maybe all they’d needed was time. “I’ve been okay,” she said. She wanted to tell them so much. Her job with the Elirs. She’d broken up with Damon. Her life-altering regret. But those admissions could lead to more problems, more questions, more hard words.

“I came to visit Ethan for Christmas. I just wanted to see you both before I left again. To tell you I love you.”

“We love you, too,” Mom said. She broke away from Dad’s arm, closed the final few steps between them, and put her arms around Lily without another word. The touch was a sun-drop on a frozen lake. The ice melted, starting in the center and moving to the edges. Tentatively, Lily returned the embrace, until she buried her face in her mom’s warm coat.

Dad rubbed a hand on Lily’s back and when she pulled away, he was smiling at her. “Do you want to come inside?” he asked. “It’s Christmas.”

Lily longed to say yes. She wanted to fill them in on everything that had happened since that horrible, terrible day, to make amends. But Damon was an impediment here as well. He still had those emails. She still had to leave. And leaving would be easier if the rift between her and her parents remained.

“No, thanks. I’ve got to get going.”

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