Page 52 of Take My Crown

“She never moved on. I mean there was no one else for her…” I decide to tell him, hoping if I try to build bridges between us, he might not treat me so coldly. “She was beautiful and could have anyone she wanted, but she didn’t.”

His eyes look away from me to the cabinet on the wall, making me wonder what is in there. “Your mother was beautiful even from a young age. I remember seeing her for the first time and no riches my family had ever shown me compared to her.”

“You knew her as a child?” I question and he turns to me, his expression cold once more.

“Yes, she worked with her mother as a maid in my father’s house. When her mother died when she was fifteen, my father let her stay in the apartment on our lands,” he explains to me. “I stabbed my father in the back when I was eighteen because he would not let me marry your mother.”

Cold disgust shocks me silent.

“Do you now understand what lengths I will go to get what I want, Ivy?”

My shoulders fall, and my head droops in defeat. “All right,” I say. “I’ll stay away from Archer. But what about Milly? She’s my best friend, and it’s not like I have plenty of other friends to hang out with.”

“You may continue to see Milly at school,” my father says. “But you are to keep your conversations solely to matters of the academy. Should she try to talk to you about her brother, you are to walk away immediately, do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Like you’d know what we talk about, anyway.

As if he could read my mind, my father goes on. “Don’t even think about disobeying my orders while you’re at the Academy,” he warns. “I have eyes and ears everywhere. You might think you can defy me, but I will know what’s going on and Iwilltake drastic measures if I have to.”

“Yes, Dad.” I keep my gaze low, not wanting to look him in the face. I may be too tempted to slap that smirk away. “I’ll stay away from Archer and I’ll only talk to Milly about school stuff.”

“Good girl.” My father nods his approval. “You can go to your room now. After all the excitement you’ve been through tonight, you must be exhausted.”

“Yes, Dad. Good night.”

I turn and go to my room feeling like my heart is breaking. How can my father take away the one good thing in the cage he has put me in?

In that moment, I knew I was going to escape the first chance I got. I have been lulled into a false sense of security in the mistaken belief that maybe I can make the most of being in this crazy town. But there is no future for me here.

There is no way I am going to live with a crazed megalomaniac for a second longer than I have to. I have to find some way to get a message to Archer without my father knowing. Maybe we can get on the back of his bike and drive off into the sunset together.

Yeah, right.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ivy Archaic

Isleepwalk my way through the rest of that week at school. Clearly, Archer received the same warning I had because he kept his distance. On the one hand, I am glad he is making it easy for me to obey my father, but part of me wishes he had fought harder for me. We’d slept together, shared something really special, dammit. How can anyone simply turn their back on that?

Milly is distant, too, which saddens me. I know I am her only true friend. Her father must have done a real number on her to make her stay away from me.

Seeing her walk past me, I reach out and grab her arm, pulling her behind the lockers.

“Come on, Milly,” I say, exasperated. “Don’t be like this. Talk to me. We don’t have to play by our father’s stupid rules.”

“Spoken like someone who never grew up here.” Milly is cold, and for the first time I get the sense that there is a backbone in there after all, which makes me wonder why she let those other girls bully her all the time. “Ivy, if we don’t have our House, we havenothing.I’m a Knight and Knights stick together, no matter what. I’m sorry if your feelings have been hurt, but that’s not my problem. It’s best for both of us if we just keep our distance.”

“Fine.” My jaw clenches and I don’t know whether to cry, slap her, or both.

Milly turns to leave, but she stops and lowers her gaze. “If it’s worth anything,” she says, “Archer really does-didcare about you. He’s sorry things had to end this way. But you have to understand, Ivy, that if our families don’t want a union between two heirs, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I frown. “There’salwayssomething you can do if you want someone bad enough.”

“Not in King Town.”

Suddenly, Milly threw her arms around my neck, squeezing me tight.

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