Page 20 of Take My Throne

“Hey, Archer.” I smile at him, genuinely happy for once.

“Hey, Ivy. Glad you could join us.”

“Us?” A puzzled frown wrinkles my forehead as I follow Archer inside.

“Ivy!”

“Hi!”

I could squeal with delight when I see Declan and Romy sitting on the sofa waiting for me.

“What are you guys all doing here?”

The three men exchange glances.

“After you shot my dad, we decided something had to change,” Declan says. “So, while Mum was at Dad’s bedside, hoping he’d pull through, I got together with Romy and Archer to see what we could do about Solomon Archaic once and for all.”

His tone is very matter of fact when he speaks about his father, but I can’t help the wave of guilt that engulfs me at the mention of him being in hospital. Yes, my father had forced me, but I am still the one who’d pulled the trigger.

“And what did you come up with?”

Declan looks at Romy, signalling it’s his turn to speak.

“We’ve looked at it from every angle and as far as we can make out there’s only one way we can solve the problem of your dad. We kill him.”

I should be shocked at the cavalier way in which he spoke about murdering my father, but the moment Romy says it, I know it makes perfect sense. My father is like a leech, sucking the life out of everyone around him. He’s never happy unless he’s hurting others.

There was a time when I would have been overjoyed to hear that I had a father and wasn’t an orphan. That was before I met him. Over the past few months, I haven’t seen a single good thing my father has done. He doesn’t have a single redeeming quality about him. He’s a bug who needs to be squashed underfoot.

“I’m in.” I went to sit with the guys on the sofas, Archer sitting next to me. “How are you thinking we do this?”

“That’s where we need your input,” Romy says. “You know his movements better than any of us. You can tell us what his weaknesses are, where we’re most likely to hit him without warning.”

“I don’t know that I know any more than you do,” I tell him. “My father has kept me at an arm’s length the whole time I’ve been around him. He only lets me see what he wants me to see. I don’t think I can help you come up with a plan. It’s not like I’ve ever assassinated someone before.”

“I thought that’s what Saturday was all about.” Declan spoke quietly, trying not to hurt me, but it’s impossible not to feel upset about what I’d done.

“I don’t think it was,” says Archer. “Solomon would have known Ivy had never shot a gun before. I don’t think he actually expected her to hit the target. It was simply his way of proving that he has ultimate power over her. Even as a married woman, it’s still her father who owns her.”

“Like any real man could ever own a woman.” Romy shakes his head in disgust.

“But this is why we need to put Ivy in charge of House Archaic,” Declan says. “With her at the helm, the four Houses would be able to work together for once instead of being locked in this permanent power game. I think the four of us all agree that we’d much rather be on the same side than at each other’s throats.”

“Yeah.”

“Absolutely.”

We all nod.

“But what about Lucas?” Romy asks. “While he’s in the picture, Ivy’s never going to be free to make decisions on her own.”

“So she gets a divorce the second her father’s in the ground.” Archer shrugs.

“Actually, I think I can get an annulment,” I say.

“You mean-” Declan raises an eyebrow while Romy and Archer look at each other.

“Lucas and I haven’t slept together,” I confirm. “At least, not in the Biblical sense. My father makes us share a bed, but we’ve been keeping our hands to ourselves. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what we’re going to continue to do until I’m able to get out of this marriage. Add in the fact that I was forced to marry him and I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to get the whole thing written off as some bad dream-–as long as we can get my father out of the picture as soon as possible.”

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