Page 45 of The Billionaire's Royal Crown

A knock sounded behind him, and he twisted to find Stephen in the doorway. “No word yet?”

“Nothing yet,” Nate said with a shake of his head.

“Hey, Nate, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Right now?” Nate questioned, his gaze going to Maddie.

Stephen nodded. “Yeah, just for a second.”

“Maddie, I’ll be right outside. Try not to dwell on things, though, okay?” He strode toward the door, drawing his brother away from the room into the foyer. “What’s up?”

“Hey, ummm, just thinking…you know, what if…what if they question me, too? Like I don’t want to hurt Mom’s case by saying where I was last night, you know?”

Nate slid his eyes closed, scrubbing his face. “Yeah. I don’t know. I guess…do what Cliff says? I mean…you also don’t want to lie to the police.”

“Yeah, but…I mean my testimony could put Mom at the scene right before the murder. I don’t want to be the reason she goes to jail, Nate.”

“No kidding, Stephen,” Nate answered, heat entering his voice, “but I’m pretty sure the cops have some evidence that Mom was there already, so I’m not sure this matters. Theycame here looking for Mom when we all thought they’d be looking for you.”

Stephen slumped against the wall, letting his head fall back with a thud. “I know. This is just insane. Why did I even marry her? I was a total idiot,” he muttered, his voice laced with regret and self-reproach.

“Yeah, well, that makes two of us. She was very good at manipulating people.”

Stephen covered his face with his hands as he shook his head. “I feel like we need to do something. I just don’t know what.”

“The best thing we can do right now is sit tight and see where this is going. We don’t want to start creating problems where there aren’t any. It could make things worse.”

“Yeah, I get that, Nate, but we can’t let Mom go to jail over something we both know she couldn’t have done.”

“And she won’t. The truth will come out.”

“Nate, come on, people are wrongfully accused all the time. We don’t want the truth to come out like five years from now!” Stephen’s raised voice echoed off the walls of the too-quiet house.

“What?” Maddie’s voice squealed from behind Nate.

He twisted to find her hovering in the doorway, a horrified expression on her features after overhearing their discussion.

“Maddie…” Nate tried.

The girl stormed past them, racing up the stairs to her room as fresh tears fell. Nate let out a muffled groan at the latest development.

“You gotta watch what you say, Stephen, she’s really upset.”

“We’re all really upset.”

“Yeah, well, she’s still a kid, okay? She’s afraid she’s losing her mom.”

“We’re all afraid of that, Nate.” Stephen stared at him, his features incredulous.

Nate shifted his weight from foot to foot as the sudden realization of his circumstances struck him. He was the oldest. He was the one they all were looking toward to guide them.

He reached out to clap his brother on the shoulder. “I know. But we’ll get through this, okay? If they do call you in to question you, just…don’t say anything until Cliff’s with you. And then… do whatever he tells you, okay? He knows about Mom’s case and yours.”

Stephen bobbed his head shakily. “Right. Okay. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. I really just hope this is all a formality and someone confesses or something.”

“I’m not sure we’re going to get that lucky, but…if they found out that Mom was there, maybe they have a few people on their list. Maybe someone else went to her apartment last night.”

“Yeah, yeah, that has to be it. Mom didn’t do this.”

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