Page 20 of The King's Fake Bride

Daphne leans against the windowsill. “With a little training, Amy is going to make a good queen.”

“You can take the American out of the States,” Atticus says, his tone mocking as he gets up and heads for the door. “But she’s still going to be an American at the end of the day.”

He shuts the door behind him, leaving Daphne alone with me.

She reaches out and nudges my knee with her foot. “Don’t let him get to you. He just wanted to win the bet.”

“The bet?”

“Yeah. Some of the advisors were betting when you were going to get married, and to whom. He bet that you would never go through with the plan.”

I grind my teeth together. “And what was your bet?”

She gives me a sly smile and reaches into her pocket, pulling out a wad of money and holding half out to me. “When I heard that you snuck out the other night, I bet that you were going to meet a stranger on a beach and bring her home.”

I take what looks like nearly a thousand dollars and stuff it into my pocket. “The lot of you are terrible. I should fire you all.”

“You’re not going to do that.”

“No.” I glance at the time, humming for a moment before getting up. “But I do have to go meet Amy now. Maybe I’ll even spend some of this money on taking her out.”

With that, I hurry out of my office and head for a hidden set of stairs, before she can ask any more questions.

CHAPTER 8

AMY

“That’s right. I’m not going to be returning,” I say, my tone sharper than it was the last three times I told my boss I wouldn’t be at work.

Michael makes a disapproving noise in the back of his throat. “This isn’t a good time of the year to do this to us, Amy. You’re going to want to think about your actions.”

“So sad. I won’t get to pipe a thousand little whiskers on bunny cookies for spring.” I stop walking down the cobblestone road, looking in the window of one of the little shops. Scarves of all different colors hang in the window, fluttering in the breeze that flows through the shop’s open door.

“You can’t do this to us. Think of all the bridges you are burning. Nobody will hire you after this.”

Once upon a time the threat would’ve made me cower. I would’ve folded immediately and told him that I was sorry before getting on a plane and heading home.

Now, I have something better planned for my future.

“I don’t care, Michael. You’ve done nothing but take advantage of me since the day I started working for you, and it’s done now. I won’t be coming back, and you can find someone else to verbally abuse all day long.”

Hanging up, I stuff my phone in my pocket, feeling like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

For the first time in a long time, I can breathe without the worry of something going wrong. I don’t have to answer to a boss who makes it clear that he hates me. There won’t be any more getting screamed at for not toasting the nuts to the exact shade of amber Michael is looking for.

Laughing, I push off the wall and keep walking down the road, the scent of coffee drawing me to a little hole-in-the-wall café.

I step inside, my mouth watering at the display case of little pastries.

The older woman behind the counter puts her hands on her broad hips, grinning at me. “Hello. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”

“I just moved here.” I glance away from her, wondering if that’s what I should be telling people right now.

Even though the announcement is going to come out tomorrow, nobody told me what I should say to people if they ask about my being in Katastinia. I’ve been making it up as I go along, hoping that keeping it simple will be good enough.

Although, I didn’t stop to talk to any of them on my way out of the castle either.

Tomorrow, everything is going to change, but for today, I’m still just Amy.

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