Page 53 of Matched with the Grumpy Secret Prince

His grip tightens on the strap of his bag. “I wish things were different.”

Then—

He walks out.

And I can’t do anything but stand there, staring at the door, wondering what I’m supposed to do.

GRAHAM

My hands grip the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turn white. I can’t feel my fingers, and I can’t feel anything except the rapid pounding of my heart and the ringing in my ears as the words from the call replay in my head.

“There’s been an accident.”

“It’s bad, Graham.”

“Your parents… they’re fighting for their lives.”

I suck in a sharp breath, but it doesn’t reach my lungs.

I feel cold. A different kind of cold than I’ve ever known. One that seeps into my bones, into my chest, into the spaces of me I thought were untouchable.

My father. My mother. The king and queen.

Lying in some hospital.

Possibly dying.

My stomach churns violently, and I have to blink several times to clear my vision. I’m driving, but I barely register the road in front of me. The trees blur together, the town passing in a haze.

I need to breathe.

I need to think.

I need?—

I don’t know what I need.

The castle has been calling for weeks. And I ignored every single call, every single message. I didn’t want to hear from them. Didn’t want to hear about royal obligations, about my father’s plans, about how my duty to my bloodline would never truly disappear, no matter how far I ran.

But this—this isn’t about duty.

This is about my family.

The same family I left behind when I walked away from the castle, from the expectations, from the pressure that nearly crushed me.

But no amount of distance, no amount of refusal, no amount of hiding could ever erase the truth.

I love them.

I love them so much it physically hurts.

And I might lose them.

A strangled sound escapes my throat, something between a curse and a desperate breath. My fingers dig into the steeringwheel as I press the gas, my truck speeding down the empty road toward my house.

I don’t know how long I have.

I don’t know if I’ll even get there in time.

---