Page 73 of The Princess and the Fraud

I drew in a breath, but it got stuck. My snapping anger seemed to freeze along with me, clarity breaking in like shattering glass. There was so much darkness in Aaron’s gaze that it was almost hard to distinguish his pupil from his iris, the glare too strong.

Despite the steel in his voice, his grip on my hand softened. “But thank you for putting my entitled, idiotic life into perspective for me. I guess it only took trusting you and being honest for me to realize, hmm?”

The sarcasm that dripped from his voice was venomous, poisoning my anger. Like water on a flame, it went out, leaving nothing but heat in my cheeks in its wake. I was remarkably quieter. “You—you didn’t say anything?”

“To the bald-headed man always walking around looking like an iPad kid? No.” The shadows in his eyes spread to his voice. “But I’m glad we got that cleared up, because I’d hate for you to actually think I might justmaybehave a shred of dignity. How embarrassingthatwould’ve been.”

Aaron dropped my arm then, as if gripping it any longer would’ve left him burned. Oh.Oh. My heart still hammered in my chest, but with a different emotion now, one that was too eerily reminiscent of the panic from last night. “I—I didn’t mean?—”

“You did. You meant every word you said, or else you wouldn’t have said it.” He cast a glare down the hallway, jaw clenching so tightly that the muscle popped. In that flash of a moment, though, something else darted across his expression.Hurt.“You’ve repeatedly told me you dislike me, Lovisa, but don’t worry. I’ll listen to you this time.”

Something splintered inside me. A strange urgency flooded my veins, a sickening rush of desperation I didn’t understand. It clawed at my ribs, buried its teeth deep in my chest as Aaron stepped forward, ready to walk past me, out of reach. I latched onto his wrist, my grip digging in, as if holding on was the only way to stop whatever this was from unraveling completely.

I opened my mouth, but it wasn’t my voice that called his name.

“Aaron!”

In the split second that passed from when the voice called out and when I turned, I was very confused. Out of anyone who’d be calling Aaron’s name like that—excitedly, happy to see him—I would’ve thought it’d be Fiona. It was a voice I knew, but it wasn’t Fiona’s.

It was Caroline’s. And when I whirled around, she stood at the mouth of the hallway, directly off the elevator, grinning. Rapid-fire, my brain took stock of her outfit. A pretty white lace dress, paired with a lightweight jacket left unbuttoned. She had her purse hooked in the crook of her elbow and a mauve lip on—prime Caroline date attire.

In an instant, Aaron changed. The muscle tensed in his jaw relaxed, lips pulling into a smile at the sight of her, and any unsuspecting viewer wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong. “Caroline, dear,” he greeted warmly, worlds different from the ice he’d used with me moments ago. “You didn’t have to come up for me.”

Dear? Since when was Carolinedearto him?

She beamed back at him. “Oh, I don’t mind at all,” she replied, smoothing a hand down her jacket. She seemed to notice me then, as if the girl hanging off Aaron’s armwasn’tjust a shadow. “Lovey? What are you doing up here?”

“What areyoudoing here?” I demanded, still dumbly holding onto Aaron’s wrist. “You’re—you’re meeting Aaron?”

“We’re getting lunch together,” Aaron told me, and with one swift movement, he jerked his arm away, ripping out of my locked fingers as easily as if it were a toddler’s grip. He didn’t look at me once before striding over to Caroline. “Our reservation is waiting for us. Shall we go?”

“Sounds perfect.” Caroline offered her hand out, to which Aaron obliged by lifting his arm. She wrapped hers through his, the picturesque couple. She glanced back at me with electric-wide eyes, mouthingtalk later!before heading to the elevator.

They were getting lunch? When did they make that plan?Why? Why hadn’t Caroline said anything about it? Had she told Annalise? Why hadn’tAaronsaid anything about it the night before, in the elevator?

The questions were endless, but left unanswered as the elevator found its way to the eighth floor. I still hadn’t moved from outside Aaron’s door, watching. I waited, holding my breath, but Aaron didn’t look at me before he stepped on the elevator. Neither did Caroline.

And then the situation got even worse—the door to 803 swung open. “Lovey?”

I closed my eyes, not even bothering to stifle my muttered, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Grant came out of his hotel room, the one that was right next door to Aaron’s, blinking in surprise. He wasn’t wearing the same pajamas he had the night before, but instead a black hoodie and a pair of dark wash jeans. His blond hair was combed back, exposing the soft planes of his face. “Itisyou. I thought I heard your voice.”

I sighed, barely able to compartmentalize. “I—I can’t talk. I’m supposed to be working?—”

“Was that Caroline I heard too?” he asked, glancing down the now-empty hallway. “I thought she said she had a lunch meeting this afternoon.”

I looked at him in a renewed light. “Do you know where she’s going?”

Grant just stared at me.

“Do you, or don’t you?”

“I do.” Grant shifted from one foot to the next, considering. “But I won’t tell you.”

“What are we, twelve?”

“I won’t tell you,” he repeated, raising his eyebrows in what turned out to be a hopeful expression. It was soGrantthat the nostalgia of it unsettled me. “But I will drive you.”

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