Page 60 of The Princess and the Fraud

The same thought process that everyone at Alderton-Du Ponte seemed to have. “That’s not true.”

“Maybe not to us.” She offered a small, sad smile. “But to him? It’s everything. And when his parents cut him off, and his brothers fired him, and his grandmother passed away, it was like he’d becomenothing. It broke my heart.”

While I didn’t understand Aaron’s motives perfectly, I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes. His parents cutting him off because he embarrassed them? I’d embarrassed my mother more times than I could’ve counted, both on accident and even on purpose sometimes. No matter how frustrated she’d gotten with me, she’d never have dreamed of tossing me aside like that. As a child, or even as an adult. And then, a week after losing the most important person in his life, his family only proved to twist the knife further.

Perhaps you just don’t know me well enough. Perhaps you’d change your mind if you knew how sad and twisted my insides are.

“He’s got a lot of reasons for what he does. I don’t agree with some of them, but…” Annalise opened her mouth to go on, but hesitated. She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t say it before when you asked, because I was afraid who’d overhear, but when Aaron found out Margot didn’t like him romantically, he offered for them to be business partners instead. I know it sounds… strange, but people around here do that. Especially when from families like theirs.”

I sat back in the chair, the strange pressure tightening further in my chest. “He told you all this?”

“If you look at him,reallylook at him, you can see it.” She let out a breath. “He’s just a boy wanting the approval of his family, and he thinks marrying an heiress will give him that.”

“Even if he doesn’t love her?”

Annalise looked surprised as she turned toward me. She gave me a sad smile. “Aaron doesn’t believe in love.”

Doesn’t believe in love. It made sense, then, why me explaining everything with Grant left him confused. There was something overwhelmingly sad about Aaron trying to compose a life that looked good on paper. One that would earn him applause. A performance technically perfect, but hollow, the kind that left the audience clapping politely instead of feeling something deep in their bones.

Music wasn’t just about the right notes—it was about the pauses, the emotion, the aching pull between sound and silence. I thought about what my cellist instructor used to tell me.Play with your heartandyour head.

Just as I’d struggled, Aaron wasn’t playing with both.

I almost wished Annalise hadn’t told me any of it, that I could’ve gone on under the pretense that, while he had his moments of depth, Aaron was still just shallow. It was easier to fit him into that box. But now, he no longer fit.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Annalise murmured, reaching over to pick up my hand. Her fingers were soft, curving around mine. She hesitated again, biting her lip. “How do you feel… about Grant coming home?”

I jolted. I’djusthad the conversation with Mr. Holland, but it’d already slipped my mind. I thought about mentioning that to her, but didn’t. Annalise was one of my closest friends, but it felt too humiliating to rehash. “I’m okay.” The words tasted true as I spoke them, and that surprised me. “I didn’t think I would be, honestly. But it doesn’t seem so… daunting anymore. I don’t know why.”

Maybe it was because now I had an even stronger reason to avoid Grant. With his father’s unspoken threat lingering, it was just the excuse I needed.

“That’s good,” she said earnestly, her blue eyes soft on mine. “I wasn’t here when everything went down before—you flying out to him, finding…everything. But I’m here now. And if you want me to dump my drink on him when he walks through the Alderton-Du Ponte door, I’ll do it.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the sincerity of her words. She’d throw a drink at him, not talk to him fondly on the phone. I knew it was different with her than Caroline, but something almost like relief settled on my chest.Someonewas on my side. “It’s the thought that counts.”

She raised her fist. “Hey, I may be small, but I know how to?—”

Before she finished her sentence, a shriek cut through the closed conference room’s door. Annalise and I looked at each other for only a moment before we both hopped up, drawn toward the scream. Annalise, out of her desire for gossip. Me, out of duty.

Okay, and maybe a smidge of curiosity.

From the pitch of the shriek, I’d expected to see someone on the ground bleeding or something. Instead, when we rushed into the mouth of the lobby, the only thing in sight was Fiona Flannagan, in black leggings with a matching sports bra, standing at the front desk. She had her arms full of a bouquet of red roses, the world’s widest grin on her face. A few friends surrounded her, all gawking wide-eyed at the arrangement.

“They’re gorgeous!” one of them cooed.

“Who are they from?” another asked, glancing at the front desk receptionist.

Fiona, though, didn’t need to be told. “Who do you think?” She brought the bouquet up to her nose and stuffed her face into the petals, drawing in a big breath. “Aaron, of course!”

I felt a small line crease between my eyebrows. Annalise’s train of thought must’ve been on the same track, because she looked to me. “He bought her flowers?”

One of the girls said, “There’s no card?”

Fiona waved her hand. “I don’t need a card to know who they’re from.” I watched as Fiona once again stuffed her face into the flowers, breathing in deep. “See, girls, Itoldyou I’ve got him good. Look at these!”

Her friends all nodded in agreement.

Almost as if he’d been conjured by the mention of his name, Aaron walked through the wing that led into the hotel. Aaron had his head down, hands in his pockets, looking like he was lost in his thoughts.

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