Page 48 of Royally Knocked Up
“Did it? What changed? Did you stop working for my father? Because it sounds like you came right back to Luria to report to him on what a thorough job you’d done at controlling me. Just like he wanted you to do.”
“It was never about controlling you.”
“No? What about all those nights I tried to get you into Vista Grande, and you never wanted to go? I thought it was just your personality, Hailey. I thought,oh, my new friend prefers a quiet night in.I decided I liked you enough that I’d go ahead andacclimate to your preferences. But that was all a lie, wasn’t it? The truth is, I have no idea whether you like going out or staying in. I don’t know anything at all about you, because it was all an act designed to get me to do what you wanted.”
“It wasn’t an act,” she whispered.
“Don’t. Don’t say that to me now, because it was. Of course it was. You couldn’t have sat there listening to me open up about how hard I found it, knowing that my father needed to draw lines around the life I lived, and all the while known that you werehelpinghim draw those lines, if our friendship had been what I thought it was. I don’t even know who you are.”
“Don’t say that,” Hailey pleaded. “What happened between you and me was real, Enzo. What you said a few moments ago — I feel the same way.”
He shook his head. “I don’t even want to hear about what I said,” he told her. “I didn’t know the truth when I said that, and now that I do, everything is different. I can’t possibly feel what I felt before you were honest with me.”
“But… Enzo, I love you.”
“Stop lying. It’s too late for that,” he said. “I don’t want to hear any more.”
“Enzo, please. We’re going to have a baby.” Just saying the words was a knife to her gut. He had to believe that this was real. There was so much at stake here. How could he turn on her now? Surely this was bigger than any mistakes that had been made in their past…
The prince whirled. His eyes were blazing.
“Don’t you talk to me about a baby,” he snapped.
He had never come at her like this. It fascinated her. It terrified her. She stood frozen.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” he said. “I don’t know what you expect from me. You lie to me, and then you come to me and tell me we’re having a baby — I mean, were you ever going to tell me that if you hadn’t been outed by this excuse for a reporter? Or would you have gone home with this baby as your souvenir of your dalliance with a prince?”
“How can you think that of me?” she whispered.
His face was stone. “I don’t even know you.”
He turned and stalked out of the throne room.
Hailey watched him go, trembling from head to foot. Then she turned to face the king.
He didn’t meet her eyes. He was looking at one of his attendants. “Get the girl out of here,” he said. “Give her some money and make sure she isn’t going to talk.”
“I don’t want any money,” Hailey protested.
“You came here to do a job.” The king still wasn’t looking at her. “The crown pays its debts, and you will be paid for the work you did. There will be no royal commendation, of course, and you’ll be sent out of Monteverde at once. And you won’t be welcome to come back. You’ve let us down tremendously. As for the baby — the crown will provide a sum for it, in exchange for which neither you nor that child are ever to try to contact any of us again.”
He signaled, and Hailey knew she was dismissed.
CHAPTER 19
ENZO
I’m going to be a father.
No. He wasn’t going to be a father. Biologically maybe that kid was his, but in no other way.
And it would have been different, Enzo thought, if anything between Hailey and himself had ever been real. It would have been so different if that were the case. But it hadn’t been real. She had lied to him the entire time. She was probably still lying. She had probably never intended to tell him that she was pregnant. If she’d wanted to tell him that, she could have done so right away, but she hadn’t. No, he thought, if she hadn’t been caught in her lie, she probably would have gone back to the States without ever owning up to a thing, and he would never have known.
Not that hewantedto know any of this. He felt like such a fool. How could he have allowed himself to believe he was in love with this woman? How could he have stood before his father and claimed that his feelings for her were real? He had never been so humiliated in all his life.
This will just confirm to my father that everything he has ever thought about me is correct, he thought miserably.It will just prove to him that I’m irresponsible, that I can’t be trusted to make good decisions. And the worst part of all is that I have to consider the fact that he might be right. If I had any sense at all, I would never have gotten involved with Hailey. I certainly wouldn’t have allowed myself to believe that I was in love with her!
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Luca.What’s going on tonight?
