Page 42 of Devil May Hunt
“Yes.”
“Does that make you feel bad?”
“Since you’ve read my records, you already know that I’m fairly average. At everything. With everyone. It might seem like my parents let me join the Academy instead of taking over the business because I insisted, but the reality is, they didn’t trust me with it. They’ve never wanted me as their heir.”
Gunho played back his conversation with Brenda Cree earlier that morning. “That isn’t what I was told.”
He snorted. “Let me guess, mother lamented about how she’d been saddled with an heir who didn’t want to accept his legacy. How I’m spoiled and too independent. They couldn’t control me even if they wanted. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Something along those lines.”
“It’s bullshit,” Brennon said. “All of it. Want to know why I really chose the Academy?”
“Why?”
“Because I overheard her and my father talking about how disappointed they were that they’d ended up with me for a son. My grades weren’t impressive enough. I wasn’t good enough at sports. I failed at securing ties with the Imperial family by being unable to attract Kelevra’s interest. They didn’t want me. They were just stuck with me.”
Oh. He’d meant that snide remark about being married off. Gunho had partially believed it was all talk, but now he could see the truth of it.
Brennon wasn’t freaking out because in some way, he’d been waiting for this to happen to him. Waiting for the call telling him he was no longer a part of the Cree family.
That they’d managed to find something better in exchange for him.
Freedom.
“I’m just another rich kid who threw a tantrum and inadvertently tossed his inheritance in the process,” Brennon finished. “That’s all I’ll ever be. A rich nobody. Someone expendable. Someone not good enough.”
“You really believe that.”
He laughed, but the sound was empty. “I seem ungrateful, don’t I? Poor wealthy loser. Had all the privileges and opportunities given to him from birth and still managed to find something to whine about.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Because you already think so, or because others have told you before?” Gunho didn’t like the idea of anyone putting him down. “No one is allowed to judge you for your feelings, Brennon. The sooner you learn that, the easier everything will become. Your emotions are your own.”
“They’re misguided,” he dropped his gaze. “I’m aware of that. I know how I come across. I’m the Royal who threw it all away. I hear them whisper about me—when they bother to talk about me at all.”
“You have an inferiority complex that admittedly surprises me.”
“I do not.”
“What would you call it then?”
“Your suggestion implies I feel I’m not good enough. That’s not the case. I just have ears. I know whattheybelieve. But they’re wrong. I could run Cree Cosmetics in my sleep.”
He’d been groomed for it, so there was little to no doubt in Gunho’s mind that it was true, even without schooling. The fact he’d chosen the Academy instead of studying business at Vail had given Gunho reason to believe Brennon held no interest in the corporate lifestyle, but perhaps he’d been wrong.
Perhaps they all had.
“You never spoke to your parents about what you heard, did you?” It was easy enough to guess.
“Why bother?” Brennon shrugged. “It wouldn’t change anything. If they denied it, it was to save face. If they admitted it? I’d just feel worse.”
“So you opted to piss them off and alter the course of your entire life over a few passing statements?”
“No, actually. I opted to choose for myself. I don’t regret it.”
