Page 94 of Royal Affair
"I'm not Pemberton."
"No?" She turned back to me, and there was something almost pitiful in her expression. "Then tell me, James—what's your plan? How exactly do you propose to make this work? You'll give up your career, of course. No security firm will employ a man who's compromised himself so thoroughly with a client. And Evangeline... Well, she'll face a choice between the crown and you. What do you think she'll choose?"
The question hung in the air like poison. Because I knew Evangeline, knew the core of duty and responsibility that drove her every decision. And I knew that eventually, inevitably, she'd choose the crown. It was who she was.
The folder on her desk contained more than just my severance. I glimpsed official documents—constitutional law briefs, succession planning, diplomatic schedules. The machinery of state was already moving, preparing for Evangeline's new role whether she wanted it or not. Every day I kept her from that destiny was a day stolen from her people, from her duty.
"She chose duty when it mattered before," Sophia said softly. "Right up until the moment reality crashed down around her. Then she came running back to the palace, to duty, to the life she was born for. Because that's what she does, James. When push comes to shove, Evangeline chooses responsibility over romance. She always has."
The words landed like blows, each one finding its mark in the insecurities I'd been fighting since the moment I'd first kissed her. Every doubt I'd buried, every fear I'd pushed down, came roaring back to the surface.
"She'll break your heart," Sophia continued, her voice almost gentle now. "Maybe not today, maybe not next month. But eventually, when the reality of what you're asking her to sacrifice becomes clear, she'll choose the crown. She'll choose duty. And you'll be left with nothing."
I stared at the floor, my hands clenched into fists to hide their trembling. Because she was right. Deep down, in the parts of myself I didn't want to examine, I'd always known she was right.
"Or," Sophia said, her tone shifting to something more businesslike, "you could save yourself—and her—that pain. You could end this now, cleanly. Let her move on with her life, find someone suitable. Someone who can give her everything she deserves."
"And what do I get out of that?" The question came out bitter, defeated.
"Your dignity. Your career. And the knowledge that you loved her enough to let her go."
I looked up at her then, this woman who'd shaped empires with her will alone. "Is that what you told yourself when you made your own choices?"
Something flickered in her eyes—surprise, perhaps, or recognition. "This isn't about me, James."
"Isn't it? You were young once. You must have wanted things you couldn't have."
For a moment, her composure cracked, and I saw something raw and human beneath the royal facade. Then the mask slipped back into place.
"What I wanted was irrelevant. What mattered was my duty to the crown, to my people. Just as it matters for Evangeline now."
She moved back to her desk, pulling out a folder I hadn't noticed before. "Your severance package," she said, sliding it across to me. "Quite generous, I think you'll find. Enough to start over somewhere new. Somewhere far from Bellavista."
I didn't touch the folder. "You want me gone."
"I want what's best for my daughter. And that isn't a relationship that will destroy everything she's worked for, everything she believes in."
The conversation was over. I could see it in the set of her shoulders, the finality in her voice. The Queen had spoken, and there was no appeal from her judgment.
But the real cruelty was that she was right. Everything she'd said, every doubt she'd planted—they were all things I'd thought myself in the dark hours when sleep eluded me. I wasn't good enough for Evangeline. I would destroy her life. Eventually, inevitably, she would choose duty over love, just as she'd been raised to do.
The only question was whether I let that destruction play out over months or years, or whether I ended it now with surgical precision.
"I'll need time to... explain things to her," I said finally.
Sophia nodded, with something that might have been relief flickering across her face. "Of course. But James... make it clean. Don't give her false hope."
I stood, leaving the severance package untouched on her desk. "I know how to complete a mission, Your Majesty."
"I'll leave you two alone," Sophia said, moving toward the door. "Take all the time you need."
She paused at the threshold. "For what it's worth, James, I believe you love her. That's what makes this so difficult."
The door closed behind her with a soft click, and I stood in the sudden silence, tasting ash in my mouth and knowing for certain that I was about to destroy the only good thing in my miserable life.
A moment later, the door opened again, and Evangeline stepped back into the room, her face flushed with anger and concern.
"Well?" she demanded, looking around the empty study. "Where's my mother? What did you discuss that was so bloody important it couldn't include me?"
