Page 167 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

“I’m in love with you,” I blurt out. It’s about time I told her.

She freezes. “Huh?”

The elevator chimes, and the doors open.

Way to ruin it.

The floor is basically empty. We go past the receptionist’s abandoned desk. There are a few lawyers in the bullpen, at their cubicles with their heads bent. Some people never stop working. They’re itching to get ahead, so focused on the future that they forget to have lives.

They don’t notice us gliding past them.

I’m determined not to be like them. Not to shutter my gaze away from what’s happening around me.

Margo takes the lead. She’s been here before, and she seems to remember where she’s going. Around the cubicles, to one of the offices against the far wall.

Without knocking, Margo turns the knob and bursts inside.

Tobias Hutchins makes a choking noise in surprise. “Ms. Wolfe? What are you doing here?”

“She’s with me,” I say, stepping into the room.

He’s been afraid of me for a while. Since Mom once slipped that she knew him as more than a friend as she shuffled him out of Uncle David’s house. At the time, I thought they’d met at Keith’s trial. It was the natural connection.

But… I know the truth now.

“Ah, Mr. Asher,” Tobias says. “What brings you… here?”

Margo pulls out the journal. “Do you recognize this?”

He says nothing—which is an answer in and of itself.

I take it from Margo’s hand and stride closer. “She’s quite a detail-oriented woman, my mother.”

His eyes widen.

“She took note of every meeting, every chance encounter with our family. When everything goes sideways, who do you think will take the blame?”

“This is ridiculous—”

“You botched my father’s trial,” Margo snaps.

“It wasn’t my idea.” Tobias loosens his tie. “You think I ever wanted this for myself? That I thought I’d be sitting on…”

“On what? Guilt?”

“Blood money.”

I lift my chin. “Who actually told you to do it?”

“Your mother was conniving.” He goes to the window, yanking his tie completely off. “She said no one would know. No one would find out. The knife had his fingerprints on it.”

Margo takes a step closer to me.

I tilt my head to the side. Rage has always felt strangely comforting to me. Like a security blanket I could wrap around my shoulders. I try to draw upon it now, but all I can muster is confusion.

Margo inches forward, until she’s half blocking me from Tobias.

“Lydia pinned the whole thing on you.”

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