Page 82 of Queen Rose

Lyla shudders next to me. “I think I’m gonna be sick. Perverted, twisted fucker.”

I bite my lip. “I didn’t know about the recordings. Not until he told me.”

“Christina somehow saw them?” Daphne’s intelligent eyes meet mine. I can see her brain whirring with the information, and she’s putting it all together.

“Yep. The videos are stored on his laptop. I guess they were at our house, and she ran from him to find the camera, and…” I don’t finish. I don’t have to. They know how it ended. “After that, I knew I needed to say something, to do something. I was working up the courage. I had almost convinced myself to at least tell Nate so I had someone to help me figure it out… then shit hit the fan last night.” I look down at my hands, trying to steady my breathing. “Conner’s big thing was that he, um, he wanted to be my first.” I pause, looking around the room. There are a couple of raised brows, but no spectacular surprise that I’d been a virgin. I swallow past the embarrassed lump filling my throat. “He started really threatening me when he knew Nate and I were getting serious. I think he saw us—” I jerk to a stop.

Lyla’s head tilts to the side. “Doing sexy stuff?”

My cheeks turn pink. “Um, yes. We were messing around in my room the afternoon before Christina was murdered. And I think in the back of his head, he knew I’d already been with Nate. I wasn’t his sweet little virgin anymore. But he also kept asking if I was ready for him to give me my big birthday gift. He meant he was finally going to fuck me because I’d be eighteen. He’s completely demented. Stark. Raving. Mad.”

Beau shakes his head. “Obviously one hundred percent deranged if he’s equating raping his business partner’s daughter—the niece of the woman he dated and then killed—to a birthday gift.”

When I look back up, my gaze connects with Xander’s and there are tears slipping down his cheeks. Oh, God. I knew how badly this would wreck him. But I wasn’t prepared for him to cry. He taught himself not to because it made his asshole dad beat him harder. So this? This is bad.

I tuck my head next to Nate’s ear. “I need to speak to Xander. Privately.”

He nods once, glancing at my best friend. “I agree.”

I get up, cross the room, and hold out my hand to Xander. “I think we should talk,” I say softly.

He blinks, as if he’s only just realized that I’ve gotten up. “Yeah. Okay.” He presses a kiss to Scarlett’s cheek before he stands up and takes my hand.

I lead him out of the room, shutting the door behind us, and take him down to the home gym. I point to a weight bench, straddle it, then pat the cushion in front of me. He throws a leg over, sitting down facing me, but his gaze is trained on his hands, like he doesn’t want to look me in the eye.

Reaching forward, I gently wipe the remnants of Xander’s tears from his cheeks. “That’s something I never thought I’d see again in my entire life,” I say quietly.

He shrugs and sniffs a little. But then his face hardens. He’s about to retreat behind a wall, and I can’t have that.

“Are you not talking to me now?”

“What am I supposed to say?” He shakes his head, eyes focused downward.

“I don’t know, Xan. Anything. I finally came clean. Don’t shut me out.” My lip trembles as a tear leaks from the corner of my eye.

His eyes flick up to mine, and I know he’s steeling himself against his torment. “My best friend was drugged, assaulted, and almost raped last night. If that wasn’t enough to tear me up inside, I find out you’ve been— He’s been—” His face crumples, and he drops his head into his hands.

“Xander,” I whisper. “I thought about telling you so many times. I just couldn’t. It was too horrifying. I couldn’t talk about it because if I kept it to myself, I could pretend it wasn’t happening. But you…” I reach for one of his hands. “You were my safe place.” He shakes his head, clearly not happy with my answer. “You helped me survive him, even if you didn’t realize what was happening.” I swing my leg over the bench and scoot close so I can hug him. With my face buried in his chest, I whisper, “When he stopped being my hero, you took his place.”

His entire body shakes hard, and he grits out, “I should have known. I can’t believe I didn’t see the signs. I’m so fucking sorry, Aria. I’m so sorry this happened to you.” He tugs me closer. “I want you to know—” His voice hitches. “I will be there for you every step of the way. Anything you need. No matter what it is. I swear it.”

“I know you will be because you’ve always been there for me. And I’m going to be okay. I’m the queen, right?” I ease back to look at him through the tears filling my eyes.

“That you are.” He pulls in a shaky breath, then rubs a hand over his chest as he stares into my eyes. “But have you found your king? Is he the one?”

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