Page 56 of Spearcrest Prince

“Look. Just because I don’t want her doesn’t mean I want anybody else to have her. Nobody gets to have what’s mine. Especially not some limp-wristed loser like Parker.”

He nods and says nothing. He doesn’t look convinced—he doesn’t look much like anything. The more I think about it, the more I realise Iakov is exactly like Anaïs. They are both inscrutable, mysterious assholes who constantly mess with my head with their complete lack of emotion or expression.

Why should I have to feel every emotion so strongly when they get to feel none at all? Hardly seems fair.

“Say what you want to say,” I spit, “and be done with it.”

“If you love her,” Iakov says, “you love her. So what?”

“So—does it look like I love her? Why would I love her?” I glare at him. “Love is a poison—I’ve been there before, why would I go there again?”

“Kayana wasn’t the beginning and end of your world,” Iakov grunts. “So she cheated on you. So what?”

Iakov is the only person who could bring this up without risking my fist crashing into their face.

“It’s not about the cheating.”

“Yes. Alright, so she turned down your proposal and refused to get engaged to you when you two were sixteen. It was a stupid idea anyway. And so, alright, it broke your heart.So what?” Iakov finishes his cigarette and throws the butt at the ground, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “You’re going to let some stupid teenage relationship get in the way of this?”

“What’s this?”

“This thing you have with your girl.”

“She’s not my girl.”

“Your fiancée. Same thing.”

I sigh and rub my hand across my face. I was in a great mood when I left the library, but my good cheer has been shot between the eyes and lies stone-cold dead at Iakov’s feet. “You know I don’t want this engagement.”

“Break it, then.”

“I can’t. You of all people know it’s not that easy going against your family.”

He nods. “I’d still do it. For—” He interrupts himself and shakes his head slightly. “For the right person. I’d do it.”

“Well—trust me when I say I can’t break this engagement. I’m stuck with it and—”

“Then make her break it.”

“No, I—” I stop in my tracks.

Make her break the engagement.

Could I do such a thing? She doesn’t want it any more than I do, and she hates being in Spearcrest. She’s never said so, but it couldn’t be more obvious. If I had to guess where Anaïs would rather be, it would be somewhere vibrant or close to the sea. Anaïs would probably live a completely different life if she could. She would choose independence and freedom and art over the cushy, glittering life of the billionaire fiancée to the Montcroix heir.

Even if I convinced Anaïs to break the engagement or forced her hand to do so—then what?

My parents wouldn’t just take their failed enterprise in their stride and move on. They’d be furious at me, to begin with, for costing them their businesses, their future alliance, their future billions. For letting the Nishihara heiress slip through my fingers.

But then they’d do damage control, shop around and find someone else. Use our name to lure in another billionaire heiress to keep us rich for generations to come.

Then I would find myself in the same situation, just with a different bride.

And as far as brides go, Anaïs isn’t the worst I could do. She certainly won’t look good photographed on my arm, and the gossip blogs will have endless fun cruelly criticising her style. I imagine her, bare-footed in some crazy outfit, dancing all by herself at one of my parents’ galas. I imagine the horror on their faces, my mother’s mouth dropping open at Anaïs’s eccentric antics. That prospect doesn’t displease me.

The prospect of a future with Anaïs doesn’t displease me.

“I’ll think about it,” I say eventually, looking away from Iakov.

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