Page 5 of Vicious Prince (Violent Kingdom)

“What do you want, Avery?" he spits. "A flow chart? A pros and cons list?A fucking Venn diagram?”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” I reply. “I mean, if you can spare five minutes to explain how you’ve chosen how my life unfolds, I’m all ears. And stop fucking swearing at me.”

“Five minutes,” he mutters. “We’ve been explaining this to you for almost ten years, Avery. Jesus Christ, it’s the day of your inauguration.”

“I won’t have his children,” I protest. “I won’t have any children.”

“No problem,” my father says.

“No problem?” I echo. I look at my uncle, who won’t meet my gaze. “What’d you do, harvest my eggs?” I half-joke.

Neither of them says anything.

“Holy fucking shit.” My stomach drops. I feel like I’ve been electrocuted. I’m stunned. I think back to when it could have happened. “My appendectomy,” I breathe. “After Adeline died.”

“On the bright side, you still have a perfectly good appendix,” Enzo interjects. “We just thought it best to preserve the only chance of continuing the bloodline in case—”

“— In case I drowned myself, too?” I think of my sister, floating facedown in our pool, her hair spread out in the water, creating a dark halo around her. She’d already been dead for hours by the time I stumbled across her body.

“We can use a gestational carrier, if you prefer,” Enzo says, sidestepping the mention of my dead sister — the one who was meant to take on all of this instead of me. “The embryos are already on ice, ready to go. We all know how important your career is to you.”

My father gives him a sharp look. I feel hot tears stab at my eyes as I put a hand to my stomach. They haven’t just taken my eggs. They’ve created embryos with them?

“What the actualfuck?!” I demand.

“You should have told her,” Enzo says tersely.

My father throws his hands up in response.

“Where?” I ask. My head is swimming. “When? Who is the father?”

Enzo looks at me like I’m an idiot, but then I see something flash in his eyes.Guilt. “Have you not been listening to anything?” He turns to my father, a deep frown etched between his eyebrows. “I told you to tell her,” he mutters, and his voice wavers a little, thick with regret. It’s almost as if he’s the one who has been betrayed.

Enzo focuses on me again. “Joshua Grayson’s sperm. Your eggs. Thirteen embryos that are richer than sin the moment they become your children.”

I choke so hard, I almost vomit. “Thirteen?”

Enzo looks bereft. “Obviously you don’t have to use all of them.”

“Oranyof them,” I snap.

“Both of you,shut up,” my father says. “Avery, we will talk about this when the time is right. You’re not even engaged yet.”

“Daddy—” I interrupt.

“You’re a little old to be using that word,” he says, all trace of paternal concern gone, replaced by irritation. I bristle.

“Oh, fuck you,” I spit. "Why all the trouble with the egg extraction, huh? Hell, you could've saved yourself the trouble and passed me off to Joshua at Adeline's funeral. Let him fuck your sixteen-year-old daughter in the back of the church and knock her up while you buried her sister? Or maybe you should have just locked me in a room and let him breed me like a fucking animal. I mean really, what's the goddamn difference,Augie?"

My father's open palm smacks into my cheek before I even see him move. The side of my face hums angrily, but the pain doesn't bother me. It steels me. I'll do what I'm told, but it doesn't mean I won't make it a living hell for everyone concerned.

Enzo quickly steps between us, motioning for my father to back up. Ever the concerned uncle, he brushes his knuckles against my cheekbone, his touch cool against the blood-red rage that has risen in my cheeks.

"This is not the time, Avery," he murmurs, raising his eyebrows in a silent warning as he gazes down at me. Enzo has a way of looking at me that makes all of my emotion pour out. It's always been this way between us. While Daddy worked and grieved in his office after everyone else was dead and gone, it was Enzo who became my parent.

"That's the problem, Enzo," I say bitterly, pushing him away. "Time has run out."

Daddy refills his whiskey. Enzo holds his hand up, signaling to pour one more. I seethe as I switch my attention between the two men who just delivered my death sentence.

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