Page 28 of Claimed By the Crown Prince

Laia was looking at him, waiting for him to elaborate. Ordinarily he wouldn’t feel inclined to, but now he did.

‘The car crash that killed my mother was a pretty shattering experience. It exposed a lot of the flaws in our family. On the surface it looked perfect. But it wasn’t. It was toxic. Ari was busy learning how to be King. Our father was busy parading his various mistresses in front of our mother, sending her slowly over the edge. And I... I was the only one she could turn to.’

Dax expected Laia to ask more about the crash, but she said, ‘Is that why you don’t want to marry?’

‘It’s part of it. I didn’t see anything good in my parents’ marriage. They certainly weren’t like your parents. In love.’

Laia was quiet for a moment, and then she blurted out, ‘My father had an affair.’

Dax raised a brow, glad to have the focus turned from him.

Laia continued. ‘It was a year after my mother died, I was still a baby.’

‘Who was she?’

‘She was one of the castle staff. But then she got pregnant. My father panicked and sent her into exile. He felt so guilt-ridden. Like he’d tainted my mother’s memory. I think that’s why he never married again. It was some sort of penance.’

‘What happened to the baby? Your half-sibling?’

Laia swallowed. ‘A half-sister, actually.’

‘Have you met her?’

Laia nodded. She looked guilty.

Dax narrowed his gaze on her. ‘Laia, what—?’

‘She’s in Santanger...with Aristedes. That’s Maddi—my half-sister.’

Dax’s mouth closed. Opened. Closed again. He thought of the pictures he’d seen. Eventually he said, half to himself, ‘That’s why you look so alike. You’re sisters.’ Then he asked, ‘Whose idea was it?’

‘Maddi thought of it...but I went along with it. It was both of us.’

Dax thought of his brother, finding out that Princess Laia wasn’t who he thought she was. Finding out that he had an imposter in his palace. Feeling like a fool.

Anger rose, and Dax told himself it was because ofthisand not because sitting here talking to Laia was like finding himself in a confessional, blithely spilling his guts after years of keeping them firmly tucked away from sight.

He said, with bite, ‘How noble of you not to blame her entirely for duping my brother, making him look like a fool.’

Laia’s hands twisted her napkin, belying what? Her guilt?

‘It seems like no one is any the wiser about who Maddi really is,’ she said, her tone a little defiant. ‘And he’s using her to make it look like all is well with the engagement, so who’s duping who?’

‘That’s not the same. All he can do is damage limitation, thanks to you.’

Laia put down her napkin. ‘If he’d listened to me back when I tried to talk to him we wouldn’t even be in this situation, but his arrogance has brought us here.’

Dax stood up abruptly. He needed to get away from those big green eyes. Her gaze was too direct.

‘I’m going for a walk.’

He needed to put some distance between them. Maybe then he could get some oxygen to his brain to assess what she’d just told him.

And what you told her...practically everything.

Laia watched Dax walk out, his tall, powerful body vibrating with tension. He was angry. And she couldn’t blame him after finding out the extent of how she and her sister had tricked King Aristedes.

If anything, Dax’s loyalty to his brother showed yet another facet to his personality, which was evolving into something Laia had no handle on any more.

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