Chapter 360
Chapter 360
Ella POV
By the time we got to the apartment, I was conflicted. I felt like I had made some kind of mistake in the way I handled Amanda, but it was too late to take it back.
Whatever happened next was out of my hands.
It wasn’t as though Alexander and I had a chance to plan how to handle it. The king had given us no opportunity to prepare or even properly react. We had to act immediately, and now, I could only hope that I hadn’t made things
worse.
Alexander was quiet, lost in thought. I didn’t push him to talk. He had plenty to process too. There was still so much for us to consider.
For now, the headlines were all about Archer, which gave us a little breathing room. After all, it was his sister who had been arrested. It didn’t exactly help his newly announced campaign.
As Alexander walked toward the kitchen, the ding of his phone cut through the silence. He paused, checking the message. A deep frown settled over his face.
“What is it?” I asked, bracing myself for more bad news.
“It’s a picture,” he said softly. “Of Sabrina and her daughter.”
I stepped to his side, and Alexander lowered his phone for me to see.
My eyes narrowed as he slowly cycled through a few images. Sabrina and her daughter were sitting at a café. The little girl had Alexander’s bright eyes and pale hair.
She looked so much like him.
Seeing her again, it was even clearer.
Alexander inhaled sharply as he flipped to the next photo.
And then I saw her.
“Diana,” I said angrily.
She was standing at the table, obviously speaking to Sabrina.
I turned to Alexander, my pulse pounding. “What does this mean?”
But the pained expression on his face melted away my anger.
This was difficult for him. I couldn’t forget that.
“It makes sense,” Alexander said. “Diana’s her aunt. If Sabrina was in trouble, she has no other family to turn to.”
There was an unmistakable sorrow in his tone, so I tried to be gentle as I asked, “What do you mean, no other family?”
“Her parents died when we were kids,” he explained. “I’m not even sure if Diana is actually her blood aunt or if she was just very close friends with Sabrina’s parents. It was a subject she never liked to talk about, and I never pressed her on it. But she has no one else. If it’s true that her husband turned his back on her, then she has nowhere else to go.”
“And Diana is taking advantage of that,” I said, realization sinking in.
1/2
Chapter 360
+25 BONUS
Alexander nodded. I expected anger, but instead, he just looked… sad. It wasn’t a reaction I had anticipated, and not one I had ever really seen from him before.
I reached out and placed my hand over his arm, gently pressing his phone down. He looked at me, his gaze momentarily foggy before his eyes cleared and focused on mine.
“We can deal with this tomorrow,” I said softly.
“Right,” he agreed with a small nod. “Of course, you’re right. It’s just…”
“It’s a lot,” I finished for him, hoping he understood that meant it with empathy,
Alexander exhaled, then nodded. “I’m going to take a shower,” he murmured.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll arrange for dinner.”
“Thank you,” he said, bending down to kiss me lightly.
I returned the kiss, then watched him walk away.
I couldn’t begin to imagine what he was feeling right now. It seemed so likely that the little girl in the picture was his daughter.
That had to be devastating—to learn he had a child he knew nothing about. And now, before he even had the chance to meet her, she could be used against him.
I didn’t know what kind of person Sabrina was, but if she was capable of using her own child as a weapon against Alexander, she was dirt in my eyes.
