SWNOVELS : Chapter 57
Back at the palace, I got my shoes off and feet up, then couldn’t help but get back on my phone to see if there were any more updates on the Scarlet scandal.
Alexander walked in just a few minutes later. He gave me an affectionate smile when he saw me.
“Did you talk to Conrad today?” I asked.
He chuckled, unbuttoning his suit jacket and loosening his tie. “Hello to you, too. And no, I have not talked to Conrad today. I imagine he is very busy right now. But I did see the news. I think just about everyone in the world must have, by now.”
“It’s insane, huh? I’m still reeling. And I can’t stop refreshing my news feed, either. It seems like there are more victims coming forward every hour.”
Alexander hung up his jacket, then came and sat
down next to me on the edge of the bed. “Give me the phone.” He held out his hand and I passed it to him.
He set it on my nightstand, face down. Then he took both my cold hands into his, pressing warmth into them. “I already knew my stepmother was a criminal,”
he said, “but yes, this kind of crime of against innocent people is always shocking to anybody with a conscience.”
“There’s something else I keep wondering about, too,”
I told him. Alexander raised a curious eyebrow. “I just keep thinking, why today? After all this time, why was this revealed right when Scarlet was about to take down my project? It’s weird.”
He shrugged. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before it was exposed.”
“Hmm. You might be right. I guess the truth always comes out at some point.”
Alexander lifted one of my hands to his mouth and kissed it. “How are you feeling, by the way?” he asked. “Ready for some dinner?”
“I am hungry, but my feet are killing me. Can we do dinner after I rest them for just a few more minutes?”
He frowned, then scooted down the bed toward my swollen feet. “Can I rub them for you?” He pulled one foot into his lap.
“I won’t argue with that.” He started kneading the arch of my foot with his thumbs, giving me immediate pain relief and eliciting an involuntary mmm sound from my throat.
My eyes flickered closed and I relaxed. This was an unexpected pleasure. But when my phone chimed with a text notification, I snatched it right up, wide-
eyed and alert. I may have been physically fatigued, but I was also still wired, high on adrenaline from all the excitement of the day.
Alexander raised his eyebrow again. “Is it Conrad?
Something urgent?”
I shook my head. “Nina text.”
It read: Wyd rn? Can I come over?
“You should invite her over for dinner again,”
Alexander said, setting my feet aside and standing up.
I texted Nina: We’re just about to eat dinner. Want to join?
Nina took a minute, then replied: You go ahead. I’ll meet you after if that’s ok.
Her timing was perfect. Alexander and I returned from dinner and he had just finished changing his clothes for evening training when Nina texted me and said she and Kayden were walking up to our room.
After some pleasant hellos and goodbyes, the two men left together, and Nina and I headed off in the other direction. I had told Alexander I just wanted to enjoy some fresh air while the sun was still out. He gave Nina a pointed look before we parted ways that I took to mean he was asking her to be careful and watch out for me.
As soon as we emerged out into a sunny courtyard, Nina leaned close to me and whispered, “I need to tell you something, Fi.”
“I figured. What’s going on?”
She hooked my arm through her elbow and led us across the courtyard, over a tiny wooden bridge that crossed a shallow creek, and into yet another rose garden. “Okay, first of all, I told Kayden the reason I needed a ride here was that you had something pregnancy-related to discuss. Men don’t ask questions about that kind of thing. So, if anyone asks, that is why I am here, alright?”
I narrowed my eyes at her and said, “Alright.”
We approached a wooden bench and I tugged at Nina’s arm to let her know I wanted to sit down. She kept her head on a swivel, glancing over the tops of the rose bushes as we did.
“Here’s the thing,” she said quietly, once she was sure we were alone. “Kayden let something slip to me. And of course, he begged me not to tell you, and of course I swore to him I wouldn’t, but of course I am
“God, Nina, what is it?”
“Look, Alexander… I believe he cares about you a lot, Fiona. I see how he is with you, like when we were all together the other night at dinner. But there’s something he didn’t tell you about, and whatever the reason, you deserve to know about it. It’s just that he was the one that got the story going about the scandal with Scarlet’s company. But apparently he wanted to keep it secret from you that he had anything to do with it.”
I closed my eyes and kept them closed a moment. Of course, this made sense.
Alexander had gone digging into Scarlet’s business after all our conversations about my project and Scarlet’s war on his uncle’s company. He must have
But why keep it a secret? We had just been speaking about the whole thing. It would have been easy enough to tell me what he had done.
“You okay, Fiona?”
“Yeah.” I snapped my eyes open. “Ugh. Thank you for telling me about this, Nina. I am very glad to know. I wish he would have told me, though. I can’t understand why he wouldn’t have.”
“I know. I keep wondering about that, too.” Nina stood and started pacing the rows of rose bushes, looking around corners to check that we were still having a private conversation. “Maybe he was trying to be humble or something,” she said as she passed me by.
“You know, not asking for credit for doing a nice thing for you? That was my first thought.”
I frowned, letting my eyes focus on a large bee that was crawling inside of a pink rose in front of me.
“Maybe.”
“Of course,” Nina added, “I also generally feel like you can never really trust men, especially ones you know have lied to you.”
“Ha. Just men?” I smiled at Nina as she walked back toward me. She and I had known each other for most of our lives, and I understood her to be the least trusting individual in the world.
Nina smiled back, taking a seat at the other end of the bench. She turned to face me and crossed her legs in front of her, briefly making me jealous of her lithe, non-pregnant body. “Nah, you’re right,” she said. “You can never trust anyone. Except, of course, for your best friend, if you’re lucky enough to have one of those.”