Free The Prince's Scandalous Baby by Holly Rayner Page B

this?”
     
    The King laughed, and Juliette was startled by the sound of the servants scattered almost invisibly around the room laughing along.
     
    A grin still tugging at his lips, the King leaned forward in his chair. “Tell me, how did you meet my son?”
     
    “That’s our business,” she said. She wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like that night was the only private thing she had left with the Prince—his father was in on everything else.
     
    “I bet he told you a story, didn’t he? That he was a commoner of some kind. A teacher, maybe. Or some kind of craftsman. And he’d just had some back luck, so you felt bad for him, though he didn’t feel bad for himself. That interested you. That made you want to see more of him, to find out what it was that made him so OK with whatever bad thing had just happened.”
     
    Juliette froze. She tried not to let her face show how accurately the King had surmised the circumstances of their meeting. She didn’t want him to see.
     
    Unfortunately, he seemed to be able to tell, anyway.
     
    “And then when he finally tells you the story, it’s something altruistic. Something noble. So there you are, just having met this common man who is so bright and honorable. So why wouldn’t you follow him wherever he asks? And why wouldn’t you sleep with him?”
     
    With every work the King spoke, Juliette’s heart sank a little further down in her chest. She was no longer disappointed with herself for storming out when she learned the Prince’s secret; she must have been able to tell, even then. She must have known instinctively that he was like this—that she was just one in a long line of poor, gullible women.
     
    The King glanced at his expensive watch and raised his eyebrows. “But all of that is the past, and what matters now is the future. I must insist you sign the paper, so that I can give you the check. Don’t worry, it’s only an agreement saying that if you cash the check, you are bound to those conditions. I don’t have time to sit and wait while you dither and say you couldn’t possibly. I’d rather just skip to the part where you see sense.”
     
    The pen felt heavy in her fingers. She was overwhelmed, and still feeling nauseous. She was exhausted from the flight. She didn’t feel capable of making this kind of decision.
     
    But the King was standing, now, and walking over to her, holding the check out to her with one hand, while holding the other out expectantly for the clipboard. And, as he’d said, this wasn’t a decision. This was just a contingency, to make sure that if she did decide to take the money, she would never need to see this awful man or his entourage ever again.
     
    She cleared her throat, and time seemed to stand still.
     
    She signed.
     
    The King grasped the clipboard and let go of the check. He didn’t even stay to see if it would fall fully into her hands before leaving.
     
    “Stay as long as you wish,” she heard the man’s icy voice from the doorway. “When you’ve gotten yourself together, the driver waiting by the gate will take you to the bank, or wherever you wish to go.”
     
    She heard the huge front door swing closed decisively. He was gone. She was alone again.
     
    ***

Juliette had thought the King was simply being condescending by telling her that she could stay as long as she wanted. But when she thought about leaving the palace, she realized it was probably just a concession made from experience. She was overwhelmed.
     
    She tried to stand, but felt weak on her feet and sat back down again. She’d just gone through four years of college, and had thought that made her an adult. She was fully capable, she’d thought, of making adult decisions. But now, she was faced with one black-and-white decision that would determine the rest of her life, and she had to face it sick, exhausted, and in a place that was the site of both the best and worst moments of her life.
     
    She sat for a while, before her