Free Broken Prince: A New Adult Romance Novel by Aubrey Rose

read the newspaper today?"
    I blinked back the tears.
    "Yes," I said. "I only understood part of it, but I think I know what you're talking about."
    "I have to explain—"
    "Csilla told me about what happened before you left Hungary ten years ago,"  I said. Eliot's mouth closed. He looked at me without any hint of emotion in his face. I felt a chill run through me.
    "What did she tell you?" he asked quietly.
    "Is it true?" I couldn't keep the hysteria out of my voice. "Is it true about the escort? I looked it up. The news from ten years ago. I didn't believe her. But—"
    "Brynn."
    "Just tell me if it's true! My voice echoed in the empty kitchen. I couldn't believe that he would lie to me. "The articles I looked up all said the same thing. Tell me they're lying."
    Eliot stood silently, his eyes on the paper darting from left to right to left again. Deciding what to say.
    "You confessed, you were sentenced, you left Hungary," I continued. "Is that true ?"
    "Brynn," Eliot said, closing his eyes.
    "Is it true?!" There was no way it could be possible. No way that he had slept with an underage escort. It was Eliot!
    "Brynn," Eliot said, looking up at me. His face was full of sorrow, and I felt a cold sinking in my stomach. "I need to confess something to you."
    "I never realized that the past would come back to torment me like this," Eliot said. I couldn't breathe. The air around me felt like cement.
    "So it's true?" I said, shaking my head as if that would turn everything around.
    "No," Eliot said, leaning over to take my hand. "Well, partially."
    "Partially?" I could barely feel his fingers on mine.
    "Not the worst of it. It's true I confessed, I was found guilty. But I never hired any escort, underage or otherwise. Brynn, you know me."
    "I know," I said. My breath came out in a rush, and I could hear my heart start to beat normally again. "I know. That's why I couldn't believe it. But you confessed ? Why?"
    "Can we sit down?" Eliot asked. He looked weary, ten years older than normal.
    "Sure," I said. I let him lead me to the living room couch, and he sat clasping my hands in his. It reminded me of sitting on the bench, the day we first met. I had been wary of him then, a total stranger. I felt that way now, like I was sitting next to a stranger I didn't know. Somebody whose mind I couldn't understand.
    "Ten years ago," Eliot said, "Otto had given me a position on one of the government boards, a sinecure, really. I never did any work for them, but they wanted my academic prestige for their project proposals."
    "Your brother. I've never met him."
    "No? You will soon. He used to be more involved in my career. Always getting me accepted to this committee or that one. And then this happened."
    "What happened? Did someone frame you?"
    "No, no, nothing like that. It was Otto. He—he hired an escort. I doubt he knew she was underaged, he's never been interested in young girls, but he paid for it over the phone using a credit card, and it was traced back to him."
    Eliot took a deep breath.
    "He came to me for help, and I agreed to take the fall for him."
    "You? Why?" I asked.
    "Why not?" Eliot smiled sadly.
    "What do you mean, why not? You threw your reputation away. People think you're—they think—" I couldn't even finish the sentence. Eliot sighed, his voice pained. I could feel the hurt radiating from him.
    "Brynn," he said. "When Clare died, I was ready to kill myself. I didn't know what to do. I was lost. I didn't want to stay in Budapest a second longer. Everything here—" and here he waved around in the air, the entire house in his gesture— "everything reminded me of her. I couldn't walk down the street without seeing her face. I couldn't function. How could my life be any worse?"
    He smiled suddenly, and his eyes met mine.
    "I never dreamed that I would meet a woman like you, Brynn. I never knew that I could find love like this."
    "So that's why you left Hungary?" I said. "Because of Otto?"
    "If he had been found guilty,