Page 6 of Fae-King It (Mystical Matchmakers #5)

CHAPTER FIVE

Monday morning, the engagement ring felt like it weighed fifty pounds as Dominique walked into the office.

As usual, she arrived at seven-thirty, nearly a full hour before Veronica. Even knowing her employee wouldn’t be there, Dominique was still nervous about the lies she had to tell. While she never really volunteered information about her life, she wasn’t a liar either. This was why she kept distance between herself and the people around her. Anytime she started to let someone in, this would happen.

She couldn’t talk about her past. Her childhood. No one would understand.

No one knew that Jurgen Mueller, her mother’s husband, wasn’t her father. No one, not even Dominique, knew who’d sired her. The only person who did was her mother and Graciella kept a tight hold on that information. She had tried for years to pry her father’s identity out of her mother, but Graciella wasn’t going to talk.

Her parents never kept her a secret, but they had pushed her older sisters into the spotlight, ignoring Dominique most of the time. In the fae realm, a lot of the residents believed there were only two Proxa sisters. Especially after Zephira cursed her. Her mother believed her magic was tainted by the spell.

Maybe that was why Ronan wanted her for this scheme. No one would care. No one would want to protect her from his family’s machinations. If anything, her own family would do whatever they could to use her as a pawn.

On that happy thought, Dominique thrust her problems to the side. She had a business to run, a business that had taken her blood, sweat, and tears for the past two decades. Not only was it profitable, but it was also thriving. Expanding.

So much so that she was planning to offer Veronica a promotion. Or, honestly, a partnership. Veronica was a huge asset to the company, and she worked just as hard as Dominique.

Whether she was ready for it or not, her life would be changing soon and for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, Dominique sat at her desk and began drafting out ideas for how to bring Veronica into more of the business, calculate if she needed more than one or two more employees, and make the business easier to run if she was only in the human realm a week or two a month. She needed to begin preparing now. Dominique needed order and contingency plans. It made her feel safe. Calm.

In control.

Her concentration was so intense that she didn’t hear Veronica come in until she knocked on her open door, two cups of steaming coffee in her hand.

“Good morning, Dominique,” Veronica said, stepping into the office. “I brought you a cup of coffee. We should probably go over the agenda for the week before your first meeting of the day.”

Dominique looked up from her computer and smiled. “That sounds great. Thank you, Veronica.”

When she lifted a hand to brush her hair away from her face, Veronica’s eyes snagged on the huge aquamarine on her finger.

“Is that? Did you?” Veronica trailed off, never completing either of her questions.

Dominique tried to smile, but she knew it didn’t reach her eyes. “Yes, Ronan and I got engaged.”

“Ronan? As in the guy who was here Friday?” Her employee’s voice cracked on the last word.

“Yes. We knew each other as children.”

As she tried to formulate the best lie, anxiety spiked through Dominique. She knew that Veronica sensed it when her employee’s head cocked to the side, and she studied her closely.

This wasn’t going to work. Veronica was an empath. She would see right through any lie Dominique told as long as her emotions were so volatile. And her emotions were going to remain uncontrollable for the next little while. Say five to ten years.

Dominique sighed. “What I’m about to tell you must stay between us. You can’t even mention it to Jasper. Can you do that?”

Veronica shut and locked Dominique’s office door behind her, before bringing both cups of coffee over to her desk. “Of course I can. What’s going on?”

“I did know Ronan as a child. But I owe him a debt. As repayment, he has asked me to commit to marriage to him for the next seven to ten years.”

Veronica’s eyes widened, and she set her cup on the desk without taking a sip. “If you knew each other as children, how on earth could you owe him a debt that is worth seven to ten years of your life?”

“I made a mistake when I was eleven. One that caused us both to be cursed by a sorceress. This curse means we’ll both be alone for the rest of our lives.”

“Wait, you were eleven? How old was Ronan?”

“Thirteen.”

Veronica leaned back in her chair, lacing her fingers together. “It sounds like you were both children, you even younger than him, so how does that make you responsible?”

Dominique picked up her coffee and sipped it, trying to think of the best way to explain. Finally, she answered, “Even when I was a child, I wasn’t. Every action, every word, had to be weighed. Measured. I had to consider the consequences of everything I did and said. He wasn’t like me. He was still a child in many ways. Still coddled and spoiled to some extent. I knew better than to do what I did. But I didn’t care. Not that day.”

Dominique drank more coffee, her thoughts back on the day that Zephira cursed them. How she knew she should listen to him. She knew she should’ve gone back to the castle. That she was inviting trouble by walking into the forest.

But she’d felt as though she were suffocating. The walls closing around her. Even in the royal gardens, there had been stifling walls. She’d been desperate for space, for room to breathe, without someone standing inches away.

“I think you should cut yourself some slack,” Veronica stated. “Even if you were half-grown at the time, you were still a child and you made a mistake. Adults make mistakes, too. That’s no excuse for someone to claim a debt and treat you poorly. Especially over something that happened decades ago.”

Dominique didn’t agree about the debt, but she did agree about poor treatment. “I won’t let him mistreat me,” she assured Veronica. “Now, I have to leave Friday morning for a weekend in the fae realm. I won’t have phone service there, so if there’s an emergency, you’ll have to use the crystal here at the office.”

Veronica nodded. “I can do that. Oh, I forgot to tell you Friday,” she began. “We had an applicant for the administrative assistant position. Her name is Zelda.”

The name had Dominique’s mental antenna quivering. “Zelda? Auburn hair, dark eyes? Tall?”

Veronica looked shocked. “You saw her on Friday?”

Dominique shook her head. “No, I met her at the deli by my house on Saturday afternoon. We ate lunch together because there was only one empty table and two of us.”

“What a coincidence,” Veronica said.

Dominique didn’t think it was a coincidence. But she wasn’t sure what the woman’s motivation could possibly be. She may have just wanted an idea of who she might be working for, or she could have had an ulterior motive.

“She’s by far the most qualified candidate and I’m almost certain she’s fae,” Veronica continued.

“Well, then call her and set up the interview. We need to hire at least one more employee to do your current job and another to do your other current job.” And Dominique wanted to know why the woman approached her at the deli.

Veronica laughed.

“I’m serious,” Dominique said. “You’re literally doing the jobs of two people. And you’re about to get even more responsibilities.”

Her employee frowned at her, obviously confused.

Dominique leaned forward. “I want you to come on board as a partner, Veronica. You’ve more than earned it, and honestly, I can’t keep working the way I am. Even if I wasn’t marrying Ronan, this schedule is taking a toll on me. It’s been twenty years. I need to start living my life.”

Veronica stared at her with wide eyes and her mouth agape. “Are you serious?”

“I am,” Dominique answered with a nod.

“Oh, my God. Yes! I would love that!”

Dominique smiled. “That’s good because I don’t know what I would do if you refused. I still have to work out some details, but I’ve already started the ball rolling, so it will be happening soon. You’ll need to put out an ad or contact the local paranormal employment agency for the position of matchmaker. We can also see if Zelda is qualified for that job as well.”

Veronica nodded. “I’ll do that right now.” She grabbed her coffee cup and got to her feet. “I’ve loved working here the past few years, Dominique. I hope you know that. Doing the work of two people hasn’t felt like a job because I enjoy it so much.”

“I often feel the same way, but you have Jasper now. He’s going to want some of your time as well. And you deserve to have a life, too.”

“I know you’re right, but it’s hard to let go.”

“Believe me, I know,” Dominique stated. Then, she changed the subject. “I’m leaving Friday morning to go to the fae realm with Ronan. We’re going a “meet the parents” sort of thing and the Autumn Gala is this weekend. I’ll be back Monday evening. If you need anything while I’m gone, the crystal I told you about is in my desk. You do know how to use it, correct?”

Her assistant nodded. “I think things will be fine for a couple of days.”

“I’m sure they will, but you know I like to have a plan in place. Just in case.”

Veronica smiled and stood up, grabbing her coffee cup. “I know. I’m the same way. I’ll go get started on the ad and contacting the employment agency…” She paused before she left Dominique’s office. “Don’t come in Monday evening. Going to the fae realm is exhausting, especially since you’ll be dealing with his family and going to a black-tie event.”

“We’ll see,” Dominique replied.

Her assistant gave her a knowing look but didn’t say anything else before she left the office.