Page 121 of Ruthless Prince

“No, you weren’t. Never speak to her like that again, or you’ll regretit.”

Teddy snorted. “Right. Sure. So much for you hating her guts, huh?” He winked at Logan as he swayed slightly on the spot. He was clearly wasted. “Anyway, I would say I’m happy for the two of you, but that would be a lie,” he went on. “I’ll be looking forward to the divorce party in a fewyears.”

He drunkenly ambled off. Logan turned to me. “Wait here,” hesaid.

He followed Teddy and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him around to face him. I couldn’t hear anything from where I was standing, but I could tell by their expressions that they were exchanging heatedwords.

Logan finally shook his head and shot Teddy a disgusted look before returning to my side. “Don’t worry,” he said. “He won’t bother youagain.”

“What’s his problem with me?” Iasked.

“He hates your mother. Apparently that means he hates your whole familytoo.”

“Does he know about the Chloe thing?” I asked in a guilt-ridden murmur, eyes on the parquetfloor.

“No. Only I do,” he said stiffly, averting his eyes from mine. He frowned and looked over my shoulder. “Your friends are waving to you. Let’s go and talk tothem.”

I turned my head and followed his gaze to see Marissa and Kate waving at us from their table with megawatt smiles on their faces. Logan took my arm and led me over to them. They immediately began to gush all over us about our engagement and the stunning diamond and alexandrite collar around myneck.

“Honestly, Willow, you’re such a bitch,” Marissa said, plump red lips arranged in a pout. “We’re supposed to be your best friends, but we had to find out about this from Beltway Buzz. Even Simone didn’t know. I can’t believe you hid it for solong!”

I was about to reply when Logan cut in. “I thought you and Kate gave interviews where you claimed to know everything about our relationship,” he said, eyebrows lifting. “I didn’t realize ‘best friends’ sold out to the media, but maybe that’s justme.”

My brows shot up. Was Logan actually standing up forme?

Kate blushed and looked away. Marissa flipped her long dark hair over her shoulder and flashed Logan a dazzling smile. “I guess that’s a fair point.” She looked back at me. “You totally owe us, though. No moresecrets!”

“Sorry,” I said. “We wanted to keep it to ourselves for as long as we could, because we knew how much attention we would get when everyone finally foundout.”

“It’s fine, I get it,” she said. The slight curl to her upper lip suggested she actually didn’t. “Anyway, I know you have a lot of people to talk to tonight, so I was thinking we could get together tomorrow morning and have a proper catch-up! We can get pancakes at this amazing place I know. It’s calledCarillon.”

I glanced at Logan, and he shook his head. “Sorry, we have plans with my parents already. Another time, though,” hesaid.

I nodded and plastered on another fake smile. “Yes, anothertime.”

“Oh my fuckinggod,” Kate practically shrieked, eyes wide as she stared over our shoulders. “Is that the Prince ofWales?”

“I think it is!” Marissa replied, clapping her handstogether.

Kate let out a squeal. “Let’s go flirt with him. We’ll see you later,Willow.”

She hurried away. Marissa gave me three air-kisses before following her, thin pointy heels clattering loudly on thefloor.

I glanced at Logan. “Hey, uh… thanks for sticking up for me,” Isaid.

He let out a short, indifferent sniff. “We’re getting married. I have to pretend to love you and care about you when we’re inpublic.”

My shoulders slumped. I should’ve known. “Oh. Right. Well, thanks anyway. And thanks for giving me an excuse to get out of that breakfast date. You know the place Marissamentioned?”

“Carillon?”

I nodded. “It’s the same place they invited Simone to a few months ago just to gossip about me. I wasn’t too keen on going there and reliving that particularmemory.”

Logan gave me a long, hard look. There was something flashing in his eyes, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Annoyance? Curiosity?Pity?

“Those girls aren’t your friends,” he finally said. “They’re attention-seeking bitches. You shouldn’t hang out withthem.”

I didn’t reply. I was too conflicted to think of a response. On the one hand, he was right—a lot of my supposed friends had revealed themselves to be fake in the last few months, so it seemed as if he actually somewhat cared about me and my emotional wellbeing by suggesting I quit associating withthem.