Page 99 of Sins of a King

“And if he doesn’t tell you?”

“Then I’ll deal with that. But for now, I’ll wait and be patient.”

“So Flynn threatened Jack about what he found? And that doesn’t bother you?”

“Of course it bothers me,” I protested. “But I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that.”

“You’re in love with him.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Love.”

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“I’m not sure I want to be in love with him.”

“I know what that’s like.” She frowned. “I don’t like that Flynn threatened my brother.”

“I don’t either.”

“He must be hiding something really terrible.”

I sighed. “Yeah. He must be.”

We sat in silence for a moment and then she said, “I didn’t cheat on John just one time. I was having an affair.”

I looked at her. “Oh.”

“John caught us. In Monaco.”

“That doesn’t make sense to me,” I said with a frown. “You were having an affair with someone who just happened to be in Monaco at the same time you were there with John?”

“It was his father,” she admitted softly. “I had an affair with John’s father.”

Had.Past tense.

“It’s over?” I asked quietly.

She nodded.

It was bad enough that Ash had cheated on her fiancé, but to have an affair with her fiancé’s father, who was still very much married to his wife?

“Yeah, that’s how I thought you’d react,” she said when she saw my face.

“Why?” I asked through a tight throat. “Why did you do it?”

“Because I wanted to,” she said simply. “Because I’m a terrible person.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I grabbed her hand and held it in mine. Ash was finally ready to talk, and I would be her ear.

“It started last summer,” she began. “The night of our engagement party.”

I remembered the night because I’d been there. The party had been in the Hamptons at John’s parent’s estate, a sit-down dinner outside under a large white tent. I recalled thinking that Ash looked happy.

“John’s mother was playing hostess, flitting around like the perfect society wife while her husband laughed too loud at his friends’ jokes that weren’t funny. And then I looked at my parents. They stood together but could barely tolerate one another. I had this thought, like I was witnessing what my future was going to look like with John.”

“You really believed that?” I ventured to ask. “About you and John?”

“Whenever we’d have a fight, he wouldn’t get mad, he’d just get quiet and cold. Yeah, I believed our future was going to be the same as our parents.”