Page 26 of Unforgiving Queen

Snip, snip, snip.

By the end of it all, a pile of blonde curls covered the floor and my head felt lighter. But my heart still didn’t.

I turned my back to the mirror and stepped into the shower, letting the lukewarm water drip down my body. I washed up quickly, then dressed before heading downstairs. The castle was still dark, but I could hear soft footsteps somewhere in the distance.

Following the smell of coffee, I turned the corner at the end of the hallway. I stepped into the kitchen to find Grandma and Alexander, Livy’s husband.

Livy was the Duke of Glasgow’s granddaughter. Long story, but she grew up in the States too, and she never knew her family heritage until she got involved with her now husband.

My hip slammed into the counter and I grunted in pain. Two sets of eyes.

“Reina!” A horrified gasp left my grandmother, matching the look in her eyes. “What have you done to your hair?”

Clearly she didn’t like my new hairdo. Alexander didn’t look remotely as flabbergasted. Although I had yet to see him frazzled at all. Nothing seemed to faze that man.

I brought my hand up to my head, combing my fingers through the strands.

“Haircut,” I muttered. Her mouth formed an “O” shape and she slumped back against the chair. Guilt pierced my chest, noticing black circles under her eyes that not even her cosmetic injections could hide. She didn’t need extra worries.

I forced a smile on my lips, ignoring how unnatural it felt. I would convince her I was okay so she could get back to her life.

“It was a silly experiment; I’ll have a hairdresser fix it when I’m back home.”

Alexander stood up, pulling out the chair for me like the perfect gentleman he was. I lowered myself on it, flashing him a grateful smile.

“Thanks,” I murmured.

“How did you sleep?” he asked, although I suspected he knew. He’d caught me roaming the castle in the dark quite a few times. He always helped Livy when the triplets woke in the night.

Averting my eyes, I answered, “Good, thanks.” It was easy to spot the lie, so I decided pivoting the topic away from me might help. “You?”

“Liam’s been up twice so far, rousing his sisters. The crankiness will be astronomical today.” Silence lingered since I knew zero about children, despite almost having one. The familiar anxiety reared its head, tearing through my chest and stealing my breath straight from my lungs.

My throat tightened and panic bit at my veins, leaving nothing but disaster in its wake.

I squeezed my eyes closed, waiting for the knot in my chest to loosen. Breathe in. Breathe out.Meditate, for goodness’ sake.

The dark was closing in.

A baby.

If something comes of it, we’ll handle it together,he’d said. Obviously he hadn’t meant it—any of it—because he left me to deal with it all alone. God, I was so stupid. So fucking irresponsible.

My eyes lifted and I found my grandmother staring at me, unspoken tragedy lingering in the air. Maybe our family was wrapped up in it, and it took going through my own to finally understand.

“Shouldn’t the kids be sleeping through the night at this point?” I asked the first thing that came to mind as the kitchen started to spin around me.

He shrugged, seemingly oblivious to the emotions swirling in my chest. “They do when we’re home. They’re convinced this castle is haunted or possessed by an evil spirit, so Liam takes it upon himself to keep his sisters ‘safe.’” He chuckled to himself.

I looked at my grandmother and her eyes softened around the corners. I didn’t want her pity, but it felt nice to know she was there in silent support. As Alexander droned on and on about where his children were at developmentally and how exhausting it all was, I had to remind myself it wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t know that my stay at the hospital had left me with more than just a few stitches. My friends and sister knew about the physical injuries. They didn’t know about the miscarriage—at least I didn’t think so since they never brought it up—so it left me struggling with all of it alone. Grandma hinted she knew but she never outright brought it up, so it left me wondering.

Alexander was staring at me now as though waiting for a response. I hadn’t heard the question. I shook my head and decided to go with humor. “Liam is right, this place is haunted, and you know it. Nobody should live here but the ghosts.” His lip curled up in amusement.

“I think you’re right,” he agreed, and just like that, my pulse settled and I anchored myself to the now.

Grandma scoffed lightly and let out a long exhale. I wonder if she’d seen my world tilting and was happy to move away from talking about the children.

“If I remember, Alexander, you bought your wife a castle in Scotland, and those have even more ghosts.” She was being facetious, but the fact remained. She could claim until she was blue in the face that she loved it here, but I knew better. She appreciated modern-style luxury, not this old-money castle.