Page 134 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

I file that little bit of information away for later.

“Baby?” he asks, dragging his eyes from my dad over to me.

“Yeah, coffee would be great, thanks.”

Only the sounds of Seb grabbing the mugs and starting the machine can be heard as I stare at my dad, who seems to be lost in his own head.

Snapping himself out of it, his eyes find mine.

“You look good, Stella.”

“Uh… what were you expecting?”

His gaze flicks to Seb for the briefest moment.

“He’s a good person, Dad.” I can’t help my internal laugh, because there was a time not so long ago that I never would have dreamed of convincing anyone of that.

“My injuries would suggest otherwise.”

“Nothing you didn’t deserve,” Seb grunts from the kitchen.

“Yeah, well. Why do you think I let you?”

“Let me? Puh-lease, old man.” Dad’s jaw tics at Seb’s teasing.

“He’s joking,” I assure Dad.

“Am I?” Seb asks, delivering me the first coffee.

Dad shakes his head, trying to focus.

“I’m sorry, Stella. About everything. I was hoping we could sit down and you’d let me explain all the things I should have done a long time ago.”

Seb hands him a mug before lowering down beside me on the couch and tucking me into his side.

“Alone, maybe?”

“No,” I state, much to Dad’s horror. He’s about to argue when I continue. “Seb’s not going anywhere,” I say, and then repeat what I told him in the bedroom. “We do this together.”

Dad glances between the two of us, but he must figure that he’s going to lose any fight he starts, so instead, he just drops whatever he was going to say and focuses on what he came here for.

“How much has Toby told you?”

“That you and his mother were having an affair. That she’s got a brain tumor and is in a bad way. That his dad is a cunt who needs to die and that he probably has one of the shittiest home lives but somehow manages to keep going and plaster a smile on his face.”

Dad’s chin drops and his eyes widen at my very frank summary of the situation, but it seems that none of what I said is something he can argue with this time.

“Yeah, that about sums it up,” he mutters sadly, reaching for his coffee despite the fact that it’s so hot it’s probably going to take a layer of skin off when he sips it.

He sits back after a second, his eyes glazing over.

“I’ve been in love with Maria for… forever. But she was never destined to be mine.”

Just those two sentences affect me more than anything he could have said. My heart splinters for the man before me who, up until recently, has done nothing but put me first, make sure I had everything, and given me every possibility for my future.

“We were together as kids. My childhood sweetheart. But life got in the way and we drifted apart when I started working for the Family. It was my fault. My job clouded my judgment and changed my priorities. It’s something I’ll always regret.

“Jonas and I had always been friends. We all grew up together, much like you and your friends, Seb. But I never expected him to move in on Maria the second we hit rocky ground.