Page 136 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

Sebastian

Stella’s hand trembles in mine, but her face is exactly as Galen has described her mum’s: a mask of indifference. Seems Toby wasn’t the only one to inherit more than the blue eyes.

I brush my thumb over her knuckles, needing her to know that I’m right here.

“So you what? Took me from her arms and never looked back?”

“That was pretty much the plan. Maria was confident that she’d be able to find a way to get away from Jonas, to come and join us and start over.”

Part of me hates that she clearly never managed it. It meant Maria and Toby have suffered all this time. But also, if she had, Stella never would have come back here. She never would have found me.

“But she couldn’t?”

Galen shakes his head. “And I couldn’t come back.”

“Because you’d been framed for my father’s death?” I add, speaking for the first time in what feels like forever.

Galen gives me a double take.

“Y-yeah. I took the fall for that and a few other things to help the Family out, and we left. They needed a scapegoat, and I needed to protect Stella and Maria.”

Silence falls as the weight of Galen’s confessions press down on all of us.

“Did you never intend on coming back when it became obvious that she couldn’t leave?”

“I always wanted to come back. I wanted you to have your mum. I wanted her to have her incredible daughter. But the risk for all of us was too huge—”

“Until her surgery.”

“Maria and I cut ties when I left. But I kept in touch with her sister, and we exchanged what we needed to through her. And when she told me how bad things were getting, I knew we needed to be here.

“I spent that first month putting things into place to ensure your safety and protection. To ensure that Jonas couldn’t come for you, or me.”

“That’s why you locked me up in the house.”

“Or tried,” Galen says with a knowing look at his daughter.

“Damien assured me that everything was in place, that you weren’t at risk, and you started school with the promise that Seb, Theo, and Alex would keep an eye on you.”

Stella tenses before glancing over at me.

“You were my fucking babysitters?”

She tries pulling her hand from mine but fails when all I do is tighten my grip on her.

“And what fun we had, Princess.”

An angry growl rumbles up her throat.

“Well, I guess that makes a lot of fucking sense. You motherfuckers turned up everywhere.”

“All part of the job.” I wink at her and her teeth grind. Leaning into her, I brush my lips against her ear. She might be mad, but it doesn’t stop a shudder from ripping through her when my breath tickles across her skin. “I’ll make it up to you later.”

She scoffs but doesn’t push me away when I kiss down her neck—much to Galen’s delight, if his groan is anything to go by.

“How exactly did you expect them to,” she rolls her eyes, “babysit me, and for me not to get close to Toby? If you never stopped us that day… well…”