Page 31 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

“We’ve got the same mom, I know that much. She and my dad had an affair, and I arrived only eleven months after Toby.”

Harley’s mouth opens as if she wants to say something, but no words come out. In fact, the only sound that filters around the room is tires crunching on gravel as the weight of everything I’ve told them, or been unable to tell them, weighs down on all of us.

We remain silent as the front door opens and two sets of footsteps enter the house.

“Nah, I’m telling you, man. He’s gonna do it. You’ve seen his stats,” a familiar deep voice says.

“In the living room,” Harley calls.

“You’re wrong. He’s not all that. He’s—” Ash and Kyle appear in the doorway, Kyle’s words halting the second his eyes land on me. “Shouldn’t you be in England? And like, in a hospital?” His brows pull together, his head tilting to the side slightly like some kind of cute puppy.

“Long story,” Ruby mutters.

“Well, it would be if I knew all the details,” I add.

“I’m gonna order pizza. We’ll call you when it’s here,” Harley tells the boys.

“Oh, it’s like that?” Ash jokes. “We know when we’re not wanted. Come on, bro.”

“Uh… yeah,” Kyle mutters, still looking a bit shell-shocked by my presence. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, Stel,” he says before they both disappear.

“So what’s the plan then, Stella?” Harley asks after placing our order. “I’m assuming you’re not actually moving back with just one suitcase.”

Resting my head back on the cushion, I stare up at the ceiling.

“No. I’m going to go back… sometime. I can keep up with school work online. There are only a few weeks until the holiday. So I guess I could go back after that. I don’t know.”

“Do you think they’re going to let you stay away that long?” Harley asks, a look I don’t like in her eyes.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask.

“You told us that Seb spent every minute either at your bedside or outside your room at the hospital. Do you really think he’ll let you just hang out here?”

“He doesn’t know where I am,” I argue, although I know it’s weak.

“Really?”

“He’s hardly going to get on a plane and drag me back. Is he?” I ask, hating that I sound anything but confident as the image of him doing exactly that plays out in my mind.

All three of them stare at me with the answer I don’t want.

A thought hits me, and it’s out of my mouth before I can think better of it.

“He was the one who called you, wasn’t he?”

Sympathetic smiles play on their lips.