Chapter 17
Seventeen
CAMILLO
By the third bag of antibiotics, I was wide-awake, itchy, and ready to be released. I was in my usual room on our private floor at St. Margaret’s. There was an entry and exit meant for members of the royal family only since my grandfather had shut down the private hospital at the palace.
It was nice, as far as hospitals went. I knew I was getting better food than most of the other patients, and the nurses and physicians were assigned to myself only. Everyone signed an NDA, and the press was never allowed within three miles of the doors when one of us was admitted.
I was safe here. But I had no idea what was waiting for me after that three-mile barrier. Did everyone know? Did anyone? Had Aleric been given an update?
Rolling onto my side, I let out a soft gasp when I saw my brother sitting on the edge of a padded chair. He had his head bowed, but it snapped up the second I moved.
“Camillo.”
My brow furrowed. I’d been through infections like this more times than I could count, and he never came to the hospital to see me. “What are you doing here?”
For a beat, Carlo looked hurt. Then he looked guilty. “Cillian called Mom.”
Which was protocol. That most certainly didn’t answer my question.
He must have seen that on my face because he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck the way he always did when he was nervous. “I saw this interview with the man who’s playing you—what’s his name?”
“Aleric,” I rasped. My throat was already so dry, but saying his name made it worse. It was strange that I was half in love already and Carlo didn’t even know who he was.
“I don’t know when it aired. Mikhail sent it to me.” Mikhail was one of my brother’s only friends—one of the few people from school when he was younger who didn’t treat him like he could walk on water. I’d always liked the guy. “He was a fan, I guess. Childhood crush.”
I felt a sudden wave of possessive jealousy. Mikhail was gorgeous and sweet—and okay, married to a woman, but still. I had no doubt he would have been a far better partner for Aleric than I was, and I detested that thought.
Gripping the sheets, I shuffled my body slightly upright, then used the button on the bed to sit myself up higher. “He was an actor when we were kids.”
Carlo nodded. “I’ve never heard of him, but we didn’t watch a lot of TV. Anyway…” He blew out a puff of air. “The guy was talking about how he was preparing for the role. He said he got shamed pretty badly for showing up on his first day without knowing the realities of your situation.”
I nearly laughed. He had been shamed. By me.
“He went on to say how he read your book three times in a row, then didn’t sleep for another couple of nights as he read everything he could find on the internet about what it was like to have a spine injury like yours.”
I hadn’t known that. I’d suspected he’d done more than read my book, and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Carlo smiled softly, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t know why it hit me that I…” His voice faltered, which was something I almost never heard. “That I never asked. I never read up on shit. I just saw you and tried not to see the fucking chair, and I tried to pretend like everything was normal.”
I sighed. I never wanted this. I didn’t want to hold my brother’s hand through a breakdown of him realizing that they’d tried to sweep me under the rug for all these years. “I am normal.”
His eyes narrowed. “You know what I mean, Cam.”
“Yes. You mean not disabled. You tried to pretend like the chair was a fun, weird quirk from your socially inept baby brother so you didn’t have to think about how I piss into a bag, or can’t move my legs, or can’t ever get a natural erection.”
He paled.
“And let me guess—now you’re realizing that a UTI can kill me?”
His ears bloomed pink, and he glanced away. “I was angry for a long time. I blamed you for being foolish enough to kiss a boy in public. We were already being stalked, and everyone was on edge.”
My eyes narrowed. He blamed me ? “Get out.”
“No, listen.” He sounded desperate. Grabbing the bottom of the chair seat, he dragged it forward until he could grip the handle on my bed. “I know I was a complete fucking asshole. I get that. I shut it all down because the reality sucked, and I didn’t know how to be a good brother while also being the person Mom and Dad need me to be. I…I didn’t know how I could be both. They’re not exactly the best role models for that.”
My head dropped toward my chest, and I took several calming breaths. He was right. My parents were not both parents and king and queen. They tried for a while and loved us as best they could, but it wasn’t the same as what other kids got.
Their neglect was not only expected but praised for putting the country in front of their own family. It was just how things were done. There was no changing it.
“I panicked when I realized that could be me with my kids.” I looked up at that and saw the terror in his eyes. “I love my girls more than life itself.” Now, there was a ferocity in his voice I’d never heard before. “I love my wife. I can’t imagine a moment where I’ll be expected to care less about them than a country full of strangers.”
“You don’t have to,” I told him.
He reached for me, and I let him snag my hand. His own was softer than mine, and his grip was weaker. “You’re still warm.”
“I have a fever,” I told him with a laugh, then rolled my eyes when he looked panicked again. “Relax. I’m out of the woods.”
He took a trembling breath, then said, “If anything like this ever happened to my girls, I would have lost my mind. But Mom and Dad—they’ve never been here, have they?”
“In the beginning,” I said. “When I was still young and the doctors weren’t sure if my paralysis was complete or not.” But once they’d gotten the news that there was zero chance for even a partial recovery, that had been it. “They’ve never come when I was sick, but you know that would have caused pandemonium.”
Carlo shook his head. “No. I mean, well, yes. I had a tail on my way here, and I have no doubt there’s three dozen media outlets waiting for me at the line. But none of that would matter if it was Bea or Maria. And if it had been me…” He trailed off, but I knew what he was going to say.
“We’ve always been different, Carlo.”
“We shouldn’t have been that different. I’m so fucking sorry, Cam. Seriously. Jesus, I can’t—you looked so goddamn pale when I got here. You had oxygen on, and you were shaking, and all these machines were beeping.”
Waving him off, I pointed to the IV pole. “And then they dump all this into my veins and the infection clears up and I’m fine. I’ll be back up tomorrow.”
He squeezed my hand once more, then let me go. “This guy—Aleric—you know him, right? I mean, you’re on set telling him what to do?”
My cheeks flushed, which made me a little dizzy. “Yeah. Yes.”
Carlo’s eyes narrowed. “You like him.”
“Carlo—”
“No, I—that’s great. It’s fine. Right? Because he likes you too?” When I didn’t answer, he sat back and folded his arms over his chest. “I could see it in his face. He said your name differently than most people do.”
Maybe this could be it—my moment. The world didn’t have to know, but my brother could. “We haven’t told anyone. It’s…new. And I don’t know if it’ll go anywhere.”
“You think Mom and Dad will care?”
I laughed. “No. And even if they did, I don’t. But like you said, there’s three dozen media outlets waiting for a photo of you—and later of me. That’s a lot to ask of him.”
“Well, he’s a celebrity,” Carlo pointed out. “Isn’t he used to that shit?”
If only my brother knew the half of it, but in all honesty, I didn’t want him to. I wanted everyone to know Aleric with fresh eyes and a clean slate, the way he deserved to be known. Eventually, he’d find out. If this became something—if we went public—the story would resurface.
All the ugly lies would hit the headlines, and Aleric would either have to lean in or confess the truth to people who would always be unwilling to believe him. A burden would fall on me, and my parents would have to deal with the optics.
If it got bad enough, I’d have to make a choice between him and family, though right now, that didn’t feel like much of a choice at all. I appreciated my brother’s awakening, but it had taken nearly two decades for him to look at me and actually see me.
“Can I use your phone?”
Carlo stared at me.
“I’m pretty sure Cillian has mine, and he doesn’t approve of me making calls while I’m in bed like this.”
Carlo smirked as he handed it over, and I was never more grateful for my weird ability to remember numbers than I was right then. It was a little parlor trick—one that was almost never necessary—but right then, it meant I might get to hear Aleric’s voice.
“Hello?” He sounded half-asleep.
“Aleric King? This is Prince Carlo.”
“Holy fuck. Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Shit. Sorry. Fuck! Please tell me Camillo’s okay. I mean Prince Camillo. I mean His…Highness?”
In spite of my body still in pain, I burst into laughter so hard my eyes filled with tears. “It’s me.”
“I hate you.”
“You don’t.” My grin made my cheeks ache. Fuck, I needed this.
“You’re being serious, right? This is Camillo?”
“I’m on my brother’s phone. Cillian has mine, and I didn’t think he’d let me call you today.”
There was a long beat of silence, and then he spoke again, his throat thick with emotion. “You’re okay, right?”
“Just a UTI. They tend to knock me on my ass. Literally.”
“Yeah, I—I know. I know they can be dangerous.”
I took a breath. “It was my own fault. I knew something was wrong, but I had to see you. The studio called and told me I wasn’t needed on set, and I thought I might have said something to scare you off.”
Carlo cleared his throat, and I looked up as he mouthed, ‘You’re so in love.’
I flipped him off.
“No. Baby, no,” Aleric said quickly. “They told me you requested the day off.”
“What?” That was strange. “Something’s going on.”
“I’m willing to bet they’re trying to punish us for not getting on board with the body double shot. They can make more money if they have the actual prince on cast credits. But I’ll get to the bottom of it, okay? Just promise me you’ll focus on getting better.”
“I’ll be out tomorrow.” I hesitated, looking at my brother for a long beat. “If I sent a car, would you come see me?”
“At the palace?”
“I live in apartments on the grounds, but yes,” I said.
Carlo’s brows flew up. After Hugo, I’d never brought anyone home besides Roget, and he always snuck in and out. No one ever saw him.
Aleric laughed in my ear. “Yeah. God, I need to kiss you.”
“Mm,” I answered. I wasn’t about to reciprocate in front of my brother. He would never, ever stop giving me shit about it.
“I’m shooting until six tomorrow. But…I can stay the night. If you want.”
“I want. I won’t be up for much socializing, but?—”
“Babe. A night in bed just holding you is all I want right now. Is that—would that be okay?”
“More than. I can’t wait. I’ll see you soon.”
“I—yeah.” His hesitation was two words long. Two words I wanted to hear but I knew we probably weren’t ready for. And if we were, I wanted to see his face when he said them. I wanted to feel his body pressed against mine and his warm lips against my skin. “I can’t wait.”
“Get a room,” Carlo said loudly.
“Um…” Aleric said. He sounded horrified.
“I’m in a room, and you’re invading it,” I told him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Aleric laughed. “Yeah. I’ll be there.”
When I was sure the call had ended, I went into Carlo’s log and deleted the record of the number before handing it back. He gave me an irritated look as he slipped it into his pocket and lay back.
“Do you seriously think I’d call him or something?”
“No, I think you’d text him,” I countered, and the guilty look on his face told me I was right. “I need to make sure this is something before I unleash you on him.”
Carlo laughed, but his face softened after that, and he leaned toward me again. “It won’t be like before, okay? I’m going to be better.”
“And you’re not going to be like Mom or Dad to your girls,” I told him. The flash in his eyes let me know he’d been waiting on edge to hear that. “They love you, and they always will. It can be different with you. It doesn’t have to follow tradition.”
“With any luck, they’ll both die in their one hundreds, and I’ll be so old Bea will take the throne.”
Reaching for his hand, I gave it a gentle squeeze. “Or you give all the power to Parliament and call it a day.”
He said nothing, but I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time he’d contemplated that option—and I didn’t hate it. Assuming I was still around, I’d stand by him whatever he wanted to do. By then, I knew I’d be happy anyway, so what the hell would it matter?