Chapter 26 – Sebastian
SEBASTIAN
Samil enters the boardroom late, looking…off. Normally he’s all smiles and charm, but not this morning. This morning he’s glaring balefully at me, openly, a sheen of sweat on his brow. It makes me smile and laugh a little. Something that only seems to unravel him further.
He thinks I don’t know, but I do.
I know he arrived early, and I know he tried to corner Bellamy.
I don’t know what was said, and I couldn’t see half of their conversation because he had her in a dead spot, but he stormed off, and then Bellamy went upstairs.
He went straight to his room and didn’t leave until now.
I’ve been watching the camera feed on my phone, waiting to see if he was up to something.
When I asked Bellamy earlier what had him so hot and bothered, she tapped the side of her neck, pinning me with a deliberately raised eyebrow. Sabrina and Zayer were climbing all over, so she couldn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to.
He saw the bruise on her neck. The one I left there.
So now he knows. Funny how all my ire yesterday and for weeks and months prior to that over him going near her now seems so insignificant.
Telling the children, making the decision to tell the world, and her accepting this thing between us as real and forever, it’s as if nothing can touch us now. She’s mine and no one will change that.
Which is why this is going to feel even better.
“Good morning, Samil. So pleased you could finally join us.”
He slides into his seat, two over from me, and plasters on a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “My apologies. I was distracted by your nanny. It seems she has a bruise on her neck, and I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
I snicker. “And was she?”
He glowers at me. “She seemed afraid, so likely no. Maybe you could explain how she got such a mark? She wouldn’t say directly, but I’m sure you know how she was hurt.”
Althea shifts beside me, uncomfortable with this.
She too told me about her conversation with Bellamy this morning, and while I don’t love that everyone saw the mark I gave her, I also don’t blame Bellamy for forgetting to cover it when she went to the gym.
The mark is my fault, and though I feel bad for giving it to her and likely embarrassing her with it, I can’t deny how hard it makes me every time I see it.
I lean back in my chair, folding my hands over my stomach. If he wants to do this with an audience, I will. “Are you insinuating I hurt my nanny?”
“Didn’t you?”
“No. I didn’t.”
Smugly, he sits up straighter. A dog sniffing out a bone, he thinks he’s about to nail me. “But you’re the reason she has the mark, are you not?”
“Yes, I am.”
Fire builds in his eyes. He was expecting me to deny it because we’re surrounded by the heads of the country, but he doesn’t know how deep this goes for me. He doesn’t know that Bellamy isn’t a cheap fuck. He thinks I’m using her because she’s young and beautiful and available. He has no clue.
“You admit you gave her the bruise on her neck and yet you claim to not have hurt her?” He feigns incredulity.
I give him a bored look. “Samil, surely I do not need to go into details on what happens consensually between me and my girlfriend behind closed doors. I think we have more important things to discuss today.”
“Girlfriend?!”
I nod at him. “That’s what she is.”
He growls, totally and completely thrown off.
“Sir.” One of the members of parliament drops his elbows onto the table and addresses me. “Are you telling us you have a girlfriend and that she’s the nanny of your children?”
“That is precisely what I’m telling you.
Bellamy and I have been together in secret for a couple of months.
It was not something we felt comfortable making public until we knew where our relationship was going.
Samil let the cat out of the bag a bit earlier than I had intended, but it changes nothing of the situation. ”
Agitated hands run through Samil’s hair, undoing his perfect coiffure. He blows out an uneven breath and reforms his perfect mask. “Well, I suppose congratulations are in order. No one imagined you’d ever be able to move on after Nora.”
“She was not an easy woman to move on from. Wouldn’t you agree?”
And maybe that was a bit dirty and underhanded.
But he had it coming. He’s had it coming for years.
He used to hound Nora relentlessly. Even after she told him no.
Even after we had children together and she was queen.
She was never his nor did she have any desire to be.
His love was unrequited and more of an obsession than anything from the heart.
“No,” he bites out through gritted teeth and narrowed eyes. “Certainly not.”
I sit up, taking a sip of my coffee. “I realize we have important matters of state to attend to, but I wanted to make you all aware that I’ve decided we’re going to host a Christmas ball here at the palace.”
Everyone in the room gasps with the exception of Samil. A storm is brewing beneath his surface. One I don’t care to get caught in, so I ignore him as I address everyone else.
“I know this comes as a shock to you all, but I think it’s time.
It’s time for the people of Messalina to know that their king and the royal family are still here.
Nora’s death destroyed us, but the people need to see healing.
I hadn’t realized the extent of this until Bellamy came into my life and forced me to examine on a deeper level how I was doing things.
It does not make me comfortable, and I will continue to take every precaution I can with my family, but I don’t want my people to always be holding their breath, waiting for the next tragedy to strike us down.
Life goes on, something I had forgotten, and I think a Christmas ball is a step in that direction. ”
“I love it,” the press secretary for Messalina exclaims, glancing around the room at all the smiling faces and nodding heads. “I think this is a fabulous idea. It will reinvigorate the nation. Will press be allowed in?”
“On a very limited basis. Later today I have a meeting with my staff and the event coordinator about the logistics.”
“Are we able to announce your new love interest?” she continues.
“No. Not yet. That is for me to do when I deem the time is right.”
“Your Majesty, this is truly exciting news. That you’re in love and that you’re having a ball. Might I offer you congratulations on both, sir?”
“Thank you,” I say to Samil’s second-in-command, which I’m positive will also drive him up the wall.
But it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter.
He can’t hurt me, and he can’t come after me.
I am king and he is an elected official.
Now that he knows of my relationship with Bellamy, something I intend to make public at the ball as I did in here, there is nothing he can say or do.
He won’t risk yet another public humiliation.
He has too much at stake now.
Back then, he was simply a low-level attorney, getting passed over for promotions. Now he’s a public figure, and that changes everything. The man is nothing without his pretenses and appearances.
The meeting continues, the energy in the room palpable.
Samil is quiet, keeping his mouth shut, stewing in his own miserable juices.
Who cares? My joy cannot be contained. It’s a first for me, no doubt, but last night when we told the children, it felt as if all the broken and misplaced pieces of my life finally came together.
And I won’t allow anything to break them apart again.
The buildup to the ball has been nonstop.
The children are ebullient, especially as the palace is filled with towering Christmas trees decorated from head to toe in ornaments and sparkling lights.
Decorations are hung, and the air smells of pine and snow.
Emily, Margarite, Javier, and the event coordinators haven’t stopped to take a breath.
I forgot how much work goes into these things.
More so this year, because security is going to be second to none.
I surprised Bellamy and the girls with a famous gown designer and told them to pick out anything they wanted.
Bellamy was a bit uneasy with that. She hasn’t quite gotten the hang of the fact that she’s the king’s girlfriend and that I plan to spoil her relentlessly for the rest of her life.
She’s finally taken to sleeping in my bed with me, something I can’t seem to get enough of.
Nora and I rarely shared a bed. She had her own suite in whatever palace we were living in.
She never liked this one. It was too remote and formal, and maybe that’s why I picked it for us to live in after she died.
Made it easier somehow. I wish she could see our children now.
She would have taken such joy in how they’ve grown.
I believe it would also please her to know the woman I intend to make my next queen loves the children as much as I do and she did.
Only aside from caring for the children and smiling through all the excitement of the ball preparations, Bellamy’s struggling.
She’s driven to Tourin several times to see her father, his memory of her failing.
It only adds to the pressure of coming out in a public way about our relationship. It’s eating at her. All of it.
I’ve been distracted, and so has she. Our hours are long, and the time we’ve had alone has been limited.
Which is why when I wake at dawn to find my bed cold and empty and find her sitting by the fire in her library tucked under a blanket and lost in the flames with an open book on her lap that she’s not reading, I know something has to change.
She’s not good at relying on others. She’s horrible at asking for help.
Her world no longer solely rests on her shoulders, and if I have to tell her that a hundred times a day, I will.