CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN – FINN
Hattie hesitates. “Am I in trouble?”
“No, darling, but this concerns you, and I’d like to discuss it alone for a moment.”
I get to my feet. “Mum—”
“Not now, Finley.”
The sharpness of her tone shoots through me, and I drop back to my seat.
Hattie saves what she was working on and closes the lid of her laptop. I meet her gaze, and she pauses, anxiety whirling in her eyes. I grab her hand and give it a quick squeeze, and she returns the gesture with a weak smile.
Then, she leaves, being guided out of the room with my mother’s loving hand on her upper back.
The door clicks shut behind them, and the air that was tight before is now suffocatingly heavy.
“Should we look online?” Alec asks, looking at me. “Just in case?”
Oscar and I both shake our heads. “If Annette is here, it means the palace has been given a heads up about something,” he explains. “We have anything from one to twenty-four hours before whatever this is breaks.”
“Do you know anything?” I ask him. “Surely Aveline’s ‘side quest,’ as Mum put it, hasn’t caused the palace to go into crisis mode.”
“No. Aunt Bea was amused just as much as we were.” He glances at the door. “This is something much bigger. And unlike the paternity story, it’s upset Annette. I can’t begin to imagine what it is.”
I sigh and run my fingers through my hair. Surely doubting her paternity was the biggest thing that could be thrown at Hattie.
The room settles into silence again. It’s only broken by the occasional tapping of Alec and Oscar’s fingers against their phones, but all I can do is stare at the door.
I have no idea how long I do that before it opens and my mother walks in, seeming as if she’s aged ten years in the past… however fucking long it’s been.
I stand up, flattening my hands on the table, and stare at her.
She meets my eyes, and she’s exhausted. I don’t need her to elaborate—whatever it is that had Annette in such a tizz is bad, and it’s bad enough to tire my mother.
And nothing has even happened yet.
“Where’s Harriet?” Alec asks the question that’s on the tip of my tongue but won’t come out.
“Sit down,” she says, and I didn’t even realise I wasn’t the only one who’d gotten to my feet.
“Mum—”
“Sit.”
I do as I’m told.
She looks at Harriet’s laptop before sitting in the empty seat at the head of the table.
“I have Harriet’s full permission to share this with the three of you.
And before you shout, Finn, she’s all right.
She’s in your apartment with her attendants.
She’s taken her meds, and we’ve already called the doctor to come and make an emergency referral for a therapist to guide her through this. ”
“An emergency referral? What are you—”
She holds up her hand to silence me. “Annette was contacted personally by Melissa Nelson to give her the heads up about this story. She’s trying to silence it from within, and all the major news stations and papers across the country are in agreement that nothing will be posted. However…”
“The gossip rags are another matter,” Oscar surmises, obviously correctly judging by my mother’s nod.
“Some in the ‘entertainment’ side of the media have made it clear they intend to hold the story for twenty-four hours and no longer. They’ll publish it with or without a comment from the palace.
The more traditional media have agreed to run one story with collaboration from the palace and the government. ”
The government?
What the fuck is happening?
“What is the story?” Alec asks. “This is all well and good, but—”
“It concerns the circumstances surrounding Harriet’s kidnapping.” Mum drops her chin and takes a deep breath before sitting back up. “You’ve been looking into it. How much do you know?”
Alec pauses. “Her kidnappers were linked to human traffickers. She saw a lot of children pass through the house she was hidden at. That’s all. Neither her nor Ryan elaborated beyond that, and none of us have asked.”
“Well, the elaboration of that story is what the media is holding onto.”
“What the—” I stop when she looks at me.
“Someone who claims to have been kidnapped with Harriet has sent their story to almost every publication in the country. They claim…” Mum pauses, closing her eyes.
“That Harriet was a willing and able participant in both trafficking other children and creating unspeakable content of herself and others until around two years ago.”
“Coinciding with her return to St Peters,” Oscar says quietly.
I think that’s what he says.
I don’t know.
All I can clearly hear is the pounding of my pulse in my ears. Everything is echoing. I don’t even know what I feel. Is it anger? Is it sadness? Is it frustration? It’s such a fucking mix of vicious negativity that I can’t tell where one emotion ends and another begins.
“Finn. Finn!”
I blink and pull myself back to the here and now. Alec has his phone trapped between his ear and shoulder, and he’s swiped Hattie’s laptop where he’s furiously tapping away. Oscar has disappeared, and Mum has moved to sit beside me.
“Are you all right, love?” she asks, touching my shoulder. “You’ve been spaced out for a few minutes.”
I swallow and drag my gaze away from Alec’s furious movements. “No. No, I’m not all right. There’s no fucking way she—there’s no way, Mum.”
“I know. I know.” She grips my shoulder tightly, her gaze blazing into mine. “We will fix this. I promise. There is no such thing as a storm the Royal House cannot weather.”
“What if…” I swallow. “What if this is the exception? What if this is too much and she has no choice but to step back?”
“Do not underestimate her strength,” she says quietly.
“Not her. The public, Mum. If there’s too much outcry, there’s no way she’ll be accepted, and—”
“Don’t.” Alec’s voice cuts in, drawing my attention back to him.
His eyes are as dark as I’ve ever seen them, and the firm set of his shoulders says everything about his mood right now.
“I will find out who did this. I will find out who is behind this sack of lies, and I will serve them up on a silver platter to you. And not because I have a duty to the Crown, but because I find myself irritatingly fond of that terrifying woman.”
Wow.
For Alec to say that…
“Oscar is already convening with Rowan. He’s called his father to the palace, too,” Mum continues.
“They’re meeting with the legal team to apply for an emergency court hearing to force the journalists to reveal their sources.
Rowan believes there are grounds for this given the serious nature of the allegations. ”
“You won’t need it,” Alec says confidently. “I’ll have a name by midnight.”
“And that name won’t be admissible in a court of law,” she points out. “As much as I appreciate the investigative prowess of you and yours, it’s information that must stay confidential until a judge rules otherwise.”
“Stupid laws.”
“What can I do?” I ask Mum, turning back to her.
“What you do best.” She rests her hand over mine. “Go and look after Harriet.”
“But I—”
“She needs you.” Her tone brokers no argument. “I fear these allegations have brought up some memories she’d prefer stayed buried, and she needs the person she feels safest with. That is, and always will be, you. That is the most useful thing you can do for any of us right now.”
She’s right.
I know she’s right.
But I want to do fucking something.
“I’ll go.” I slide my hand out from under hers and stand up. “Alec, find this person.”
He glances up, nods, and answers another call without batting an eyelid.
I walk towards the door. No. I’m not going empty-handed. I turn back, grab the box of pastries Mum brought in earlier, and resume my mission to return to our apartment and comfort her.
“Finn.”
I stop and look over my shoulder at the sound of Mum’s voice.
“Alec is right. We will find them.” Her tone never wavers, and her gaze is so intense it would make a glacier melt. “We will find whoever is responsible for these lies about my daughter, and they will pay for it.”
My daughter.
“You already know who’s behind it,” is all I say before I walk out of the room and let the door slam behind me.
And I do.
I know. I fucking know. Which means Harriet does, too.
The maids are gone when I reach our apartment. My heart thunders against my ribs, and my pulse once again beats a cacophonic rhythm in my ears.
She’s alone.
She shouldn’t be alone.
I throw the box on the table. “Hattie?”
Nothing.
“Harriet!” I tear through the living room to our kitchen. It’s empty, just like the dining room. “Harriet!”
I rush towards the bedrooms, and the sound of rushing water hits my ears. The shower.
She’s in the shower.
I shove my way into the bathroom and stop. She’s sitting in the shower, fully clothed, with her knees hugged to her chest and her chin against her chest as the water beats down on her. It’s not cold in here, nor is it foggy with steam, so at least the water is a reasonable temperature.
I remove my shoes and walk over to the shower, stopping just in front of her. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she says, her voice muffled by the way she’s got her face buried.
“You don’t sound surprised that I’m here.”
“Nobody else would find me here.”
Weirdly, that makes me smile. “Can I turn off the water?”
She shakes her head.
“All right. We can sit here for a bit.”
“You’ll get cold,” she murmurs.
“So will you, but you don’t want to turn it off yet, so I can deal with a little cold.” I lean against the tiled wall, wincing at the chill of it, and keep my gaze on her. “It’s a lot for you to deal with, huh?”
Hattie nods. “I didn’t… I didn’t do those things, Finn. I—”
“I know.”
She freezes.
“I know, baby.” I touch my fingertip to the top of foot. “You don’t need to explain yourself.”
“But everyone else—”
“There isn’t a single person in this palace who believes those lies. And, if they do, they won’t be in the palace by bedtime.”
Slowly, oh so fucking slowly, she raises her head. Her usually vibrant green eyes hold a dullness that cuts my heart in two, and she presses her lips against her knee. “I can leave,” she whispers. “This is too much for you all.”
“No.” I roll onto my knees in front of her and lower my face until my eyes are level with hers. “Absolutely not, so get that idea out of your pretty little head. You aren’t going anywhere. I’m not letting you go anywhere.”
“Why?” Her voice breaks. “I’ve caused nothing but trouble.”
“Because,” I say softly, pushing some wet hair away from her forehead with my fingertip. “I love you far too much to let you go. Trouble and all.”
A hint of the light I love so much flickers back to life in her eyes. “You love me?”
“So much so that if you leave this palace, so do I. Everything here is worthless to me if you aren’t with me. If I had to make a choice right now, it would be you. Every single time.”
And I mean it.
If she wants to jack this all in and run away, then fuck, I’ll drive the getaway car.
“But I’ve caused so much trouble.” Her voice is the smallest I’ve ever heard it. “From the very beginning. And I don’t… You don’t deserve this. None of you do.”
“Oh, come on. I knew I was signing up for trouble from the very beginning.” I grin, but she doesn’t return it. “And everyone else around us generally encourages your antics.”
That gets her the tiniest bit.
“So, really, the best thing you could do right now is turn off that water, let me dry you off, and just accept that you’re stuck with me forever.
Because if you want to leave here, then it means I follow you, and then we have a whole constitutional crisis on our hands.
Believe me, that’s a lot more trouble than someone making up lies about the woman I love. ”
She hugs her knees a little tighter, but nods.
“What’s the nod for? The water? Or the running away together?”
“The water.” There’s the hint of a smile in her voice. “And the drying off.”
“Okay, good.” I kiss the top of her head as I stand and turn it off. There are fresh towels on the towel rack, and I hope to God the heater has been turned on.
She’s freezing.
God only knows how long she’d have stayed in that shower if I didn’t come in when I did.
I help her out of the shower and wrap one towel around her. She barely even holds it, and my mistake hits me hard.
She can’t dry off if she’s in wet clothes.
Idiot.
I’m an idiot.
I take the towel. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes, okay?”
Hattie nods, and while she doesn’t necessarily help me, she doesn’t hinder me, either. She moves her arms when I ask. Lifts her feet at my request. And when I wrap her in a second warm, fluffy towel and tell her to grip hold of it to keep it around her, she does.
“Come on,” I say softly. “Let’s get you out of this bathroom.”