Page 112 of Scarred Crown

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I only have ten minutes left until I’m supposed to meet the scheduling team at the table to look at possible wedding dates. While the wedding doesn’t fall under my mother’s umbrella, she’s coming for moral and calendar support. She has the best understanding of how long, realistically, big events take to plan and schedule. If she wasn’t being diplomatic, she probably would have picked my wedding date and decreed it to everyone. The last thirty years of her life have been dominated by diplomacy and royal protocol, so I don’t expect her to change now.

I’m still reeling from the king’s tears and the reality that he’s unlikely to tell Nick or Brice anytime soon. He didn’t even fully admit that Alex knows.

My mother will have the full picture, so I go to her office.

“Can I have five minutes?” I ask from the doorway.

She glances at the prominent clock on our wall and sighs. “That’s about all I have unless we’re going to the meeting late. I make it a point to be on time.”

“Me too… now.”

“Teenage rebellion,” she says. “My least favorite years.”

Mine, too, but probably not for the same reasons. “Quick chat?”

“It’s your office.” She points to my nameplate. “As you’ve reminded me more than once.”

Pretty much every chance I get. My rebellion against my mother takes different forms now. Despite that, she’s still been, through the years, the most level-headed voice of reason. We may not always see eye-to-eye, but I trust her to tell me the truth and her honest opinion.

I take the seat across from the desk after closing the door. “I just finished speaking to the king. I tried to push him to tell Nick and Brice about his illness. I take it Alex knows.”

“Helen told him. I’m not sure if she told him the entire truth, but she told him enough for him to understand the true reason his father was stepping down. Alex refused to go through with the coronation until he understood why the coronation was happening.”

Sounds about right. Alex can be relentless. “Why hasn’t Helen told Nick and Brice?”

“King George felt his relationship with Alex changed too much once he knew, so he asked Helen to wait until he was ready to tell Nick and Brice himself.”

“When do you think that’ll be?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” My mother raises her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “He’s definitely not ready yet. I slide it into conversation weekly.”

I take a deep breath before testing the waters. “I’m going to tell Nick.”

“No.” My mother’s voice is clipped. “It’s not your place.”

“I’m his wife,” I say.

“Julia, I mean this in the most loving way, but you and Nick got married on a whim. You’re getting to know each other again after years of disconnect. You were told about the king’s illness as his employee, not as his daughter-in-law.”

“Nick won’t see it that way.”

“Of course he won’t.”

“I cannot keep this secret from Nick.”

“You can and you will. If you tell Nick he’ll feel angry and betrayed by his dying father. His dying father.”

My instinct is to bite back, but instead, I take a deep, steadying breath before I respond. “Nick will never forgive me for knowing and not telling him.”

“He will.” Her gaze softens. “He will in time. That’s the luxury you have. Time. King George doesn’t have that. If you tell Nick, their relationship might not recover before it’s too late.”

Will my relationship with Nick recover at all if I don’t tell him? King George and my mother have a confidence I don’t possess. They don’t know that a secret, one I should have told him, drove us apart fourteen years ago.

My mother rises from behind our desk and ushers me out the door to the meeting. The whole way there, I can’t stop the spiral of thoughts.

What’s the right thing to do? Betray King George, and at this point, my mother? Or betray Nick? Would he ever understand why I didn’t tell him?