Page 154 of The Royal Art of Revenge

“I understand. Thank you, Rowan.” I focus my gaze on mine and Finn’s interlocked fingers as he leaves, and he squeezes my hand.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Finn asks, his eyes clouded with worry. “I should have told you last night. I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine.” I smile, even if it is a little weaker than I’d like. “I had a feeling Rosalyn might try something like this, and that’s why I took the DNA test results with me before I moved out. It’s poetic that the test she insisted upon when I returned is what’s going to be her downfall.”

“She’s a fool,” Beatrix says with a bite in her tone. “She’s a fool for underestimating you, and a fool for thinking she can attack my family without any repercussions. I know you’ve always wanted to handle this by yourself, but I’m sorry, Hattie. I cannot sit by and allow this to go unchecked.”

“She’s attacking more than me. She’s attacking the institution of the Royal Family by insinuating I can trick you all, so please. Handle her however you must.”

A cold smile stretches across her face as she stands from the bed, one that even makes Louis do a double take at his wife. “Oh, I will. Rest assured, this is the last time she’ll make this mistake.”

With those final words, she leaves, and Louis stares after her for a moment before quickly rushing out of the room.

Finn snorts into his fist, turning away from me for a moment. “Well, Rosalyn will never show her face in public again.”

“Is it okay if I say I’m a little scared?” I ask, slowly bringing my gaze from the door over to him. “Like, I’m going to blow their lives apart, so what is she going to do?”

“Some questions are best left unanswered,” he replies vaguely. “Have you considered your next move? We do have to release a statement sooner rather than later, and we can’t make any response to this seem like we’re outright attacking your family.”

“Politics is hard.” I sigh, sitting back against the headboard and closing my eyes for a moment.

“It is.” He smiles sympathetically. “But they’ve made a grave mistake in having a ‘source’ say that Rosalyn and Jasmine were wary of your identity from the start. People are already questioning why it’s taken two years for them to raise their so-called suspicions, and some are pointing out it’s only after our engagement where you ‘took’ Jasmine’s place.”

“Are people really buying that I took her place?”

“Some are. But, uh…” He scratches behind his neck.

“Finn. What did you do?”

He clears his throat. “Technically speaking, I didn’t do anything. Oscar did.”

“Fine. Finn, what did you make Oscar do?”

“Um… He might have leaked something to the lunatics at the gossip rags.”

I raise my eyebrows. “And? What was that?”

“He pretended to be someone who works in his household and said that any rumours of my engagement to Jasmine were greatly exaggerated, and nothing was ever confirmed between the two households. He implied it was all in Rosalyn and Jasmine’s head, and that they were driving the media speculation in an effort to pressure the royal household into agreeing.”

I pause. “Okay, so the only part of that that isn’t true is that he isn’t a member of his own household staff… And that you didn’t tell me. Didn’t you scold me for doing things without telling you about them?”

“Yes.” He raises our hands to his face and nuzzles his cheek against the back of my hand. “Are you mad?”

“No. I’m amused. Slightly annoyed he couldn’t leak that bit of information before, but whatever.”

“Well, I think it’s working.” He releases my hand and pulls his phone from his pocket. “Oscar’s sister sent me a link to this gossip account earlier, and it’s pretty wild how people can connect the dots. This… journalist, I guess we can call her… has pulled content from our engagement interview, specifically the story of how we met, added it to your dad’s reaction to our engagement at the party and to this current situation. She’s adamant that these allegations about your parentage are nothing but a smear campaign against you because I’m engaged to you and not Jasmine. She latched onto Oscar’s fake statement pretty quickly and correctly deduced it came from someone close to me. One of her followers sent her a side-by-side photo of you and your mum and said there’s no way you aren’t her daughter, and some of the other gossipy social media accounts have picked that up.”

“Wow. The internet sleuths are really coming through for me,” I muse. “They’re quicker than I thought they were.”

“They’re scary.” He puts his phone away and leans back on his hand, turning his attention to me. “You really want to cut ties with them? Legally?”

I swallow, then nod and look down at my lap. “A part of me doesn’t want to break my relationship with my dad, but going back there last night really made me realise something. I don’t exist in that house. There’s no place for me there. There never has been. My father had to fight Rosalyn to allow me to stay after the DNA test came back, and I used to think that was him standing up for me, but it wasn’t. It was just him doing what he thought he had to. If he really cared, he wouldn’t have hidden me or controlled my trust fund or constantly put me second. I feel so, so stupid that it took me so long. That even when I walked in there last night, I was hoping he would stand up for me and accept me.”

Finn reaches over and brushes hair from my face, then softly tucks it behind my ear. “It’s not stupid, baby. It’s natural to want your parents’ approval, and it’s not your fault that he can’t give you that. That’s all on him. Remember, everything he’s done has been deliberate. He’s made constant, conscious decisions not to protect you and to lift Jasmine up. You didn’t fail. He did. He’s the stupid one.”

I peer upwards, meeting his soft gaze, and smile. “I know. I’ve always known that, and that’s the irritating part. Even now, there’s something inside me that wants to take the easy route out of this and just release the DNA test without dropping the bomb about his affair because I don’t want to hurt him.”

“You can. If that’s what you really want.”