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Katie’s chin quivered, but she didn’t look away. “I never wanted to be in this position.”
“Then why did you put yourself here? Tell me that.”
“I took the job because I needed the work and I thought I could be good at it. That much is—that much is absolutely true. But things started to go wrong when I took the girls to the park.”
“What?” This made him furious. “I told you that deviating from the schedule was dangerous, and you insisted that it was fine—”
“They were fine. Nothing happened to them—it was what happened to me,” Katie said. “A journalist approached me. Papazyan.”
Papazyan. A notorious gossip-monger who did his best to stir up trouble in Stolvenia.
“And what? He offered you money? Better pay than I could?”
“No.” Katie closed her eyes for a brief moment. “He blackmailed me.”
“Blackmailed you about what?” He had a horrible sinking feeling. What kind of past did she have?
“He was going to plaster my…work history all over the papers. The story I told you about—the one where I was blamed for making up an affair. It made me rather notorious.” Now she did glance at the floor, then back at him. “That, plus pictures of Papazyan talking to me, which he threatened to publish also, would have been enough to convince you and everyone else that I was nothing more than some kind of yellow journalist hack, taking the job as nanny so I could dig up or invent a new scandal.”
“Why didn’t you come to me, tell me about the blackmail?”
“I didn’t know you then—and you didn’t know me. What would your reaction have been?”
He would have sent her right out of the palace. They both knew it.
“You—” He shook his head, searching for the words, but there was only pain and embarrassment. “For a little while, I thought I could just be myself with you. Just Armin. But now…”
“Prince Armin, please—”
“Now I realize that there’s no way to separate myself from my title. Not really. Not ever. Not if I have to spend my life being vigilant, and that’s clearly what I have to do. I can’t let myself be…open to this kind of—” He struggled for the words. “I can’t let my position become vulnerable.” Not even for you.
“Armin, I’m sorry.”
“It’s not truly your fault.” He could already feel himself closing off from her, a wall building around his heart. “But of course you’ll have to leave.” He nodded to the bedroom door. “Right away. And you’ve come to that conclusion already.”
“Yes, I have.” She cleared her throat. “I wish you’d read my letter, but—but what I should really say is that Papazyan told me he has another source in the palace.” Fury flashed across her face. “I don’t know who it is, but I’m not the only person who has been feeding him information. His other source told him about our affair. I tried to deny it, but he didn’t believe me. He plans to publish the story the day after tomorrow. You have the right to know.” Katie reached into her purse and pulled out the private access card that let her in any entrance to the palace along with the girls, putting it gently on a side table nearby.
Then she looked into his eyes one more time.
Armin couldn’t speak.
He watched her disappear into the bedroom, only to emerge a few minutes later with a small suitcase. It was the same one she’d moved in with. Nothing more, nothing less.
They looked at each other across the room.
“Goodbye, Armin,” said Katie.
And then she was gone.
13
There was, of course, more packing to do after Katie left with her single suitcase.
A lot more. There was no way he could walk into the room, seeing that furniture in that arrangement, now that she was gone. It would have to be replaced with something else.
Armin let the staff handle it.
He told Natalia to have the room boxed and packed in a clipped tone that he hoped let nothing show, then went to his office and made a series of phone calls during which the conversations seemed to disappear the moment they entered his mind.
