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“What?” she asked.
“I was admiring your hoodie.”
She blushed and grabbed for the chain around her neck, rubbing the ring attached to it. “It’s my favorite,” she said, and sat on the sofa facing him.
He took his seat again and sipped his wine, surprised it was good. “Excellent wine.”
Jesska smiled and nodded. “I might not make much money, but I just can’t buy bad wine.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m an executive administrative assistant for a human resources and benefits company.” She sighed. “It’s my fallback, I guess.”
“Your fallback?”
“I had planned to go to college. I’d even thought about being a paramedic or a nurse or something noble like that. But life has a way of beating the shit out of you and leaving you to die on the side of the road.”
Kaspar widened his eyes. “Is that why you...?” He nodded to her arm, her scars peeking out from one her sleeves.
“I guess,” she rasped as she pulled the sleeve down to her wrist again.
“Will you tell me why you hurt yourself, elskan?”
She shook her head, rubbing the ring again. “What did my sister say?”
He thought about pressing her, but knew she’d only push back if he did, so he let it go... for now. “She’s still in love with my brother.”
Jesska rolled her eyes. “Well, anyone with a brain could figure that out.”
“Oh?”
“When Megan dislikes someone, she tends to shout it from the rooftops, tell all her friends, strangers, the mailman. But with him, she never mentioned him. Ever. And I remember at the beginning, she cried a lot. But she never ever said a bad word about him. We didn’t even know his name. I figured something really bad had to have happened and that maybe it wasn’t her choice to leave, but then time passed, and I grew up... and other stuff distracted me, so I never thought to ask.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “How does your brother feel about her?”
“He adores her.” He sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Which means?”
“I’ll explain in a minute, but first, will you tell me why you keep tugging on that chain?”
“No reason.” She dropped her hand into her lap. “Tell me what happened.”
“The easy answer is that your sister and my brother fell in love and had three children together, but the complicated part is the first two were stolen from them.”
“Yes, Megan told me. She’s a wreck. What I can’t quite figure out is why they would want to take them.”
Kaspar shrugged. “We are very rich, very important people, sweetheart. We have enemies.”
“And humble,” she retorted as she tucked her feet under her bottom.
He sighed, setting his wine on an end table. “Look, I’m simply stating fact. We are the royal family of our people, and we have enemies. I can’t change what I was born into.”
“No, I guess you can’t,” she conceded.
He rose to his feet and made his way to her, sitting on the sofa beside her. “Why do you keep tugging on that necklace?”
She lowered her hand again, shaking her head. He noticed a small diamond ring on her left hand and frowned. “Who gave you this?”
“No one.”
