Turning over, my eyes lazily taking their time to open, I noticed that Rose’s side of the bed was empty. We’d stumbled in sometime after two that morning, then spent another solid hour or two making sweet tender love until I knew every inch of her body, and she knew mine. Never in all my life had I felt such a connection like I did when I was with her, and the thoughts before I went to sleep that night were only of her. I would secure us some plane tickets to that warm and tropical location and attempt to sort out this whole mess of marriage licenses. I had no intention of letting Rose go.

Pulling myself out of the bed, I checked the bathroom, rubbing my chest idly. She wasn’t there. My stomach flipped. Neither was any of her stuff that had been strewn around the sink last night. In fact, all of her belongings that I’d put in the shower were gone, as well.

A strange feeling of desperation shot through my body as I hurried down the stairs, looking in every corner of the flat before realising that Rose and all of her stuff were missing.

She was gone. Had she left me? Maybe Andrew had been right after all… that she and her ex had planned this. But even that didn’t make any sense. Neither of them stood to gain anything.

Questions with unknown answers raced through my mind. Why the hell had she left after last night? I had done everything in my power to turn over a new leaf to show her I was a good man. The fundraiser had been a success, and I’d schmoozed until I had countless donations for the orphanage. I’d danced with her, surprisingly never putting a foot wrong—so at least it wasn’t my terrible ballroom dancing skills that had put her off. Did she not believe me the countless times I told her how fucking gorgeous she looked and then later proved it, when I’d worshipped her body in the bedroom until she couldn’t feel her toes?

Raking a hand through my hair, I slumped against the sofa, my mind unable to process what happened. It was then that I noticed the ring on the table, in the original box. Oh, fuck. Any hope that perhaps this was all a misunderstanding and she’d just popped to the corner store were gone. She had given the ring back, as well. Was she that unhappy with me? What the hell had I done? Whatever it was, I was determined to find out. I knew she cared for me, she’d even said she loved me—though she said it so quietly that perhaps it hadn’t been her intention for me to hear it.

Stalking over to the ring, I closed the box and gripped it tightly in my hand, moving up the stairs to get dressed. Something wasn’t right. Someone had spooked her, and I had a feeling I knew who it was.

I paced the floor waiting for my brother to arrive, unable to stop moving. I was literally sick to my stomach with worry about Rose and what had possessed her to leave me.

“Edward?”

I stopped pacing and looked at Andrew, who looked damn near impeccable, right down to his straight tie. I, on the other hand, had grabbed whatever I could find and no doubt looked like I’d slept in my clothes. But I didn’t care. I wanted my girl back. “Where is she?” I’d already tried her flat and her parents’, but no one was answering, and her phone was going to voicemail.

“Where is who?” Andrew asked, stepping into the room. “Are you okay?”

I looked at him, my eyes narrowing. “Don’t you fucking bullshit me. What did you do, Andrew? Why did Rose leave me?”

Andrew’s shoulders slumped and he motioned for me to sit. I refused, so he stayed by the door. “It was for your own good.”

I launched for him, grabbing him by his lapels and shoving him against the wall. I wanted to smash my fists into his face, but I wanted an answer to my questions first.

He pushed me back but didn’t take hold of me. “Let me go, Edward. Don’t do something you will regret.”

Rage boiled within me, and it took me a couple of breaths to ease my grip and let him free. “Fine. Start talking before I commit royal bloody murder.”

“As I said, it was for your own good. I found out some unpleasant things about her past, truths that would effectively ruin the family if you actually married her. I offered her money to leave you.”

The blood drained from my face as I thought of Rose taking money over me, the knife that was already dug deep into my back twisting ever so slightly. Andrew must have seen the change, for he quickly started to shake his head. “She refused the money, Edward.”

The fog started to clear, and I sagged against the chair I’d stumbled into. “What did you find out? What could be so damaging that you would do this to us, to me?”

“Does it matter? She’s gone,” Andrew said.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Of course it matters! Actually, you’re right… it doesn’t. I don’t care what it is that’s got you and no doubt my father and the rest of the fucking family so scared, but you are going to tell me anyway. What did you find out, Andrew?” I said in a low voice, my hands itching again to hit my brother.

He sighed. “Have it your own way. You always do. She’s adopted.”

“That’s it?” I exploded into laughter. I would have never guessed, given how close she was to her mum and dad and even her sister.

“No, that’s not all,” Andrew said. “Her biological mother was a drug addict and a prostitute. Rose is damaged goods, a product of a one-night stand. Not even her mother knew who her father was; that part of her birth certificate is blank.”

I moved so fast that he never saw it coming, my fist connected with his jaw as he cried out. “You asshole! You held her mother’s past against her and drove her away from me?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s for the best, can’t you see that? You need to marry someone with a title at least,” Andrew replied, holding a hand up to his face, testing his jaw. “I told her I was sorry, but even she agreed with me. She didn’t want to ruin what you had accomplished… she thinks she’s not good enough for you.”

I let Andrew go and stepped back. She’s not good enough for me? Hell it was the complete opposite. I wasn’t good enough for her! There was a long list of reasons that she should run far away from me, but for some reason she’d persisted with helping me, pushing me to be better. I didn’t give a damn about her past. I wanted to be her future.

“I know you won’t forgive me any time soon for this,” my brother continued, straightening his jacket, “but I was only looking out for you, Edward, and your future.”

“So you drive away the woman I love? I have no future if I’m not with her!” I shot back, seeing him flinch at my words. “Thanks, brother. Who needs enemies when you have family?”

Stalking toward the door, I looked back at him, ignoring the look on his face. He had plenty of time to think about what he had done. Before I went to grovel at Rose’s feet, I needed to clarify something first. “Where’s Father?”

I found him in his study, looking over a stack of newspapers as he sat behind his desk. He looked up in surprise when I entered, waving off his personal assistant and getting her to shut the door. “Congratulations on your success last night,” he said, pushing the paper toward me. “I would say you have turned over a new leaf, Edward. I am proud of you, son.”

I looked down at the paper, and my stomach clenched as I took in the picture of Rose and me dancing, taking in the way we were both looking at each other in that one special moment. Fake engagement or not, any blind fool could see that we were in love.

“She left me,” I spat out, the words finally hitting me with the full force of a hurricane. I already missed the hell out of her, like someone had cut off my right arm. We’d been together so much over the last few weeks that it felt weird not to have her by my side. I would seek to remedy that soon, but I needed answers first.

“W-what?” my father asked, surprise on his face. “She left you?”

“Because you, Andrew and Grandfather can’t stay out of my damn personal life,” I growled, pushing the paper away. “I lost the woman I love because my family wants me to be miserable and can only ever think of themselves and their damned reputation. I am not going to live up to your expectations, Father. Not now, not ever. I am not going to be Andrew, and I am never going to be the king of England, so why the hell can’t I be left to be happy?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out as I sat and waited.

“I don’t want you to be unhappy,” he finally said, lacing his fingers over his paunchy stomach. “I’ve always wanted the best for you. You and Andrew are the best things that have ever happened to me.”

“Then why not let me be?” I asked.

He shook his head, and I was surprised to see a glimmer of tears in his eyes. “I wish I could explain myself, Edward, but I will tell you a story instead. It seems fitting, given what you are going through right now, and perhaps I should’ve told you sooner. But I loved your mother, dearly. She was my sole existence. I know I must have asked her a million times to marry me, to run away with me. She refused me every single time with the same reasoning I suspect your Rose has given you. She felt like she wasn’t good enough, that somehow she was going to ruin the bloodline by being my wife, my princess, my future consort. I laughed it off at the time and told her it didn’t matter. We were going to be together and nothing could stop us. I was naïve.”

He cleared his throat and looked out of the window idly. “Your grandfather got involved, of course, once he found out. He didn’t want the line tainted. Only pure-bloods would do, he would say. He pushed woman after woman—only ones with titles of course, and a lineage that could be traced back. Your mother, she was livid and rightly so. But I was a coward; I couldn’t deny that my father was right. I had a duty to uphold. So we fought and she left, quit her job, and moved away far from me, though I did persuade her to see me a couple of time afterwards. And it was only after I married Agatha, with Andrew on the way, that I found out your mother was pregnant with you, too. I was heart-broken, Edward.”

I sat back, stunned at my father’s confession. All these years I thought she had just been a dalliance on the side. I never imagined that it had been love, and certainly not the kind of love that he was claiming. Mum never talked about him much, and given what I was feeling right now, I could understand why. It would’ve been like torture to hear his name, let alone talk about him to her son.

“When you came to the palace, I saw her in everything you did,” he continued, his eyes focusing on me. “Agatha hated the fact that you were here because you reminded her of the one thing I will never give her.”

“What’s that?” I asked softly.

“My heart,” he replied, reaching into a drawer on the desk. He handed over a well-worn picture. I recognised both of them immediately, the picture much like the one that was on the front page of the paper this morning. They were dancing, the look of love between them so sharp that anyone would have to be stupid to think otherwise. “Your mother was the only one who ever captured my heart. I suppose I do care for Agatha in some way—she, after all, gave me your brother, too—but nothing like the way I loved your mother.”

I handed the photo back to him, and he placed it back in the drawer, out of sight like the pain he had been carrying around all of these years. “So you know what I am going through then,” I said softly.

He nodded and turned back toward me with a sigh. “I know if I tell you that I haven’t changed my mind you are going to do something stupid like run off somewhere and cause an even bigger scandal. So I won’t. I see that I have been too hard on you, perhaps out of envy. Seeing you fight for someone like you are doing now, when I was too cowardly to do the same for your mother, well, I suppose it makes me feel ashamed. However, do know that if you go ahead and marry Rose, you will be stricken from the line of succession.”

“Thank God for that!” I said, glad to be rid of the cloud that hung over my head all of these years. “Not like I would have a chance anyway once Andrew finds someone and starts his own family.”

“Perhaps,” he said, as if he knew something I didn’t. “Edward, while I can’t give you my full blessing, I will continue to provide for you until you decide to tell me to stop,” he continued. “I’m also going to make sure the flat is signed over to you as a wedding present. And I will do my best to make sure the information that your brother found out about Rose is contained, or at least managed should it ever leak.”

“I, thanks,” I said, grateful of this sudden turnaround and change of heart. I believe I had my mother to thank for that. He wasn’t going to write me off; he was actually going to set me free instead. I had a new, healthy respect for my father, given what I now knew about his relationship with my mother. He was a man hurting, and it must’ve been excruciating to see me do what I pleased while he had to forgo the love of his life for duty. It was like I’d been pissing all over his sacrifice all these years. “Be assured, I don’t plan on living off you for the rest of my life. I will make you proud of me.”

“I know that,” he said, giving me an encouraging smile. “You’ve got a good thing going, Edward. Keep it up… and for the love of god, don’t fuck it up.”

“Yes, sir,” I laughed. I didn’t plan on doing anything close to that.

He regarded me, as if he were contemplating saying something that seemed to be troubling him. “You know I saw your mother practically every weekend after she was diagnosed, up until the day she died. We would travel to one of the residences, one far removed from the city.”

I thought about her mysterious trips that I’d never really thought to examine till my father mentioned them, the ones where I would stay with the kind old lady that lived not far from us who enjoyed feeding me junk food for the whole weekend. Mum had never told me where she was going, but when she returned on those Sunday evenings, she would have a dreamy smile on her face.

“We would sit and laugh, talk about you and the past. And every time before we went our separate ways, I would lean down and tell her how gorgeous she was and how much I still loved her.” My father’s smile dimmed, a pained look crossing over his face. “Even when she had lost her hair, and I knew it was going to be the last time I ever saw her lovely eyes, I told her those words. She never said them back—wanting to spare me, I think—but I knew she loved me. I knew she felt the same way. Those feelings were so precious to me and not the type to go away.” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, looking at me. “Don’t ever fail to tell that woman how much you love her every day, Edward. You never know; it might be your last.”

I cleared my throat then, a wealth of emotions bubbling up inside. “I’m glad you both found love, but I am so sorry that you couldn’t be together.”

“Me too,” he replied, looking out the window again. “Me too.”

I left him there, looking out the window as I went to do what my father could not.