Despite Stephani’s directive to report to Raoul’s office on his arrival, Diego got Marco to deliver him to the back of the castle and the staff entrance. It was still early—just past seven—and he snuck in the kitchen, knowing Senora Ortiz would already be at the day’s baking.

She was just taking a pan of hot rolls out of the oven. Diego leaned casually against the doorframe and waited for her to notice him. When she did, she put her hand to her heart. “You are just as sneaky now as you were as a boy!” she chided, then laughed. “Welcome home, Diego.”

“It’s good to be home.” He went forward and kissed her cheek, and she flapped her hand at him as she blushed. He grinned. The last two weeks had been so exhausting. Normally he came and went as he pleased, but now he was thrilled to be home. It felt right.

“I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving,” she observed, but then took a few rolls and put them on a plate. “Here. And there’s coffee if you want it.”

He buttered the rolls, watching the yellow goodness melt into the warm bread instantly. The first bite was pure, airy heaven.

“You flew all night?”

He nodded. “Most of it, yes. I was summoned.” He wiggled his eyebrows. Being summoned wasn’t the annoyance it used to be.

And then he let his smile fade. “How is Rose?”

“Quiet. She doesn’t come to the kitchen as much and takes her meals upstairs.”

“You took her the cake?”

“I did. I think she understood, but she’s upset, Diego. Seeing the pictures of you in the papers . . . and she feels responsible for everything. I can tell.”

“I’m going to see her first.”

“Better hurry, before she has to be up with the children.”

He crammed the last of the roll into his mouth, passed on the coffee, and headed to the stairwell. He couldn’t wait to see her. Hold her and kiss her and assure her it was all going to be okay now.

She answered his knock, but her face blanked in surprise when she saw him there. “Good morning,” he said, and smiled. She looked so beautiful. Nothing fancy or different than usual. But after two weeks of clubs and women—other than Brenna—who were anxious to get their five minutes of fame with the prince, Rose’s simple trousers, blouse, and topknot were pretty and refreshing.

“You’re back.”

His brows pulled together at her flat, unenthusiastic tone. “No one told you I was coming? Raoul sent for me yesterday. I’ve just arrived from the airport.”

“You must be tired. You had a busy few weeks.”

Alarm settled in the middle of his chest at her inflection of “busy.” “I did. But apparently the mystery of the photograph’s been solved. I don’t need to be away anymore.”

Rose smiled wanly. “You must be relieved. Is there anything else? I need to attend to the children soon.”

He went into her room and shut the door behind him. “What’s going on? I know it was rough, but are you . . . angry with me?”

“Really? You’re going to ask me that?” Her voice lifted, and she let out a breath and rolled her shoulders, as if trying to regain her composure.

“Is it the news stories? Those were all calculated, you know that. All on purpose, to form a diversion.”

“Oh, I’m aware. After the first day, the mystery woman in the garden was forgotten, replaced with the game of ‘who’s Diego out with tonight?’”

She was angry. Very. He hesitated a moment, trying to decide the best tack to proceed. “Nothing happened,” he assured her quietly. “I promise, Rose. It was all for show. Surely you believe me. I value our relationship more than that.”

The sound that came out of her mouth was surprising, considering he’d just been incredibly honest. It was a half-laugh, half-scoff suffused with incredulity, and he knew women well enough to know he’d somehow managed to step on a landmine.

“You value our relationship? That is seriously what you’re going to say to me, when you didn’t even value it enough to say goodbye?”

“I know I left in a rush, but you’d been up late, out walking . . . I wanted to let you sleep. You looked so lovely in the morning. I explained it all in the letter I left. I know it’s not the same as in person—”

“Letter? What letter? The last words you said to me were in my bed, after the ball. Yes, I went out walking, and yes, I bumped into Raoul and we talked and I helped him back inside because he was drunk. You were asleep when I got back, and when I woke up in the morning, you were gone. Full stop. Not one single communication since then, Diego. Not one.”

The unease in his chest grew. “I swear to you, Rose, that I left you a letter. Camila was to look after everything, and deliver it to you later that day.”

“Hmph,” she scoffed again. “I haven’t spoken two words to your assistant since you left. The one time I stopped by her office, she was on the phone and I went to see Stephani instead.”

Camila hadn’t given her the letter. Goddamn it all.

“Rose,” he said carefully, “I swear on my mother’s grave that I wrote you a letter. It wasn’t long, but I did explain why I was leaving, and that our night meant everything to me . . . and that I love you.”

A flash of vulnerability crumpled her face, but only for a split second. “Please don’t,” she said, turning away. “It’s not fair, Diego. I can’t do this anymore.”

* * *

Rose couldn’t look him in the eyes; it made her too vulnerable. Too needy. He’d knocked on her door and she hadn’t had any time to prepare. Just boom, Diego—and all the emotions that went with his sudden appearance.

The sad, horrible truth was that she wanted to believe him.

“Don’t say that,” he said, coming to her side and reaching for her hand.

She pulled it away, trying desperately to be strong. “It’s already done,” she replied, hating the quaver in her voice. “I handed in my notice yesterday.” She’d remain for another two weeks, and then she’d be gone. Off somewhere . . . certainly not another nanny job. No one would hire her now, and the agency would be sure to cut her loose.

“What do you mean? This is ridiculous!” Diego’s voice lifted. “You belong here! The children need you.”

She stared at him now, a hole opening up in her chest. “Did you see the latest story, Diego? It had my name. Accused me of coming between two brothers. I don’t know why you had to leave the morning after the ball. It should have been me. Without me, there was no scandal. No story! I should have been the one to go!”

“I went because for the first time my family needed me, and I could do something to help beyond looking after some ponies or playing in the garden with my niece and nephew. Don’t you get that? This was finally my chance to prove myself. To have some value.”

Silence fell over the room.

“Well,” she finally said, her voice clear and quiet, “your need to be needed came at a cost. I could have resigned, found another position, and kept this all under wraps. But you had to play the family savior, and now I’m without a job, without a reputation, and . . .” She tried to swallow against the lump in her throat to keep her tears away, but she didn’t quite succeed. “And I don’t know how I’m going to face my family. Maybe you needed to prove yourself, but I’ve always been the one who held our family together. Who fixed things. Kept the peace. Never made trouble. Now I’m an embarrassment.”

“That’s not true! None of it’s true.”

“It doesn’t have to be true,” she replied. “I’ve learned very painfully that it just has to appear to be true.”

“I left you a letter,” he pleaded, coming closer. “Rose . . .”

“I can’t, Diego. This has cost me too much already.” Her lip wobbled. She did love him, she did. More than she’d ever thought possible. She even understood his need to prove himself to his family. It was one of the things she admired about him most. But it had also made her a casualty. From the first time he’d kissed her, she’d known she was over her head. Now she had to pick up what pieces remained and find a way to start over.

“If you could go, please, I need to compose myself before seeing Max and Emilia. They don’t know anything about this yet.”

“They’re going to be crushed,” Diego said, shaking his head. “Don’t do this to them.”

The children were her weak spot. She would do anything for them, but she also knew that to stay would mean it being more difficult in the long run. This wouldn’t be forgotten, and they were too innocent to be caught in the middle.

“I’m sorry, Diego.” She went to the door and opened it, then waited for him to leave.

“I’ll go—for now. But we’ll talk later, Rose. This isn’t over. I’ve waited too long for you to let you go now.”

She closed the door behind him, then rested her head on it briefly.

She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to resign and go home with her tail between her legs. What she wanted, deep down, was the fairy tale. She wanted what had been just within her grasp the night of the ball. A future with Diego. To be a part of his family, and see the children every day, and perhaps . . . oh, perhaps, to have a few of her own someday. For approximately an hour and a half, she’d allowed herself the luxury of dreams. And perhaps that was what no one understood. She had never been a dreamer, and this was why. The inevitable, horrible thud when the dream came crashing down.

But for now, for this moment, there was a boy and a girl next door, waiting to play, and read, and have messy snacks and faces washed and all the regular routine they were used to. Ceci would want her to shield them from all of this. And so she would. The only way she knew how. By doing her job.

* * *

Diego marched into Raoul’s office, not even pausing to say hello to Stephani. Raoul looked up, startled, as Diego shut the door and strode forward to the desk.

“What in the hell?”

Raoul’s eyebrow instantly shot up into the air. “Calm down and tell me what the problem is. And welcome home.”

Diego sat on the edge of the chair and fidgeted, his knee bouncing up and down at a rapid pace. “I went to see Rose this morning. She resigned? And you let her?”

“The second news story affected her deeply. It also allowed us to figure out who was feeding the press. We called you back from Africa because we thought you’d like to deal with it personally.”

Diego heard the last part but pushed it aside for a moment. “Are you saying you used Rose as bait? That you used her to set a trap, and the hell with the consequences?” The very idea made him feel sick to his stomach.

“The person had to have known her identity. Though there weren’t any guarantees, we suspected whoever took the photo would send another, or leak other information. The second time she was a bit careless, and we got her.”

Diego’s knee had been bouncing nervously, but he halted its movement and stared at Raoul. “She?”

“It was Camila, Diego.”

His assistant. His damn assistant, who had access to all his files, to his personal information . . . his own staff that he trusted implicitly. He’d given her the letter for Rose the morning he’d left for Tanzania. He pushed past the stinging betrayal. “Oh, that explains so much,” he growled. “You haven’t confronted her yet?”

Raoul shook his head. “We’ve kept everything very discreet here. Stephani is the only other one who knows, besides me and father. Camila took the photo and sent it that first night. After you left, we started going through the event staff, looking for a leak. Then we had to look at household staff. Stephani was the first one to suspect. She called a friend of a friend, who knew how to, shall we say, access certain things. Between a lovely deposit in Camila’s bank account and phone records . . .

His own assistant. Camila had been here for three years now. Quiet, good worker, reliable. Why would she do such a thing? If it were just for the money . . . but to hurt the family in such a manner . . .

“Is she in yet?”

“I don’t know. Don’t fly off the handle, Diego.”

“Don’t fly off the handle? Are you serious?” He got up from the chair and paced for a moment. “I just left Rose. She said she resigned and that it’s over between us. Do you know why? Because I left a damn letter explaining everything with Camila, and it never got delivered. Now I find out that you basically . . . what is the saying Ryan uses? threw her under the bus? And you accepted her resignation? What were you thinking?”

Raoul showed no sign of being upset. He merely met Diego’s gaze evenly. “I was thinking we’d better call you back here so you could have the honor of firing your assistant and start winning back your girl. Nothing’s been done that can’t be fixed.”

Diego stopped pacing and stared at his brother. “What?”

“You and Rose have done nothing wrong, except maybe fall in love, and that’s not wrong, it’s just troublesome. And you didn’t hesitate before coming up with your diversion plan, which, let’s face it, took the spotlight off of what was happening here. It also took your efforts to legitimize yourself and flushed them down the proverbial toilet. You took one for the family, Diego. For me. The least I could do was give you the pleasure of taking out the trash and winning back the girl.”

The speech was so unexpected that Diego realized his mouth was hanging open. Then a smile began to blossom on his face. “You think I can win her back?”

“Are you kidding? She was heartbroken while you were gone. Oh, she tried to hide it, but it was easy to see. You explain what happened, and find that letter? She’ll come around. If you want her to,” he added.

“Of course I want her to. I want to marry her.”

Raoul’s face split with the breadth of his grin. “That’s wonderful news. We all love her. And she’s very good for you.”

Diego sat again, feeling like the wind had been sucked from his sails. “I want to marry her,” he murmured, and wondered why he was suddenly so shaky.

Raoul came over and put his hand on Diego’s shoulder. “It’s a big thing, isn’t it? When you find the woman you want to spend your life with?”

Diego didn’t answer, but put his hand over top of his brother’s. They were both thinking of Ceci.

“I’ll come find you when it’s done,” Diego said, standing again.

“Please do. And if you manage to smooth things over with Rose, we’ll have a champagne toast in the library.”