The Mail Order Billionaire (DC Billionaires Book 3)

by Eliza Ellis

  The paper floated from his hand and landed on his desk. “No,” he said softly.

  “No? No what?”

  “We won’t invoke that clause. She’ll get what was originally agreed to.”

  “What?” his lawyer yelled through the phone. “Are you crazy? Really, Your Highness, you have lost your mind.”

  Yeah. And his heart. He was definitely crazy. He still wanted his wife. I’m in love with her.

  If only she had said she’d stand by his side and be his queen. They could’ve handled anything together. Take on Velin and get rid of anyone subverting the Crown. Rule Degonia. Save his brother and his awful wife. Their child didn’t deserve any of this. Oh, and get parliament to pass a law for firstborn girls to rule.

  “We have to invoke the clause. We’re perfectly within our right.”

  “I understand that, but I don’t want to.”

  “If you allow me to be honest, Your Highness—”

  “When have you not?” Maxim asked dryly.

  “You sound petulant. What she did should be criminal. Legally, she can be held accountable. After you brought her home and introduced her to the Crown and the people as your countess, she should be humiliated for tricking you into a marriage.”

  “No!” Maxim shouted. “We will not humiliate her. She…” He had already agreed to make an appearance on the television show to support her. It would be cruel to behave indignantly after each of them admitted to marrying for personal agendas. “I still want her,” he whispered.

  “You didn’t say what I think you said.”

  Maxim growled. “I meant what I said. No clause, no humiliation—” No divorce.

  He wouldn’t let her go that easily. Yes, he was entitled to an explanation, and she was on her way over to give it. Until he heard what she had to say, he was still a married man and intended on staying that way.

  “Sir…”

  “Look, I know you don’t like it, but she’s still my wife. Until I hear from her, I won’t make a decision. And until you hear from me, you do nothing. Understood?”

  “As you wish.”

  Maxim ended the call exhausted. He poured himself a drink and took a quick swig, exhaling loudly. He would need liquid courage to prepare for what was coming through his door at any minute. A gorgeous, intelligent woman who had him by the—

  He jumped at the sound of the doorbell. Maxim set the drink down and answered the door.

  Shoulders hunched in a contrite way, Deanna faced him with a shaky smile. “You answer the door yourself?”

  “Not trying to bring attention to my royal status here,” he responded stiffly. Good. He was in control. If she was really trying to take advantage, he was well on his way to dissuading her.

  “May I come in?”

  Her large brown eyes tugged at his heart, tearing it apart, piece after piece. And suddenly, his resolve was in shambles. If she asked him anything, he’d comply.

  Maxim gestured with his arm for her to pass. They settled on a couch in his den. Deanna didn’t bother to remove her coat. It was going to be a short visit. Not a good sign.

  Deanna folded her hands in her lap and kept her gaze on them. “I wanted to start off by saying how incredibly sorry I am about the…test.” Her eyes held tears. “I found out minutes before you did.”

  “Wait a minute. What do you mean?”

  Her shoulders dropped with a sigh. “It seems my assistants conspired to fix the two of us up. Something about your letter made them ignore how…imperfect we are for each other.”

  Imperfect. Nobody and no relationship was perfect—if his own parents were any indication. “Deanna…” He scooted closer, hesitant to hold her hand. “I don’t care about the score.”

  Her brows rose in surprise. “You don’t?”

  He shook his head with a grin. “We get along well, don’t we? That score, in my opinion, was wrong.”

  She closed her eyes and looked frustrated. “That’s the thing, Maxim. It isn’t. It’s a—”

  He took both of her hands in his, and her eyes flew open. “I know what it is, Dee, and I know what we have. What we can be with each other. I…” He swallowed, fear erupting in his belly, its vines stealing his courage. Struggling against the tightness in his chest, he forced the words out. “I don’t want to divorce,” he said quietly.

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. “We have to. What about your brother? Your position? My business?” She snatched her hands back and stood. “It’s too much. Too many complications.”

  Maxim sprang from the seat. Capturing her head in his hands, he crashed his mouth onto hers. Her lips clung to his, and they wrapped their arms around each other. The kiss turned sweet and tender, and for a long time, they stood embraced.

  Eventually, Deanna released him. “That was goodbye.”

  The words dropped like the weight of his baby grand piano sitting in the corner across from them. Had he heard her correctly? Did she hear what he had said? “Deanna, I…I don’t want to divorce.”

  “I have to tell everyone the truth.”

  “What really is the truth? If you ask me, you’re afraid of falling in love again.” When she retreated a few steps, he followed. “You had a…horrible experience, and you’re afraid of what’s happening between us.”

  “No…”

  “Yes! Deanna, for the first time, I’m not running. I don’t want to run from my problems. Yes, marrying you was running, coming to America was running. But that stops now.” He jabbed a finger toward the floor. “No fear.”

  Her bottom lip trembled until she sucked it in. “It isn’t real. I can’t be real.”

  She slipped from his grasp and was inside the open elevator before he got to it. “Deanna!” Maxim came to a stop. A man stood in a corner of the elevator.

  One he’d seen before. In the hall of the hotel where he and Deanna were married.

  As the doors closed, the man grinned.

  Chapter 24

  Maxim’s expression broke her heart into a thousand pieces. Fear, shock, desperation. Had she made the right choice?

  He wanted their marriage to work. He was willing to try, to stand beside her no matter what. He was right. She was afraid. Would it have mattered if she’d married someone who was one hundred percent her match? Would she have run out on him as well?

  Deanna slumped against the corner opposite the only other person in the elevator. It was sort of strange he hadn’t gotten off at Maxim’s suite. She thought this was Maxim’s private elevator.

  Maxim…

  How she had let him down. And as the elevator descended, so did her heart into a dark pit that terrified her more than Maxim stripping her heart bare. She’d feared failing so much she had sabotaged her relationship with a man willing to give her a crown and be with her for a lifetime.

  Hallmark would slap her in the face.

  Even if she wanted to make it work, how could she go back after rejecting him yet again?

  Deanna released a heavy sigh. Rita and Grace would be right behind Hallmark. Her reputation, her business…were they really worth losing, possibly, the true love of her life?

  Her chest tightened as her heart calcified. Her phone buzzed, and she saw Maxim’s name. “I want more than numbers…” she said to herself, staring at his name. She wanted the warmth of his arms, the tenderness of his kiss, and his encouraging words. They could do anything together. They could change the trajectory of an entire country.

  Her phone buzzed in her hand. Maxim was calling. She inhaled and clicked the answer button. “Maxim?”

  The man yanked the phone out of her hand and spoke into it. “She can’t talk right now.” He ended the call.

  Stunned, Deanna stared at the man. “What do you think you’re—”

  “The love doctor who would be a princess,” the man sneered. “You will agree to divorce Maxim and never speak to him again.”

  “What?”

  “Prince Maxim will marry Princess Leonor, and they will rule Degonia. I urge you
to agree, or you’ll lose more than your reputation.”

  Ice shot through her spine, and the hairs on her neck went ramrod straight. Was this one of Velin’s men? “Who sent you?”

  “Doesn’t matter. All you need to do is follow my instructions. We have your divorce announcement ready. Leave Maxim alone. Lose his number, forget his name. If you are pregnant, your child will be considered illegitimate and will have no legal claim to the Degonian throne. Have I made myself clear?”

  The elevator stopped on the first floor. Standing between her and the panels, the man hit the button to keep the doors closed.

  “Who is we? Novak? Velin?”

  The man put a phone to his ear. “It is done,” he said before returning the phone to his jacket pocket. “Do not contest the divorce in any way. You will not receive any money. Do not speak to the press. This whole affair is over and done with.”

  She crossed her arms. It was one thing to make the decision herself, it was quite another to have it forced on her. She didn’t care for it when Jelena had suggested it, and she wasn’t about to be threatened by some unnamed thug either. “And what if I don’t?”

  The man produced a small blade. “Then I’ll have to insist you come with me.”

  He opened the doors, and flashes of light blinded her.

  “Dr. Pearson! Dr. Pearson! You’ve returned from your honeymoon early. Is the marriage over already?”

  “Dr. Pearson! Are you and the prince happy?”

  “Dr. Pearson! The king of Degonia hasn’t acknowledged your marriage. Is it true you left the country without a title?”

  “Dr. Pearson!”

  Deanna covered her eyes, and when they finally adjusted to the light, she noticed the man in the elevator had disappeared. She tried to push her way through the crowd of paparazzi as they continued to pepper her with questions. Even the press believed her marriage to Maxim was over.

  Love follows no rules. You can’t predict where and how it happens.

  Deanna wanted nothing more in the world to believe the truth of Dr. Allen’s words.

  “I…” She swallowed to wet her parched throat. “The prince and I will be divorcing. We were erroneously matched, due to—” She wanted to admit the human error, but it wasn’t an error. Rita and Grace had deliberately set her up with Maxim. “It was my fault,” she said and pushed through the rest of the crowd, ignoring the follow-up questions that rang in her ears. Her erratic heartbeat made her feel cold all over and sick to her stomach.

  Paparazzi blocked her exit through the front doors, so she ducked into a stairwell and out the door. An alarm blared, confusing her senses. Off-balanced, she crashed against the brick side of the building.

  Her phone. That guy still had it. Deanna covered her eyes with her hand. She couldn’t go to the police or they’d open an investigation. If Velin—or Novak—could find her, then they would know she went to the police.

  She rushed down the alleyway and onto the sidewalk behind the building. She hailed the first taxi she saw and gave the driver the address to her office. On the drive back, she pondered who had sent that man to threaten her.

  Novak? He certainly wanted Maxim to marry Leonor. But was he willing to take a life to secure the Malenkov dynasty?

  Velin. No way he wouldn’t send someone to kill her.

  Did it matter? It would be all over social media in a second that she couldn’t match herself like she had declared.

  And she didn’t care. Not about her reputation.

  She cared about Maxim. He would’ve seen it by now. And she couldn’t explain it to him or risk his position. She loved him too much.

  Love.

  She hoped Maxim knew that if circumstances were any different, she would stay—and that she loved him.

  Chapter 25

  Maxim hadn’t expected her to immediately go to the press and announce their divorce. He was on the phone with the concierge to stop her from leaving the building when the call was disconnected. His elevator had stalled on the first floor, forcing Maxim to run down way too many flights of stairs. Then his phone rang as his knees were feeling the impact of the concrete steps.

  Deanna had announced her divorce to reporters. She was finished with their relationship. He could plead with her again and make a grand gesture, but Deanna had to want it as much as he did. No matter how their last kiss felt, Deanna was more stubborn than he had anticipated. Nothing he could say would change her mind.

  At that, Maxim made the arduous trip back to his penthouse. What faced him below was a horde of reporters, and until the building could get security under control, he wouldn’t venture out.

  But that wasn’t all. His lawyer had come across some information about Velin that Maxim had to act on immediately if he wanted Novak to remain on the throne.

  And that meant leaving DC and Deanna behind.

  Two hours later, Maxim settled into his seat on his private plane just as another message from his lawyer came through over email.

  Velin was financially strapped.

  That hadn’t surprised Maxim. The man was without a country to rule, released from his royal status with a measly annual pension he probably ran through in a month’s time while trying to bribe members of the Degonian parliament to support his agenda.

  And that’s exactly what was going to be his undoing.

  His lawyer had uncovered documents, provided by confidential sources, that would be the undoing of the party Novak’s birth father ruled. Multiple members were caught up in one of Velin’s business schemes in direct opposition to ethical standards. Revealing it would be the end of over a dozen careers. The country would be in flux. Special elections would soon follow. It was enough information to revoke Velin’s and Leonor’s diplomatic status and kick them out of the country.

  It would also mean revealing the Crown’s incompetence at leadership.

  And, if Velin chose, he could reveal Novak’s parentage out of spite. Novak would be forced to admit he knew he wasn’t a Malenkov and remained in power. He could face criminal charges. Maxim still couldn’t see any way around that one. The new parliament would likely vote on what to do with Novak and Jelena, after the criminal justice system had their say. The crown would pass to Maxim, and he’d rule Degonia without Deanna. It wasn’t ideal. The consolation of Velin being deported, Maxim already knew, wouldn’t be enough for the storm about to be unleashed.

  The plane’s phone rang, and Novak was on the other end. “Novak. I’m taking off.”

  “Are you returning?”

  “Yes. I have some information—”

  “Good, because Velin didn’t buy the story about you and Deanna divorcing.”

  Maxim snorted. “Has he checked social media? Because she practically held a press conference in my building announcing it.”

  “She did?”

  Maxim’s eyes burned. He was still heartsick over it. “Yes,” he said quietly. “She thought the obstacles against us were insurmountable.” He substituted his pain for anger. Why couldn’t she trust him?

  “It might be all for nothing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Velin has revealed to our press that I am not a Malenkov.”

  Maxim felt like he’d just been punched in the gut by his kickboxing trainer. “What?”

  “He made good on his threat. The people are calling for me to be arrested. I am holed up in the palace with Jelena. Parliament is sequestered to vote.”

  “What about your father? Velin would’ve had to betray him to make his story plausible.”

  “He has. I thought Kostav and he were on the same side, but Velin has proven he’s willing to destroy whatever relationship he’s developed for ultimate power.”

  “Don’t worry, brother, I think I know why.” He quickly explained what his investigators had uncovered. “Velin owes money to the opposition that brought him down.”

  “That’s the reason he lost the throne.”

  “Yes. While the rest of the world believed their c
ountry was evolving past a monarchy—”

  “It was all over the money.”

  And Maxim had enough money to save his family. Novak, Jelena, and their child would want for nothing if the worst were to happen. “When I return—”

  “I hope you’re ready for the crown.”

  “That won’t happen, Novak. You will remain king.”

  Novak chuckled sadly. “I can’t, in good conscience, stay, brother. I must abdicate to you.”

  “I don’t see why!”

  “Please try to understand. The people will lose confidence in me. And…and I’m not a Malenkov. Honor and duty above all, brother.” Maxim’s heart quaked as his brother continued. “You are ready to be king. You have trained in both the military and in business. The people could not stop talking about your return and the work you will do for the northern villages. I am and will be proud to call you my king.”

  “Don’t do anything until I get there,” Maxim said through a thick throat.

  “I can’t say I have a choice.”

  A tear escaped, and Maxim angrily wiped it away. So much was out of his control. Out of their control.

  It was the life they were born to.

  “At least you’ll be able to pick your queen now. I…I know that’s no reward.”

  It wasn’t since he’d already picked the one he wanted without anyone’s permission. “Hold on, Novak. You hold the crown to your head, if you have to.”

  Novak laughed. At least one of them could be jovial. “I love you, baby brother. You have made me and our father proud. You will make this country even prouder.”

  And he would make Velin pay.

  Chapter 26

  By the time Deanna had reached her office, reporters were already outside. She had the taxi circle around back. With her coat over her head, she ran into a back entrance and into Rita, who had figured she’d return by that route.

  “Why the heck haven’t you been answering your phone?” Rita asked in the back stairwell.

  “It was stolen.”

  “Stolen?” she cried, eyes wide.