Dirty Crown: A Bad Boy Secret Baby Royal Romance (with BONUS book - Rebel Rockstar!)

by Marci Fawn

  16

  Edward

  It takes me a lot longer than Faith to fall asleep because I just can’t stop looking at her.

  She really is the most gorgeous woman that I’ve ever seen, inside and out, and I cannot believe that she’s here with me again. I never want to let her out of my sight again. I never ever want to lose her, no matter what her reasons.

  But I must drift off eventually, because I am woken up very early the next morning with a hammering sound against my door. One that drags me from an amazing dream, where my future is exactly as I want it to be…

  “What the hell?” I mutter sleepily, trying to stand up before Faith is woken too, but the knocking is much too loud for her to sleep through it.

  “What’s going on?” She asks me with fear in her eyes, and I wish that I could do anything to dispel that from her.

  I hate seeing any kind of pain in her face, and knowing that I’ve played a part of it makes me feel sick.

  “I don’t know,” I admit, throwing my clothes on as quickly as possible. “I’ll find out.”

  I swing the door open carefully, peeping around carefully to see who is there and I find myself faced with Marcus so I step into the hallway trying to get this done quietly as possible.

  I really don’t want to wake Lily up if possible. She isn’t too far from this room, and if things get any crazier, she’ll be disturbed.

  “Marcus,” I hiss, confusion plastered across my expression.

  “What’s going on?”

  “It’s your mother,” he tells me, looking in a very obvious panicked state.

  “She’s home, she somehow found out that you brought Faith and that child here so she flew back right away. She’s…” he glances around, looking terrified.

  “She’s really mad.”

  “Oh God,” I groan loudly.

  “How did she find out?”

  “I’m not sure, but you know what she’s like. She knows everything.”

  Someone must have told her. Someone on the staff I imagine. I cannot blame anyone for that, they do need to protect themselves, but I’m annoyed all the same. Couldn’t they have just given us a little more time?

  “She’s waiting for you and Faith now. She wants to speak to you both.”

  “Okay,” I nod carefully while my brain tries to think of a way to get out of this, but of course there’s nothing.

  There’s no escape now. She’s here, she’s waiting for us, so we might as well get this over with.

  “We will be in soon, can you get someone to keep an eye on Lily?”

  “Of course,” he looks physically relieved that I’m not causing a fuss, which gives me some idea of how wound up mum is.

  This isn’t going to be fun…

  I slink back inside, my entire body language shrunken in on myself. I promised Faith that mum wouldn’t be here, that was one of the main reasons that she agreed to come, and now I am going to have to tell her that I was wrong.

  She might think that I lied to her, that I tricked her and she’ll hate me forever.

  “I’m really sorry,” I start, watching her throw her head into her hands.

  “Please don’t be mad at me, I really didn’t know this was going to happen…”

  “What is it?” She asks, in a warning tone.

  “Mum is here,” her face falls and I panic for a second that she might burst into tears.

  “And she wants to speak to us.”

  “God damn it!” She exclaims, jumping upright.

  “Okay, well let’s just get this over with.” She holds my hands and stares into my eyes for just a moment.

  “If we’re really going to be together, then we’re going to have to fight off all of the opposition. So why not start now? We need to make people see that we are right for one another, and you mum is the first person that needs to understand that much.”

  I grin at her, feeling a sense of relief. At least she isn’t furious at me, and she still wants to be with me. I have to be grateful for that much.

  “Okay,” I tell her.

  “Let’s do this, let’s stick together.”

  We walk hand in hand through the hallways, and I try to take stock of this moment – the last second of calm before the storm. I just know that as soon as we face my mum, all hell will break loose and everything will change. I just need to commit this all to memory before it does…

  I guess we will have to go through all of this and hope that we can weather it, and come out of it stronger on the other side. I’m confident that we can, but there’s still an element of fear there all the same.

  We find my mum sitting at the head of one of our massive dining tables, staring at us both with a face like thunder. My heart kicks up a notch and terror starts to flood through my entire body. I start to feel cold and more than a little sick.

  This is bad, this is really, really bad.

  “Take her away,” mum announces waving her hand dismissively.

  Two of her bodyguards come up from behind us, and tug Faith away from me, pulling at her until she’s released from my hands.

  “What the hell…?” She screams loudly as they roughly pull her from the room.

  I try to chase after her but they are much too quick for me. This was preconceived, and I’m more pissed off than ever before.

  “What are you doing?” I yell at mum, tugging at my hair in a panic.

  Whatever I was expecting to walk into, this wasn’t it.

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  “Faith Harper has manipulated you for far too long. I have put her in a holding cell until I work out what I intend to do with her.”

  “What are you on about? Manipulating me? Are you crazy?” I sound hysterical now, and I don’t even care.

  “You can’t put her in a holding cell, she has a daughter. Her child is here…”

  “Yes, she does have a child. You don’t. That child is not yours, Faith is lying to you because she wants money.”

  Mum sounds so sure, it’s as if she’s completely convinced herself that she’s right about this. I don’t know how she can be so sure without even doing any research.

  “Have you even seen Lily?” I yell.

  “She has so much of me in her, there is no way you can deny that she’s mine! You’re acting crazy mum.” I shake my head angrily.

  “I’m going to get her out. We’re leaving right now.”

  “If you go down there, you will be thrown into a cell too,” mum warns with a nastiness in her tone, one that shows me just how serious she is about this.

  How the hell can she actually be threatening her own son in such a way? It’s absolute madness!

  “Then who will look after the child?”

  That stops me in my tracks. I want to help Faith and Lily, and I won’t be able to do either if I’m locked up. I find myself in a very strange dilemma, and I have no idea which way to turn. It seems like I can no longer trust anyone in this whole damn palace, which makes this even worse for me.

  What the hell do I do?

  I suppose that Faith would tell me to stay free to protect our daughter. I guess that’s what I’ll have to do…

  “You can’t just do as you please!” I snap angrily.

  “You can’t just treat people like this.”

  “Don’t you forget your place,” she shakes her head at me.

  “You do not want to lose everything over this girl…”

  “I don’t care about all of that!” I explode.

  “I just want my freedom.”

  “You cannot have your freedom, you know that.” I open and close my mouth a few times, trying desperately to find the right words, but she stands up indicating that the conversation is over.

  Then she lands the final shot.

  “You should get ready anyway. You have a visitor coming this afternoon.”

  “Visitor?” I call out after her, but it’s too late, she’s already gone…

  I don’t know how much I can trust M
arcus anymore, but he’s still the closest thing that I have to a friend in this whole damn palace, so I send him down to the holding cells to check that Faith is okay and to tell her that I’ll take good care of Lily.

  She needs to know so at least she can relax a little bit down there. Of course, she’s going to be freaked out, but I know for a fact that she’ll be more worried about Lily than herself. I hope she understands that I’m going to fix this too. I don’t know how yet, but I will for sure.

  Then I spend the day with my daughter.

  We hang out and we have fun, but it isn’t the same as before. Not only am I much more tense and stressed, but Lily keeps on asking where her mum is, and I don’t know what to tell her. I say that she’s gone out for the day to do something for her job and that she will be back soon, but I’m not sure how much I’m being believed.

  I can already tell that she’s very perceptive, and that scares me, but I can’t tell her the full truth because I know it’ll freak her out.

  I eventually get confirmation from Marcus that Faith is okay and that she knows that I’m looking after Lily, but I still have an unsettled feeling washing over me. Something is really, wrong here, and I’m not sure how I’m going to fix it. I know that I have to, I’m just not convinced that it’s even within my power to do so.

  Eventually, Lily tires of running around like a lunatic and she asks if she can go and play in her room for a while with the toys she saw the night before, I take her there for some quiet play, which gives me a much needed moment of silence for some contemplation.

  “Will you be okay for a moment?” I ask her.

  “I just need to go and get a drink and get some bits done.”

  “I’m fine,” she gives me a little smile that melts my heart.

  “I’ll see you in a bit.”

  I take a deep breath, knowing that a moment by myself is exactly what I need, but as I stumble into the kitchen, I see an overly familiar face – one that I really didn’t ever want to see again – smiling at me smugly.

  “Hello again, Edward.”

  “Kristine,” I reply in a monotone voice.

  “What are you doing here?” This must have been who mum was talking about when she mentioned my visitor.

  Ugh, how can she still be pushing this when she knows how dead against it I am? What’s the point? It’s never going to happen.

  “What do you mean silly?” She giggles, trying to flirt in the sweetest way possible – a façade I didn’t immediately see through the first night that we met.

  “I’m here for the engagement announcement. We will have to do a photo shoot and a press conference – you can’t exactly do all of that without me now, can you?”

  “We are not engaged,” I tell her coldly.

  “You must know my opinion about this by now, I think I’ve made me feeling pretty obvious.”

  “Oh is this because of that silly business at the party?” She laughs, waving her hand dismissively over her shoulder.

  “Have you not forgotten about that yet?”

  “I doubt that poor boy has – the one whose life you tried to ruin over something ridiculous.”

  I spot a flash of anger in her eyes, but she manages to keep it all inside. For now.

  “But no, it isn’t just because of that. It’s also because you aren’t the girl that I want to marry. I have someone that I’m in love with.”

  I know that it’s risky to tell her as much because it gives her something to use against me, but I really don’t care. I just want her out of my life forever.

  “Oh God, love,” she sneers.

  “Don’t you get it? People like me and you don’t get to be in love. We have duty and that overshadows everything.”

  Her face hardens, which makes me feel oddly anxious.

  “Your mum wants us to get married, as do my parents. That’s it – we don’t get a say or a choice. Haven’t you worked that out yet?”

  For a second I feel an affinity with her, it’s as if we actually have something in common, something to bond over, but then she opens her mouth and speaks again, completely ruining it.

  “Oh yeah… of course… you were getting hitched to, and abandoned by, a commoner. That’s how you managed to miss ‘the rules’.”

  Yep, it’s official.

  She’s a total bitch.

  I turn on my heels and walk away from her, not wanting to even be in the same room as her anymore.

  “Just go home Kristine,” I finish.

  “There’s nothing for you here.”

  17

  Faith

  After Marcus comes to visit me in my holding cell, I see no one for what feels like hours.

  I understand that Edward can’t come to see me because he’s looking after Lily, but I’m terrified without his presence there all the same. I pace up and down the tiny room like a crazy person, just waiting constantly on edge, expecting something terrible to happen.

  Then it does.

  “Open it up,” I hear her shrill voice before I see her and my heart drops into my shoes.

  I know that I’m going to have to face the queen eventually if I want to get out of here, but I’m not ready right now. She tossed me in here after all, so it’s safe to say that she isn’t best pleased with me, which is an opinion I really don’t need to face. This all feels bad enough to me without it being made worse. “

  Thank you.”

  As she steps in, she looks me up and down as if I absolutely disgust her. I want to stay strong and proud of who I am, but it’s very difficult when she’s making me feel about two feet tall. She so clearly hates me, and it’s hard for that not to hurt.

  I don’t even feel like she’s given me the time of day to even attempt to get to know me. I’m the mother of her grandchild for crying out loud.

  Why has she decided that I’m the worst thing in the world? It isn’t right and it seriously isn’t fair.

  “I’m very sorry if you don’t find this accommodation suitable,” she sneers at me.

  “But I need to keep you away from Edward. I cannot have you lying to him anymore. You have poisoned his mind enough.”

  Lying?

  Me?

  Poison?

  A red mist descends in front of me and I cannot stop myself from coldly replying.

  “You are the only one who has lied here. You had me threatened, you got me to leave Edward on our honeymoon night, and I’m damn sure that you’ve never told him that.”

  I’m shaking with rage now, really struggling to keep it concealed. How dare she accuse me of doing what she did? That just isn’t right.

  “I’ve protected you by not telling him that, and now I have no idea why. I should have just told him right away to stop myself from getting mixed up in your crazy, manipulative web of madness.”

  “You have me all wrong,” she throws her hand across her chest in what appears to be mock surprise.

  “I am only concerned about all of you. As queen, it is my duty to keep our bloodline pure, which means that we cannot mix with commoners. I’m sorry if you do not like or understand that, but that is just the way that it has to be. One day I’m sure you will finally understand why I had to make the mature decision for all of you.”

  I gulp down the ball of emotion that has lodged firmly in my throat, and I speak out once more.

  “Don’t you think that’s up to Edward?” I ask, trying my very best to sound calm.

  “Don’t you think that he’s old enough to make his own decisions?”

  “Oh he has,” she tells me, with a serious expression on her face.

  “He has picked a suitable wife to marry. Princess Kristine Larson of Norway.”

  “No,” I shake my head, remembering his kind and loving words from last night.

  We promised that we were going to get through this together – there’s no way he was lying to me about that… surely?

  “That can’t be right.”

  I trust him, I really do. There’s no way he would lie
to me like that… that isn’t the man I know at all.

  Then the queen pulls out a selection of photographs that she clearly had stashed on her being, ready for this exact moment, and she hands them to me. I flick through them, feeling sicker and sicker by the minute.

  They are images of him sitting with the most beautiful, aristocratic woman that I’ve ever seen. She has the most luscious, silky black hair and piercing green eyes, and a smile to die for, and in the pictures, they are sitting at a dinner table, laughing happily with one another.

  They really truly match. If I saw a picture of them in a magazine, I would be thinking that they’re perfect for one another.

  She so clearly suits him in every single way possible – much better than I do – and it’s obvious that from the way that she’s dressed that she’s from his world, from his background…

  In reality, she is exactly the sort of woman that Edward should marry.

  A horrible, toe-curling jealousy consumes me, and I start to shake under the pressure of it all. Frustrated tears prick my eyes, and I really find it hard to keep my shit together. I don’t want to fall apart under the strain of this very blatant, manipulative trick, but at the same time, it’s so incredibly difficult to see the love of my life with someone else, enjoying her company.

  Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’ve never known Edward after all… maybe he’s just as bad as his mom, and I’ve been too blindsided by love to realize it.

  If that’s the case, I’ve wasted most of my adult life in live with a man that I’ve never even known.

  Is that possible?

  Could I really have been so duped over and over again? If so what does that say about my judgment?

  “The announcement of their engagement will go out in the next few days.” She continues, while my entire body shatters under the crushing heartbreak.

  Can she not see that I’m crumbling? Can she not sense that it’s time to stop before she kills me? Why is she torturing me?