* * *
That bastard. He’s making it extremely difficult for me to make alternate plans in America without tipping him off. I think I’ve found a way around it, although it will involve trusting the men closest to me more than I’ve ever trusted them before. They’ll have to outright lie to their immediate superiors if questioned, which could put their own well-being at stake should Aksel ever discover their duplicity. I’m thankful I still have men loyal to me who’ll take the risk.
* * *
It’s tedious business trying to outsmart a paranoid king.
* * *
Sander
Chapter Eleven
Machinations
This is where it all gets perilous.
I’m in the United States on official royal business, attending meetings that have been on my schedule for weeks. Nothing about my trip here should send up red flags to the king and queen barring the fact that Chey is in Seattle, too close for comfort I’m sure as far as Aksel and Helina are concerned.
I managed to get out of Latvala with only my personal security attached rather than the extra men Father wanted to send along ‘for safety reasons.’ They wouldn’t have been there to do anything except spy on me and report their findings.
Valentina tried to strong-arm her way into accompanying me, a fiasco of gigantic proportions I narrowly avoided. The little witch appealed to my father and mother, too, attempting to go over my head to get what she wanted.
I won in the end.
Tomorrow I’m flying on a separately hired plane to surprise Chey at a Halloween party. It’s the perfect place to go undercover so that I’m not recognized by members of the public. I want to find out why she didn’t show up at the café and why she hasn’t attempted to contact me since she gave me the note.
There’s an underlying current at work here and I intend to uncover the truth.
Sander
* * *
Bad Blood
The entire charade has gone sideways. Things are far worse than I could have ever believed, so bad, in fact, that I am now actively plotting to take the throne from the king. He and Mother have betrayed me in the worst way, used me to advance their agenda (which shouldn’t be surprising, yet I never expected them to go this far), and have proven themselves to be lower than snakes.
This is the game they want to play? Then let’s play.
I found Chey at the Halloween party as I’d planned and maneuvered her into a quiet corner to keep her surprise at a minimum. She confessed that she had been waiting for me at the café as planned, but my father sent henchmen to intercept her. He abducted her in broad daylight (probably paid off the café workers, or outright threatened them) and took her to the dungeon.
To the dungeon. As if this was the fifteenth century and she a political prisoner.
Aksel visited Chey in person and explained that if she didn’t do as told he would arrange an accident and take her life. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he said that he would make sure I was the one who found the wreckage.
My own father. My flesh and blood. To get his way, he was prepared to resort to murder.
I cannot fathom it. Can’t wrap my head around the duplicity and manipulation. I knew he was capable of bad things, but this is another level of evil. He gave Chey no choice but to leave the country immediately. I don’t blame her for running. And that’s not all. It’s not the worst of it.
Aksel also informed Chey that Viia was not responsible for the maid’s death. Viia did not order the events that led to Chey nearly being poisoned and killed.
Mother did.
My mother arranged every last detail and covered her tracks with scapegoats. Elise probably had no choice but to do as ordered and wound up with a bullet between her eyes for her trouble.
These events have irrevocably changed my relationship with the king and queen. There is no going back. I’m ashamed to be of their blood, humiliated to know the evil that runs in their veins also runs in mine. The only recourse is to strip my father of the throne. It is more important now than it ever was.
Although I carry their genes and their blood, I refuse to lower myself to blatant murder. History is rife with stories of arranged deaths all in the name of control. Some stories have been proven and written about at length; others are whispers in hallways and back-room rumors. It happens even today. Humans of modern society have not had their lust for power bred out over the generations; they’ve only become craftier at hiding the truth.
I’m appalled. No, I’m—I really have no words for what I feel.
Chey admitted she suspects my mother and father to have been behind the scenes in Monte Carlo and I have to agree. The entire thing was staged to drive a wedge between us. It almost worked. The men who took Chey back to Seattle told her that I ordered her to go, while the team with me said she’d fled of her own accord, that she couldn’t handle the stress.
When that didn’t keep Chey away, my father decided abduction and threats of death were in order.
Unbelievable.
My brief visit with Chey in Seattle was interrupted by news of an accident with my father. This is where I am now, on a plane to Latvala, unsure of what news awaits. I have been informed Aksel is not dead, so I am not currently king.
No matter what I find when I get there, I will be king soon.
The machine is turning. All that’s left is to put the pieces in place.
Sander
Chapter Twelve
The Ruse
* * *
A sprained ankle is the ruse my father used to forward his own twisted agenda. We all came rushing in from the far corners of the earth believing he was on his death bed, only to discover the old man hobbling (and not convincingly) around on a cane with his foot wrapped.
* * *
In my absence, during the days I spent in the States on business, my father officially arranged my marriage to Valentina. They set dates, made announcements in all the right papers.
* * *
The citizens of both countries now know I am to marry Valentina Novak in two weeks’ time. As with every royal wedding, it is cause for great celebration, a fact my father was counting on when he went behind my back. He knows that set-in-stone plans are all but impossible to break without damaging my good name, not to mention the scandal that will befall our family. Valentina will, of course, play victim should I attempt to cancel the ceremony, and the media will eat it up. The citizens I have worked a lifetime to win will question my judgment and my honor.
* * *
It is imperative that I corral my anger and use their own plans against them. I await a piece of information that might turn this entire ordeal on its head, though what I am planning might ultimately end in my ruin. Outcomes are never guaranteed in situations like these, but I am working hard to close every loophole and cover my ass. Either way, this event will be a very public spectacle, and I have sent Chey a cryptic note via personal carrier to let her know things are not good here. I dared not spell out exactly what is going on lest the message be intercepted, and can only hope she trusts me and realizes I have backup plans.
* * *
It’s a lot to ask of anyone, considering I’m going down the aisle with another woman.
* * *
Sander
* * *
The Twist
* * *
Overnight, unbeknownst to the rest of us, the king secreted himself away with a band of trusted legislators and made a decree.
* * *
If I do not follow through with the marriage to Valentina, Kallaster Castle, my birthright, will be bequeathed to none other than Paavo. You could have heard a pin drop in the conference room when Aksel dropped that bomb. Not only did he put his threats to strip me of the throne in writing and bound it into law, he skipped right over the second in line to the throne and gave it to someone who least deserves it. Paavo is no more fit to rule Latvala than the stray cat who comes to visit me every morning up in my room. Paavo is moody, ill-tem
pered at times, quick to make wrong decisions, and has no respect for the people. He is one of those who believe the only inherent value of a Latvalan citizen is how they may serve him. Paavo is more his father’s son than any of the rest of us.
* * *
It was clear Paavo was as shocked as we were by the way his chest puffed with importance. Not long after, calculation replaced the surprise in his eyes. I managed to deflate him somewhat with my announcement that I would go through with the wedding. Everyone expected me to after the decree, because what heir in his right mind would give up the throne? Very few heirs throughout history have walked away from a seat of power.
* * *
It’s now critical that I see my own plans to fruition lest I be saddled with Valentina for the rest of my life.
* * *
Sander
Chapter Thirteen
Secrets
* * *
It has been an incredible strain to keep the knowledge of what my parents have done to myself. I have wanted to confront both Aksel and Helina but now is not the time. I cannot let them know that I’m aware of the death threats against Chey, although I have stayed awake at night, pacing my suite, anxious to get the confrontation over with. I have no doubt that I’ll hear variations of the same theme I’ve heard too many times now: choosing a wife is a political business, making a connection with Weithan Isle is a solid move for Latvala, and so on.
* * *
Anger simmers inside me, however. The more I think about Elise, Monte Carlo, and Chey in the dungeon, the more I want retribution. I tell myself that my current plans are that, yet something inside me seeks more. More damage, more emotional payback. I’m not certain either one of my parents are capable of being emotionally manipulated, and I’m not sure what kind of man it makes me to want that. I’m not usually prone to games and machinations like they are.
* * *
I have to get control of this festering need for vengeance before it gets the better of me.
* * *
Sander
* * *
These Games We Play
* * *
Valentina has gone to extreme lengths to entice me into bed before our wedding. I found her draped in a chair in my bedroom this evening, dressed in nothing more than a flimsy scrap of lace. She must have used her new status as my fiancée to bypass security and waited until I walked in the door to begin her seduction scheme. There was wine, a food platter, classical music. She smiled with her red mouth and inched a sliver of material off her shoulder, as if she thought that might lure me into action. She’d turned down the covers on the bed, turned down all but a few mellow lights.
* * *
I took off my suit jacket. Threw it over a chair.
* * *
Her eyes gleamed.
* * *
Cuff links next. Sleeves flipped to my elbows.
* * *
The way she squirmed on the chair turned my stomach sour. But I approached. Slow, predatory, not a care in the world.
* * *
“We have all night,” Valentina whispered when I was within touching distance.
* * *
I braced a hand on the table and on the arm of her chair. Leaned down until my mouth was within an inch of all that red lip paint.
* * *
“You have all night,” I said. “I have work.” I confiscated the wine bottle and the glass meant for me. As I poured myself a drink on the way to the door, I ignored Valentina’s gasp of indignation and the sudden volley of curses that ended the moment I exited the suite.
* * *
She will not entrap me.
* * *
I know the reason for her desperation. It is the very thing I will use against her to win this battle.
* * *
Sander
Chapter Fourteen
The Other Woman
* * *
Everything in me rebels against these wedding plans that I do not want. It has taken all of my self-control and determination to deal with fittings, discuss the procession of events at the ceremony, and entertain honeymoon ideas when I know there will be no honeymoon. I haven’t pretended to be happy, because I would be fooling no one. I have been barely tolerant of the proceedings, exactly what Mother and Father would expect of someone whose hand is being forced into marriage.
* * *
I often wonder what Chey is thinking, what she’s doing. I wonder how she received my cryptic note and how she will react to seeing me take vows with another. She’s strong, but is she strong enough to withstand the pain I’m about to deliver? I know it’ll hurt, especially if she does not correctly interpret my note.
* * *
Hurting her is the last thing I want to do. She deserves better. I’ve come to understand during all this that I am in love with her, despite the turmoil and chaos that have gripped the latter part of our relationship. These desperate days are about protecting her, protecting me, even if I can’t explain that to her in person.
* * *
I am looking toward the bigger picture, the one where she and I get a chance to make a life for ourselves.
* * *
She’s worth it.
* * *
Sander
* * *
Vows and Lies
* * *
Today I am going to perpetrate a blatant act of deception, not just on the woman I love, but on my country. My family. I am going to wait at the end of an aisle for a bride I do not want, and repeat the vows that will bind us for life. Those words will be some of the hardest I will ever have to say, the lies some of the worst I’ve ever told.
* * *
I know the woman I love will be watching on television, half a world away, probably crying and cursing me to hell and back. This deception is necessary to save the things I hold most dear: my title, my lands, and her.
* * *
I can’t tell her that it’s her I’d rather promise myself to, that my station requires me to play these sinister games. I can only hope the betrayals and lies don’t cost me everything.
* * *
For now, the church awaits.
* * *
Sander
Chapter Fifteen
The Fraud
* * *
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I am now a married man. Only Mattias and a few others know the truth, which is how it will stay until the time is right to present the evidence I have amassed against Valentina and expose her for the fraud that she is. I cannot publicly bring my father and mother to ruin, not in the way I plan to with Valentina, but they will get the message sure enough. My best revenge against the nefarious plots of Aksel and Helina is to undermine them at every turn, deny them their goals. Otherwise, it would mean dragging the Ahtissari name through the mud, and I cannot do that. I am already taking enormous risk with the scandal that will befall us after I denounce Valentina. The media will exacerbate the incident as they always do until the furor reaches a fever pitch. I have to be satisfied, for now, in denying my parents their plans.
* * *
But I have not, and will never, forgive them.
* * *
Valentina sleeps alone tonight, her wedding night, as she will every night hereafter. I told her in no uncertain terms that I will not join her in bed, a fact that drew her into a righteous fury (as if her anger would convince me when her wiles did not). Although she thinks she has trapped me into marriage, she is not satisfied with that. She thought vows would secure her a place in my bed, force me to consummate our union so that she had a cover for the secret she carries.
* * *
Valentina has a lot to learn about forcing me to do anything.
* * *
She will find out soon enough why I have abstained.
* * *
Sander
* * *
Midnight Flight
* * *
I am on my way to the States to pick up Chey. She has no idea I’m coming. I�
�d like to think that she’ll welcome me with open arms; that she’ll somehow instinctively understand I’m doing this to save us. Save my kingdom. That’s a lot to ask, and I know it.
* * *
Still, I’m determined to make her listen, no matter what I have to do.
Memoirs of a King Page 4
