“I’m not worried about your past,” he growled. “I’m worried about you being around to see your future.”
I arched a brow, trying and failing to keep this moment light between us. He had seriously just rocked my world, but I didn’t want him to fall under the charm of protecting me. I was fine on my own. “Are you going to lecture me or make me scream your name again, Whitehall?”
His expression was priceless, but a moment later he grinned. “You like that, pauper?”
I slid my hand over his arm. “Let’s just say I have no problems doing it again.”
Royce leaned down and pressed an excruciatingly soft kiss to my lips. “This time, I’m going to taste you all over, pauper.”
Oh crap, why had I poked the beast?
Because I loved it.
Chapter 13
Anna
Two days later, after mulling over what Royce had told me, I decided to confront Isauros. It had taken a lot of effort on my part to even come to the realization, but if I didn’t, I would never learn the truth.
I just hoped she didn’t shoot me on the spot.
So, I waited until late that afternoon, when I knew that most people in the office would be gone. There was no reason to air our dirty laundry with anyone else that didn’t know, and I knew she hated the fact that we were interwoven at all.
Why was I doing this again?
I thought briefly about letting Royce know at least, but the last thing I needed was for him to show up and try to protect me.
This was my business.
So, I squared my shoulders and pushed open the door to the office. The headmistress was seated behind her massive desk, her head bent over a pile of papers before her and for a moment, I just stood there, wishing things were different between us. She could tell me how my father truly was, what kind of man he had been to her and to my mother. She could share stories of him, maybe even a few that I could laugh at and feel a closer connection to him than I did now.
But we were enemies, at least in her eyes, and I didn’t know how to make her see me as anything but. “Headmistress?”
She looked up and her eyes narrowed. “Miss Komita. This is quite brave of you, stepping into the lion’s den like this.”
I did just that, shutting the door behind me. “Can we talk civilly?”
She chuckled, removing her glasses from her nose. “Talk civilly? Come now, Miss Komita. There is nothing civil between us.”
All right. It was clear that this wasn’t going to work out as I had rehearsed in my head. “I’m here to hear about my mother.”
Something crossed over the older woman’s face. “I do not wish to discuss anything with you.”
Instead of backing up, I took two steps forward. My knees were shaking but I wasn’t going to walk out, not yet. I had come for a reason and she was going to help me. “My mother’s name was Irene. Surely you remember that.”
To my surprise, the headmistress’ shoulders slumped. “I remember your mother’s name. I remember everything about your mother.”
It was the first sign of emotion outside of anger that I had ever seen from her. “You do?”
She let out a laugh. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I remember your mother?”
We weren’t getting anywhere with this conversation. “I only want to know about her. Is that so wrong?”
The headmistress looked at me, her eyes full of emotion. “Once you start digging into the past, Miss Komita, it’s hard to close it once more. There are things you do not know about your mother, about your father, about your birth, and I am not certain you want to hear any of it.”
“You don’t know what it’s like not knowing,” I shot back, desperate for her to understand why I needed to know. “I have no idea who I am! I’ve never met my father, never met my mother, and now I am thrust into this world with no rhyme or reason as to why he wanted me here!”
“He wanted you here so that he could flaunt the fact that you survived, and my son did not!”
The outburst filled the room and I reared back as if she had hit me. Was that what she thought? “Why would he do something like that?”
Isauros let out a harsh laugh. “You know nothing of your father, Miss Komita. Nothing.”
“But he wanted me here,” I stated, remembering my father’s will. He had named my mother specifically, as if he cared about me, about her.
“He wanted you here for a reason,” she said. “If nothing more than to torture me.”
So, she had already said. I swallowed, wishing I hadn’t come in here.
“Besides,” the headmistress continued, her voice low. “You may know the hurt of losing your parents, but you cannot understand the pain of losing your only child, Miss Komita. I held him in my arms and watched him take his last breath. I lived through months of torture, wondering what I had done wrong to deserve my heart being ripped out of my chest, and received no answers. Your father never would forgive me for losing his son, his heir, up until the day he died.” She then rose from her chair, her eyes glittering with anger. “The one thing he could never take from me was the way that little body felt in my arms, the precious moments I had with my son until his life ended. Your father could never take away the feeling of my son moving around in my belly, the life growing inside of me.”
Her words were torture, but I knew they were straight from the heart. I
