“You’re wrong about that part,” Nina cut in. “I sent those emails because you aren’t in love with him.”
Daphne’s hands balled into fists at her sides. “I could have you arrested for this. You blackmailed me and manipulated me!”
“Wonder where I learned skills like that,” Nina said drily.
Something flashed in Daphne’s eyes. “If you think he’s going to break up with me for you, you’re delusional.”
Nina thought of last night, when Jeff had reached for her hand and almost, almost said he still loved her. Maybe the idea of Jeff choosing her wasn’t as delusional as Daphne thought.
She shook her head. “I didn’t do any of this because I want him back. I did it because Jeff deserves better—”
“How dare you!”
“—and so do you.”
Daphne sucked in a breath, obviously stunned by Nina’s audacity, but Nina kept going.
“You don’t love Jeff. You love Ethan.”
It was so rare, in modern life, that you got to speak like this to people: with the brutal, unvarnished truth. Even with friends, so many conversations splashed playfully at the surface, stuck to safe topics like academics and mutual acquaintances. With closer friends, you might venture to share your problems or fears. But there was no one Nina could talk to the way she did to Daphne, plunging all the way down to the darkest, ugliest part of the iceberg, to say the truly difficult things.
She and Daphne were able to do this, not because they had been friends, but because they had started as enemies.
She walked slowly around the room, picking up various items—an eyelash curler, a spray of peonies in a bud vase—before setting them down again. Daphne held her breath, as tense as if Nina were prowling the room with a weapon, though the only weapon she had right now was her words.
Of course, Nina knew from experience that words could be sharper than any knife.
“Did Ethan tell you that we chatted a few times while he was in Malaysia?”
“He mentioned it,” Daphne said tersely.
The first time she and Ethan had talked, Nina had deliberately tossed out Daphne’s name as a sort of conversational barometer, curious to see his reaction. Ethan’s eyes had flicked nervously to the side. And when Nina added that Daphne and Jeff were getting serious, he’d flinched.
“I realized that he was still in love with you, and I suspected that you still loved him, too. As for Jeff…” Nina sighed. “I know he was about to break up with you the night of the League of Kings banquet. But the next day, you were back together as if nothing had happened!”
Daphne pressed her mouth into a thin line and said nothing.
“I told myself your relationship was none of my business. Until I found out you were engaged.” Nina swallowed. “That night I lay awake for hours, thinking what a mistake you were making.”
As she sat there with Samantha, reading the press release, Nina had been hit by a wave of outrage. Someone had to stop this wedding. Not because Nina wanted Jeff for herself; even then, before she’d gotten involved with Jamie, she had been weary of the endless back-and-forth between her and Jeff. But Jeff and Daphne didn’t belong together. They weren’t in love—not the way you were supposed to be before you swore to spend the rest of your life with someone.
If anyone was going to make Daphne reconsider this wedding, it had to be Nina. Everyone else in Daphne’s life was too invested in the happily-ever-after of it all. What would Daphne do? Nina had thought, and the answer came to her at once.
Daphne would take matters into her own hands. So Nina would do the same.
The next morning, Nina had grabbed the laptop out of Samantha’s car, well aware that every palace computer was protected by a high level of security and data encryption. She’d taken it straight back to her dorm room, where she’d created a dummy email address and composed the first email.
Nina cleared her throat self-consciously. “I thought that if I sent you some helpful nudges, you might remember how you feel about Ethan.”
“Helpful nudges?” Daphne repeated, incredulous. “You blackmailed me!”
“What other choice did I have? You weren’t exactly going to sit around getting mani-pedis with me, asking my advice about your wedding. I tried to keep the emails from being too scary,” she added, knowing it was a flimsy excuse. “I never said anything violent!”
Daphne’s anger seemed to have melted away, letting other emotions—sadness, and something that might have been a begrudging respect—float to the surface. “I get why you wanted to blackmail me, but why did you go after Ethan, too?”
Wasn’t it obvious? “I hoped that if I targeted you both, you might work together to figure out what was going on. The more time you spent together, the better your chances of realizing that you’re in love.” She hesitated, then added, “Didn’t you have fun at Enchanted Fiefdom?”
Nina had been especially proud of that one. She’d wanted to send them somewhere far enough from downtown that it would take them a while to get home, even once they realized she wasn’t coming—somewhere they might have fun together, on the chance they decided to stay.
She saw Daphne reach the same realization. “Wait a second. You sent me and Ethan to that theme park on a date?”
“Was it a good date?” Nina asked hopefully. “I love that place. My parents used to take me all the time when I was little. My favorite was the magic-carpet ride.”
Daphne let out a strangled sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. When she lifted her face, her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
“You know, I once thought you were my friend,” Daphne said softly.
“I was your friend.” Nina found that she wanted to cry, too. “When I saw you with Jeff in the hospital that day—the hateful way you stared at me—I thought you’d been playing me the whole time. It wrecked me, Daphne.”
“I didn’t play you.” Daphne’s voice was small.
“I know that now.”
Nina had realized as much at the department store, when Daphne had accused her of working with Gabriella. She and Daphne had both imagined betrayal where there wasn’t any.
It saddened her that they’d been so ready to think the worst of each other.
Nina forced herself to apologize. “I’m sorry if I went too far, sending those emails. Clearly I was wrong, since I bullied you and threatened you and you’re still here, ready to marry Jeff. I just wanted to make sure you really knew what you were signing on for.” What you were giving up, she almost added.