“Mother, what if he sends home someone I really like?” I asked. “What if he sends home…”
“Amber?” My mother rolled her eyes, having already guessed my answer. “Well, then so be it, Olivier. It’s Bruno’s decision this time, not yours. This is part of the tradition your father wanted you to honor. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “But it doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight his decision if I don’t like it.”
“For goodness’ sake, Olivier,” the Queen muttered, dabbing at her lips with a thick embroidered cream napkin. “You can be so stubborn sometimes. I just don’t understand how you have managed to convince yourself that girl is princess material.”
“There’s no such thing as princess material, mother,” I got out through gritted teeth. “She’s the one I want, so she will be a princess. Whether or not she’s appropriate for the title is my decision. Mine alone. Do you understand?”
She looked at me, her eyes wide and hurt, like I’d hurt her. She raised a hand to her chest and stared at me.
“You really think she’s appropriate for this kind of position?” she asked. “She’s a commoner, Olivier. All the other women… they have titles, money, an education! And what of this girl? She’s a nobody. A no one!”
“That doesn’t make her any less of a woman,” I replied, seething. “Or human, as a matter of fact. Now I’d appreciate it if you stopped questioning my judgement, mother.”
I stood up from the table, throwing my own napkin on the table before walking away. The maid, Fleur, stepped aside with a polite smile thrown in my direction, her eyes cast downward. I liked Fleur. She didn’t take any nonsense, and she did her duties without complaining, adding even more to her plate than she had to do just to please my mother. I rewarded her with a grateful smile as I passed.
Once out in the hallway, I let my simmering anger get the better of me. I was already upset because of Amber, and the news about Bruno overseeing my fate didn’t help matters much. My mother’s rudeness only served to put me in an even fouler mood.
The elimination ceremony was scheduled for that night, and I had a whole day to kill before that happened. I wanted to see Amber, but with the way she’d been acting, I wasn’t so sure she wanted to see me.
But I wasn’t going to let her go that easily, and there was someone I had to talk to before the evening’s elimination.
My feet carried me down the hallway and up the stairs until I reached the help’s wing. This was where my half-brother lived, the poor, unlucky Bruno.
We’d never been close, despite our father’s best efforts. Even my mother, who had despised Bruno as a child, softened up to him when he lost his mother. It surprised me but didn’t change my opinion about the guy.
There was something creepy about him. Something strange that put me off him. I’d never taken a liking, and I’d never tried to get to know Bruno better, and I knew he resented me for it. But it was too late to make a change, and I’d grown accustomed to the idea of the strange boy who always tried so hard with me himself.
Now, as I stood before Bruno’s door, I knew full well what awaited me on the other side. A whole lot of resentment and anger that I was responsible for. But my need to keep Amber in the competition made me stand up taller, knocking on the door.
A moment later it opened, and my brother stood before me, just an inch taller and making me feel every bit of it.
“What do you want?” he snarled when he saw it was me, and I returned his hard glare.
“We need to talk,” I barked in response, pushing past him into his small apartment. No, there’s no love between us.
“What about?” he asked, closing the door behind us and standing in front of it in a classic defensive pose, with his arms crossed in front of his body. “I don’t appreciate you just barging in here like that.”
“You’d better remember who you’re speaking too,” I glared at him. “I am still the crown prince.”
“And don’t you act like one,” he replied with a saccharine smile. “Like a spoiled little boy. Just what you’ve always been, right, Olivier? A brat.”
I took a step forward, but he didn’t even flinch as I got into his face. He just smirked at me, like a wolf does to a puppy, knowing I could never hurt him.
We were born only a few minutes apart to different mothers. I felt those few minutes like a lifetime separating us. And not just that, but an unsurmountable precipice that we could never cross. So we were destined to be this – rivals. Brothers. He was my nemesis, just as I was his.
“Watch your tongue,” I reminded him again. “Mother told me you’re doing the elimination tonight, is that correct?”
“It is. What of it?”
“I don’t care who you send home,” I told him. “But there’s one woman that needs to stay.”
“Let me guess,” Bruno drawled out. “The pretty redhead with the golden eyes. Little Miss Amber Jonathan.”
I glared at him, but he just shrugged, adding, “I heard you got a thing for that one.”
“Whatever,” I got out through gritted teeth. “Just do me a solid and leave her in the running. She’ll be the one standing at the end of this fucking… charade.”
“Charade?” he repeated with disgust. “Is that what you call our father’s dying wish?”
The idea that my dad was his, too, still repulsed me. I didn’t want to be related to someone I’d hated since we were both boys. But if I was being honest with myself, a lot of that hatred came from being jealous of Bruno. He had my father’s attention, after all, splitting Dad’s time for me in two. I’d never forgive him for the moments Dad wasted with him.
“You can send the twins home,” I told him, ignoring his question. “They’re too young to be here. I didn’t know they were seventeen until a couple of days ago.”
“We’ll see.”
His response filled me with anger, and I wanted to smash his face in.
“Just do as I said,” I told him. “Keep Amber in the running.”
“No worries about that,” he scoffed. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t be worried about me keeping Amber around.”
“Why?” I hissed.
“Well, let’s just say you’re not the only one whose eye she’s caught,” he winked at me. “I like the look of her myself. How could I not? That pale porcelain skin, that hair, the shyness mixed with her almost vulgar body, Christ, you don’t expect me to resist her for long. Do you, brother?”
Our eyes connected as I came closer to him, pushing him back without saying a word.
He stumbled backward and started laughing out loud, and I bit back the insult I wanted to hit him with. What did it help to remind him of the fact he was only a bastard? His life was already in shambles, while I always got what I wanted. Always.
I walked out of there, the sound of his laughter ringing in my ears as I walked down the hallway.
I walked into the grand ballroom feeling the bottle of wine I’d polished off in the afternoon.
Drunk off my ass, angry at the world and forced to spend an evening in my mother and brother’s company… Like a fucking recipe for disaster.