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‘I’m on a volunteer roster.’

‘Are you telling me you don’t get paid?’

‘Your father provides everything. Clothing, food, accommodation.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘And I have no need to carry cash.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Because I have everything I need here in the palace.’

He recognised the last two as direct quotes. The controlling prick had said the same thing to Alex back in the day.

I’ve given you everything and you better be grateful for it.

He’d had to earn his title of Crown Prince. He’d literally been bled to be made worthy. But Alex had got away and damned well made his own money because he refused to be controlled in that way. Why hadn’t she?

‘Well, you wanted to be a princess,’ he said coolly.

‘I never asked for that.’

‘But you took it.’

‘I was sixteen. How could I refuse—?’

‘With words.’ He glared at her. ‘You could have left the second you turned eighteen and—’

‘You’re devastated I didn’t.’

‘Because you should be doing what you want, not endlessly circling in a goldfish bowl you never had to be stuck in.’

She could go to work in another museum or a gallery or teach history if she was so enamoured with it… Except he knew that because of their bloody parents she was intrinsically entwined with his family, and being royal by association did make her vulnerable. Either his father hadn’t bothered to realise that, or worse, deliberately kept her that way. Though she’d let it happen. She’d liked the title, the lifestyle, the luxury…until now, when his father had asked for too much.

‘If you’d moved on, this video would never have happened,’ he grumbled.

‘Two minutes ago you said it wasn’t my fault, but now you blame me for it because of my semi-public princess profile. AI-generated revenge porn can happen to anyone.’

His skin felt too tight for his body. ‘Who wants revenge on you?’

She hesitated. ‘All the people who don’t think I deserve to be here. People who think I’m stuck up and that I don’t deserve the title of Princess. That I’ve done nothing to earn it.’

She was aware of the occasional online criticism, then. He curled his fists.

‘People like you.’ She met his gaze squarely. ‘You might hate your father, but I owe him. He was good to me when my mother died and he’s been good to me since.’

‘Yet ever since then he’s not paid you for the many hours you work and now you have to marry one of his lecherous friends,’ Alex growled. ‘So maybe he’s not that good. Maybe he’ll toss you in the dungeon if you deny his wishes. Feed you to the dragon.’

‘There isn’t a dungeon in the palace.’

‘That you know of,’ he muttered, bracing against the goosebumps lifting on his skin. He refused to shiver at the recollection that had no right to rear up into his head this second. But it reared large and forced the bitterness to leak out. ‘You don’t believe me? Haven’t you just realised what he’s really like?’

Hadn’t she seen the unacceptable coercion and control Domenico wielded?

‘Don’t think he’s incapable of it,’ he whispered. ‘Honestly, he’s capable of far worse.’

‘You hate him that much?’ she asked.