Rise of a Queen (Kingdom Duet #2) by Rina Kent

“What?” I expect him to squeeze my throat for good measure, but his fingers loosen until he’s almost caressing me.

“She…she said you were poisoning her. You were trying to kill her.”

I expect him to deny it, to tell me I’m wrong, but he continues studying me with that calculative gaze of his. I wait for his words with bated breath, but they never come out.

“So?” I whisper.

His face is covered in that blankness that I can’t get past, no matter how much time I spend with him. “Where are those recordings?”

“In my car.”

“Where in your car?”

“In my glove box.” I’m bemused. “Why is that the main point here?”

He pushes off me, and the skin where his fingers were wrapped around my neck is suddenly hollow and desolate.

The fact that he stopped touching me so suddenly feels wrong. Why does it feel so wrong?

I try not to focus on that as I follow his movements and sit on the edge of the bed beside him. Jonathan places a phone to his ear. “Moses. Search the glove box in Aurora’s car and bring me the flash drives in there.”

Why would he need them?

Wait… “Are you going to get rid of the evidence?”

Jonathan hangs up but keeps his phone in his hand. His expression is still that bland one, but something about it bothers me. The emotions he’s hiding behind his façade seem wrong. “There’s no evidence, because that nonsense didn’t happen.”

“Alicia said you poisoned her in order to kill her.” I probably shouldn’t be accusing him this openly, but it’s out there now, so I might as well hear his take on it.

“I want to hear it for myself.”

“More like you want to destroy the evidence.”

“If I wanted to kill Alicia, I would’ve done it right after she gave birth to Aiden. I wouldn’t have waited until eight years later.”

“Why would you even want to kill her? She was the softest person alive.”

“She was, and that softness ruined her.” The warmth in his tone takes me aback. It’s the first time he’s actually talked about Alicia without his usual impersonal touch.

“What happened, Jonathan?”

“Why do you want to know?” He narrows his eyes on me. “So you can engrave me in your head as your sister’s killer?”

It’s the exact opposite. Despite hearing Alicia’s message, a rebellious part of me refuses to believe Jonathan hurt her or would hurt me. That’s why I want him to talk, so that I’ll be able to murder that part of me.

“I told you my side of the story. It’s your turn, Jonathan.”

“Is that why you ran away and tried to escape?”

I bite my bottom lip.

“You don’t trust me?” Though his voice is calm, there’s an angry undertone to it.

“I trust my sister.”

“You shouldn’t. At least not blindly. She was mentally unwell.”

I puff my chest. “My sister was not crazy.”

His mouth twitches at the corner. “And you wonder why I call you wild one. You look the part right now.”

“If you expect me to stay still while you badmouth my sister, you have another thing coming.”

“I’m not badmouthing her. I’m stating facts that she tried her hardest to hide from you and the world.”

I inch closer to him until my thigh nearly touches his. “What do you mean?”

“Alicia’s father was the King family’s arch enemy. Lord Sterling was out to destroy my father and any legacy he left behind because my mother didn’t choose him. After my parents’ deaths, I decided to destroy him.”

I gasp. “Is that why you married Alicia? For revenge?”

“Yes.”

“How could you do that to her? You tyrant! Brute!” I curl my palm to punch him.

Jonathan cuts me a sharp glare. “Reopen your wounds and I’m tying you the fuck up, Aurora. I meant it earlier.”

The thought of being helpless causes a shudder to overtake me. I let my palms fall to my sides, but he doesn’t stop glaring at me, the sense of injustice on my sister’s behalf enveloping me whole. “Why would you do that to her?”

“She knew.”

“W-what?”

“I told her about my reasons from the start.”

“And…she agreed?”

“Indeed.”

“But why did she?”

“Because she hated her father for your mother’s death and wanted to bring him down. She didn’t have enough power to accomplish that, so I lent her that power and gave her the ability to see her father on his knees. He came to our doorstep, begging us to loan him money to save his business. I made sure no one else would, so his only solution was us.”

“And?” I scoot over, and this time, my thigh touches his. I want to watch his expression closely as he tells me about the past. But it doesn’t change much, except the part where he seems trapped in another timeline.

“She gave him money.”

“Oh.”

“She was that soft.”

“Did you…” I trail off, the question catching in my throat.

“Go ahead, ask. If you don’t voice your question, you might never know the answer.”