Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2) by Rina Kent

“I’ll hate you,” I repeat with conviction. “I don’t care if it takes me a month, a year, or a decade, but I will forget about you.”

His left eye twitches and he glares at me as if he’s challenging me to do just that.

To test him and bear the consequences.

I glare back at him, not cowering away.

The air ripples with tension as neither of us break eye contact.

After what seems like forever of staring at each other, he releases me.

My hands fall on either side of me, but he doesn’t get off me. It’s as if he needs the closeness.

And maybe. Just maybe, I need it, too.

I don’t know when Aiden became the only person I always need close.

He just is.

Since he remains silent, I decide to take it into my hands. “The friends you told me about are Jonathan and my father, right?”

It makes sense with all the tycoon part and how they both married mentally ill women. Alicia and my mum were just a part of the King and Steel bet.

He nods.

“You said there was a bet that ruined everything?”

“A business deal,” he says and for the first time, Aiden doesn’t meet my eyes.

He’s staring at my scar through the small opening in my bathrobe. I’m tempted to hide it, but I don’t want to stop the flow.

“What type of business deal?” I ask.

“They often had a bet on who makes more money through gross production during that month.”

“That seems normal.”

His eyes draw a hole through my surgery scar as he speaks. “Jonathan had inside info that Ethan’s gross production would surpass his, and Jonathan doesn’t lose. He had an insider at Steel Factories disrupt production. It was supposed to be a fire in the middle of the night, but the insider messed up. Steel’s coal factory caught fire during the day when many workers were there. There were many human casualties and catastrophic damage to the factory.”

“That sounds familiar…” I gasp. “The great Birmingham fire.”

He nods.

“But, when I read about it in the article, no one mentioned that the factory belonged to Steel. Even the article about the domestic fire made it seem like my parents were unimportant. They didn’t mention that my father owned factories. Granted, I didn’t read the entire article, but still.”

“That would be Jonathan. He controls media in any way he wants to. Besides, Ethan Steel was a very private man. He didn’t get off on attention like Jonathan.”

“Why would your father bury my parents’ death like it was nothing? Wait...” I watch him with wide eyes. “D-did he have anything to do with it?”

He remains calm as he shakes his head. “Jonathan is many things, but he’s not a murderer.”

“Then why did he bury the fire?”

“Because it relates directly to the great Birmingham fire. He didn’t want his name mentioned in a nation-scale tragedy.” He releases a long breath. “Since Steel’s productions were handicapped, Jonathan won that month, but he lost more than money.”

“Like what?”

Aiden’s eyes finally meet mine and they appear glassed over like something is completely dead inside.

“Like Alicia.”

My heart aches at the mention of her name. She was just another pawn in Jonathan and Ethan’s game.

Just like Ma.

Just like Aiden.

Just like me.

I raise a hand and stroke his cheek right beneath the mole. “Do you miss her?”

“No.” His facial expression doesn’t change. “What’s the point of missing someone who’ll never return?”

Ouch.

As much as mentally unwell Alicia was, something tells me Aiden looked up to her. She was the break of pattern between him and Jonathan.

Since her death, Aiden took after his father’s steps.

“She used to sit me beside her as she read her philosophy and psychology books,” he says in a distant voice. “I was her only audience.”

“Aiden…”

“She should’ve died.” His jaw tightens. “She was too fragile and wouldn’t have survived in a world filled by the likes of Jonathan King and Ethan Steel.”

“Is that why you became like Jonathan?”

“I didn’t become like Jonathan, I chose to be like him. People like Alicia are insignificant. One has to be the king to survive.”

For some reason, it doesn’t feel like he’s ridiculing his mother. If anything, he sounds sad when he says her name.

I cradle his cheeks with both my palms and give him a tentative smile. “It’s okay if you miss her.”

“I don’t.”

“I miss my mum, my dad, and Eli. I don’t even remember them, but I miss them. I think I’ve always missed them, that’s why I was having those nightmares. It’s like a punishment for forgetting about them.”

He watches me intently as if I’m about to grow a head. Or two.

Tears fill my eyes as that grief hits me out of nowhere.

I can’t fight it even if I want to.

“It’s weird, right?”

He remains poker-faced, but his hand reaches out to stroke a stray strand of hair off my face.

“It’s not weird to miss people.” He twirls a strand between his fingers. “I think I missed you, too, sometimes.”