Just Like That (The Kings)

Thousands of miles away and he was still fucking things up for me.

I had planned for the sunset dinner to be special for Hazel. I was prepared to lay my heart on the line and my cards on the table.

I wanted her and Teddy in my life, forever.

When I saw her wearing my mother’s necklace, the blood drained from my face.

What were the chances he’d given two women identical necklaces?

The entire concept irked me, but given the fact we had already discovered he had an entire family we didn’t know about, I couldn’t put it out of the realm of possibilities.

Even if my father had given Olive an identical piece of jewelry . . . why?

Hazel’s amber eyes were wide and worried. I took a step back, reeling from being confronted with another painful memory from my past. I was used to stuffing those feelings in a box and leaving it at that, but with Hazel, I was continually bombarded with old wounds. It wasn’t her fault, but the reality was that her sister and my family appeared to be more connected than I’d assumed.

I leaned back against the rail of the deck and exhaled. Hazel was stunning in her slinky black dress. It was as though it had been made to hug her curves and show off her feminine shape. The diamond cluster necklace was the perfect, elegant addition. It was no wonder she’d chosen to wear it.

With champagne still in her hand, Hazel twisted her fingers nervously, and I reached out for her. “Hey, come here.”

She stepped forward, and I placed both of our glasses on the table before wrapping her in a hug.

“Why do things have to be so complicated?” she whispered.

Her pained words were a knife to my heart. I looked down at her, tucking a wisp of hair behind her ear. “Nothing is so complicated that it changes anything between us. It’s just . . . odd.”

Hazel toyed with the necklace, looking down at it with a frown. “Are you sure it’s hers?”

I gestured vaguely at the sparkling necklace. “The cluster of six diamonds. Six diamonds for six kids. It’s in almost every picture we have of her before she was gone.”

She swallowed hard and emotion was thick in her voice. “Oh my god.”

The muscles in my back were tense, but I tried to keep my touch tender. “Giving your sister money to keep her pregnancy quiet was one thing, but a diamond necklace? Why would he give her that?”

Hazel shook her head and scowled. “And why would she keep it?”

We were both at a loss, holding each other and trying to make sense of it all. Nothing seemed to fit.

The sun was slowly sinking behind the mountains and casting the deck in delicate shadow. Hazel stepped back, reaching behind her neck and unclasping the chain.

With it balled in one hand, she held it out. “Please.” When I didn’t move to take the necklace, she closed her eyes and stepped forward. Slowly, she reached for my hand and opened my palm, gently placing my mother’s necklace in the center. “Please take it. It was your mother’s. You should have it back.”

I stared at the necklace, wrapping my hand around it to feel its delicate weight. I carefully opened my palm and removed the necklace. “It was your sister’s.” I leaned forward and clasped the necklace around her neck before adjusting it so it lay correctly against her perfect, creamy skin. “It’s a piece of herself that she left for you, and I won’t ever take that away from you.”

Her hand rested across the necklace. When she gathered the courage to look up at me, her face was creased with worry. “Are you mad?”

I could breathe for the first time in what felt like forever. “Of course I’m mad, but not at you.” I cupped her face. “Not even a little bit. I will figure this out.”

I did what I could to salvage our last night in Italy. Hazel was a little quieter than usual, but as we watched the sun sink into the ocean, I held her close. Together we lost ourselves in quiet moans and heavy sighs. We used each other to forget the heaviness that had blanketed our evening.

On the plane ride home, I used the hours to attempt work. My mind kept wandering—to Hazel, to Teddy and the impending paternity results, to Mom. An ache in my chest had formed overnight and was still dogging me.

I rubbed it absently with the heel of my hand, hoping I wasn’t having a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism or something equally inconvenient.

All the while I sat at the table and stared at Hazel. She was curled up in the bed at the back of the plane. After we ate, I urged her to get some rest, and after very little protest, she’d fallen asleep quickly. Her strawberry blond hair fanned out behind her, and her hands were tucked under her chin. Her body was curled into a delicate ball, and every cell in my body wanted to wrap myself behind her and let the world slip away.

Instead, I sighed and refocused on the laptop in front of me. Veda had done a beautiful job of handling most of our affairs, but my unread emails were still hovering in the thousands. I rubbed my eyes and picked up my phone. It was late—or maybe early?—but I texted Veda anyway and smiled when she responded almost immediately.

I glanced at Hazel and sighed.

That was it.

The final nail in the coffin of King Equities. Envoratu was a multi-national alcohol distribution company. Landing them as a client had been my biggest success to date.

Envoratu had used King Equities to buy failing distilleries and breweries to become the force they were today. When they first came on, the company had owned a number of brands, businesses, and assets that were not in the core alcoholic drinks category. My idea was to streamline—become laser-focused on one category and dominate. The company gradually disposed of unnecessary assets to focus on beverages as its core business.

They’d made billions because of me, but it was all for nothing. The more companies that exited as clients, the faster the rest would leave.

As painful as it was to admit, soon there would be nothing left to salvage.

I didn’t wait for Veda to respond and instead turned my phone to Do not disturb and closed my laptop. I glanced at Hazel and the few feet between us felt like too many. With a few quick steps, I strode over to my girl and nestled in behind her. Dreaming, she barely shifted, but her body melted against mine.

I looked down at her for long enough that anyone would consider it creepy, but I didn’t care. I placed a kiss on her bare shoulder and rested on the pillow beside her. Outside of the airplane window, life was barreling forward, but for the next few hours, I wouldn’t allow anything but her to matter.