Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
“But you can’t fire him. He’s going to tell the truth about…that night.”
“Then let him.”
Let him. Let him say what he needs to, and we’ll see what happens after.
“This is a gamble, Aksel.”
“Life’s a gamble.” I glance at the girls, lost in concentration on their games. But I won’t gamble them.
I undo my seatbelt and get out of the seat, taking a moment to stretch before I crouch down in the aisle beside them, staring at them until they pause their games and take off their headphones.
“What is it Papa?” Clara asks, glancing at me and then Aurora sitting behind me, in annoyance for having interrupted her.
“Girls,” I say in my stern father voice. “I have something very important I need to tell you, so I want your full attention. This is a conversation for big girls, grown-ups, and I need you to listen.”
They nod eagerly. Probably think I’m going to get them a pony or something. They’d have a whole farm if they could.
“You know that I love you both very, very much,” I tell them. “And you know that Aurora also loves you very, very much. But we also love each other very, very much.”
The girls are still nodding. I’m not sure they get it.
I reach back for Aurora’s hand and hold it against my shoulder. “I know no one will ever replace your mother. I know that. But…” I don’t even know how to word this right when there’s still a lot of uncertainty, “I want to be with her in the way I was with your mother.”
Clara cocks her head. “Is she going to become a queen?”
“Jaaaaaa,” Freja hisses. “Goddess queen.”
I laugh. “That’s what I hope.” And that’s all I can say because it’s all that I hope.
“Is she going to live in the palace forever?” Clara asks.
“That’s also what I hope.”
“Will she still be our nanny?” Freja asks.
I glance over my shoulder at Aurora, brows raised. A little help?
Aurora leans forward, smiling. “I’ll be your nanny always. But I’ll also be more than that. Remember when you asked if I had a boyfriend? Right now, that’s what your father is. And I love him a whole bloody lot.”
“But you’ll still live with us,” Clara says.
“I’m not going anywhere. In fact, this might mean I live with you forever.”
“Wait,” Freja says, scrunching up her nose. “Does this mean you’ll kiss each other?”
I grin at her and reach out, tussling her blond hair. “We’ll try not to do it in front of you.”
She sticks out her tongue in disgust.
“But listen,” I go on. “There’s one more thing. You might hear about it from other people and so we wanted to tell you first.”
“When I was young,” Aurora explains, “older than you are, but still young, I got in a lot of trouble.”
“Was it because your dad died?” Clara asks.
“Yes and no. It’s because I didn’t have a lot of love in my life, not like you two. I did some bad things. I stole things.”
“Toys?” Freja already looks like she’s plotting her next move at the toy store.
“Uh, kinda. Anyway, I was bad, and it was wrong, but I was also sick at the time. So I went to jail for a night or two, to teach me a lesson.”
Both girls gasp.
“And,” she goes on, “I learned my lesson. I never did it again. I just wanted to tell you so that you knew the truth.”
“She wasn’t always perfect,” I add, to which Aurora laughs.
“No, I wasn’t perfect, and I’m still not, and that’s fine. I made mistakes and I learned from them, as everyone does. But we wanted to tell you because people might talk about it.”
“Okay,” Clara says simply. “Can we go back to our games now?”
Damn, I wish adults were as easy as children when it came to judgment and forgiveness.
Something tells me we’re in for a rough one when we land.
I can only hope that with us telling the girls the truth, that we have less to hide. I know people will be ruthless and I know that our love is both fragile and new and strong all at once, but after the events of last night, I still have doubts that Aurora is one hundred per cent on board.
But it’s a gamble, like she said. I have to gamble with Nicklas, gamble with the press and gamble that her heart is still mine, that she’s not going to up and run when it gets tough.
Though, I know, even if she did run, I wouldn’t stop running after her.
This woman is my queen.
And she already has my love for a crown.
Chapter 23
Aurora
I was right.
We landed right into a shitshow.
No matter how prepared I was for it, I wasn’t prepared enough because the moment we got off the plane at the private airstrip, we were bombarded by the press. Flashbulbs in my face, shielding myself with my purse and Aksel’s arm, that total celebrity thing.