Chapter 7 No.7

Edris walked fast, heading for the hotel gardens. She needed air. The confrontation had felt good-too good. It was intoxicating to finally wield power over the man who had destroyed her, but she knew the blowback would be swift.

"Edris! Wait!"

Clement was jogging after her. He had abandoned Bailee in the lobby.

He caught up to her on a secluded stone path lined with frosted pine trees.

"We need to talk," he panted.

Edris stopped and turned. "I think you've done enough talking. Or was it moaning?"

Clement winced. "It was a mistake. Bailee... she was upset. She needed comfort. One thing led to another. It meant nothing."

"It meant nothing," Edris repeated flatly. "That is your defense? That betraying your fiancée with her own sister meant nothing?"

"You've been so distant lately!" Clement accused, trying to flip the script. "Always busy with charity, with the wedding planning. Bailee... she listens to me. She understands the pressure I'm under."

Edris laughed. It was a harsh, brittle sound. "She understands the pressure? She's never worked a day in her life, Clement. She understands how to stroke your ego."

"Don't talk about her like that," Clement snapped. "She loves you. She feels terrible about this."

"If she loved me, she wouldn't be sleeping with you."

"We didn't sleep together!" Clement lied. The lie was so blatant it was insulting.

"Save it," Edris said. "Here is how this works now. We are a business arrangement. Nothing more. You do not call me. You do not visit me. We appear together for the press, and that is it."

"You can't do that. Our parents-"

"Let your mother talk to my father," Edris cut him off. "I am done playing the doting fiancée."

"Sister!" Bailee's voice drifted from the path entrance. She was running toward them, tears already streaming down her face.

"Oh, perfect," Edris muttered. "The encore."

Bailee threw herself at Clement, clutching his arm. "Clement, is she angry? Tell her I'm sorry! I'll leave! I'll go back to the convent!"

"No one is going to a convent," Clement soothed, wrapping an arm around her. He looked at Edris with defiance. "See? She has a heart. Unlike you."

Edris looked at the two of them. The Prince and the Pauper Princess. It was pathetic.

"Keep her," Edris said. "She suits you. You're both cheap fakes wrapped in expensive packaging."

She turned to leave, her phone buzzing in her pocket.

She pulled it out. A text from her father, Senator Finnegan Mcclure.

Suite. NOW.

Edris stared at the screen. The real trial was about to begin. Clement was just the warm-up.

She looked back at the couple one last time. "By the way, Clement. If I see that foundation on you again, I won't just cancel a photoshoot. I'll send the photos to the Queen."

Clement went pale.

Edris walked away, heading toward the lion's den.