Surrogate for the Alpha Prince in a Coma novel Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Lillian’s POV

I left the tea event still feeling confused and more than a little upset. Grayson was back in the room when I entered, sitting at the desk, flipping through papers.

My evidence against Ophelia was somewhat lacking, but I thought since he had been there, he might be willing to hear me out. I knew Ophelia had been a childhood friend of his, but surely, if he knew what she had been planning and doing, he would pick my side.

Ophelia’s words had left me shaken. I wasn’t so sure about anything anymore.

“Grayson,” I said, approaching him. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“We don’t have to talk about anything,” he said, dismissively.

I pressed forward, believing he just didn’t understand. If he knew what I wanted to talk about, then surely he would see this differently.

“It’s about the attack. I know who is responsible,” I said. “I can’t prove everything yet, but I know that -”

“Ophelia,” Grayson said, without looking up from his paperwork.

I froze. “You know?”

“I do. Beta, her brother, figured it out and told me.”

I blinked, confused. If he knew, than surely he was going to punish her in some way, to keep her from doing something like this again. “Are you going to… do… something?” I asked, suddenly unsure.

He still wasn’t looking up. He flipped through one page to the next.

“I’ve decided to give her a warning,” Grayson said. “She won’t do something like that again.”

“She sent armed guards after me. We both could have died.”

He looked up sharply. “I was never in danger.”

“But I was…” I said.

Grayson’s glare went flat, and that hollow feeling I had shaken off earlier returned to my chest, filling me up with

empty spaces.

Ophelia’s words echoed in my head. Do you really think he loves you?

I didn’t think it was love, but I thought it was something. That was obvious now, even as I had tried to suppress it before. Now, I could feel the hurt keenly, cutting right down to my heart.

“When the court hears about this, I’m sure they will do something,” I said. “She could have killed me. That has to mean something.”

“The court won’t hear about this,” Grayson said.

“What do you mean? Surely they will want an investigation.”

“That investigation is being suppressed.”

“I don’t understand.”

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Chapter 86

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“You don’t need to understand,” Grayson said. “Just do as I say, and you will be fun.”

Anger bubbled up inside of me, threatening to spill over. Ophelia had been hostile to me from the start, bullying both physically and verbally. She’d made threats, and now had seen those threats actualized. Grayson had rushed to my rescue, and for that I was grateful, but I could have died. Those attackers did die. Shouldn’t someone take responsibility for that?

Grayson was just going to push it all under the rug? Why? For Ophelia? Because she was Beta’s sister and his childhood friend?

All at once, I felt my place in the world crashing down onto me, making me feel as small as the rest of the world saw me, as unimportant as Grayson must have seen me.

With all that had happened, I thought Grayson might have at least cared for my well-being. Now, as he looked back to his work, totally ignoring me; I wondered if he cared at all whether I lived or died. Maybe he even regretted

his choice to save me.

Maybe Ophelia had been right. Grayson saw me as a burden. Nothing more than convenience.

“You are cold to me,” I said, my chest hurting with something eerily similar to heartbreak.

Grayson scoffed. “We barely know each other, Lillian. I did not pick you. What did you expect?”

Tears welled in my eyes, but I’d be damned before I would let him see how upset I was. Without another word, I turned and went to the door. My tears slipped out, but my back was to him. He wouldn’t have been able to see, even if he turned around.

Not that he would want to look at me. Not that he would worry, or care.

I’d been out of my head to think Grayson had grown any kind of affection toward me now that we were mated.

I could clearly see now that I truly meant nothing to him at all.

Yet, as I walked out the door, I could have sworn I felt the feel of his gaze on me, but I shook my head, shaking away the feeling. I had to be imagining things, searching for affection where there was none because I was so lonely.

I wouldn’t allow myself to believe falsities again.

I walked out of the room.

Hours later, night was beginning to set in, but I still didn’t want to go back to the room I shared with Grayson. Even if he didn’t speak to me, lying beside him in bed would be torturous, especially after what we had done there before.

Could I return to those sheets and not remember the feel of his mouth between my legs? Could I relive those memories without letting my foolish heart get in the way?

Instead, I found a seat in the library, curled up with a good book, and fully intended to stay there, hidden among the comforting scent of books, until morning. I’d sleep here if I must.

At barely nine pm, I was found. Prime Beta, walking past the library door peered in and spotted me. He kept walking but immediately seemed to think again, stopped and came in through the door, approaching me.

I pretended to be busy, reading my book, but I hadn’t read more than the same line over and over six times without fully processing it since I spotted him at the door.

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Chapter 86

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He stopped near me and cleared his throat. “Luna Princess.”

I wanted to ignore him, but even angry and hurt, I couldn’t bring myself to be that unbearably rude. I marked my page, lowered my book, and looked up.

“Hello, Beta,” I said, trying to be polite, even if my half-hearted attempt at a smile failed halfway through.

Beta seemed uncomfortable, his gaze dodging about. He didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands, moving from rubbing them together to stuffing them into his pockets, before finally holding them behind his back so he looked like he was at attention.

“What is it?” I asked. “Is everything alright?”

“It is,” he said. “I just…” He cleared his throat. “I wished to speak to you. To apologize. On my sister’s behalf.”

Whatever good mood I had gained since leaving Grayson immediately snuffed out.

“Surely she isn’t sorry,” I said. “She’s hated me since I arrived here.”

“She intended to scare you, not actually hurt you,” Beta said. “Grayson misunderstood.”

“They tore my dress,” I said. “The knives were real. Those rogues were rogues.

“Then perhaps Ophelia hadn’t given her orders clearly enough, or she trusted the wrong people.”

“You are making excuses for her,” I said.

“She wouldn’t want to actually hurt you,” Beta said, and sounded like he believed it.

I shook my head. “Believe what you want, but I know what I know. Ophelia tried to have me killed. You can be sorry, but I know she isn’t. And I won’t forgive her or anyone else who covers for her.”

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