Chapter 156
Claire’s POV
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“Are the children safe?” I asked, after answering the call. I was safely in my guest bedroom with the door closed. I shouldn’t be overheard here. Though if something had happened to Leo and Nova, I was ready to run through the house screaming for the armies to amass, if necessary.
“The children are safe,” Gideon said at once, calming my fears.hat’s not why I called.”
I couldn’t imagine what else could be so important. Though, I realized now, he would have no idea where I was and what I was up to. He wouldn’t know he was calling me while I was in the heart of the King’s palace. I wasn’t going to tell him, either.
“What’s going on then?” I asked.
“Be angry at me if you want,” he said, which wasn’t a good start to the conversation, already putting me on guard. “I’ve been looking into Ivan’s history.”
“That was unnecessary,” I said, my tone biting, my annoyance clear.
“I found something that should interest you.”
I shouldn’t even be curious. I should tell Gideon goodbye, or just hang up the phone. But…
Something inside of me – maybe the tiny part of me that still trusted Gideon – told me to hear him out.
“I’m listening,” I said.
“Ivan was likely in love with the former Luna Queen,” Gideon said. “The Luna Queen died tragically many years ago, but when she had been alive, she looked just like you.”
I should hang up the phone. I shouldn’t listen anymore. But what Gideon was saying lined up with what the Alpha King and Ivan could have been talking about. Maybe that made me more open, when I should have been closed off to the idea.
Instead, I found myself asking, “How do
you
know?”
“I have a photo of the former Luna Queen.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean, how do you know that Ivan was in love with her?”
“Magazines and newspapers at the time reported on it. It was a scandalous love triangle. Plus, some servants and friends at the time confirmed it. From what I can tell, it was an entirely one–sided love. Ivan first lost her love to the King, and then lost her permanently when she died. Claire, I think he could be trying to replace her with you. You need to leave him.”
If this was true, then the Alpha King could have been talking about that with Ivan earlier. This could be the important context that I had been missing from that conversation.
On the other hand…
“Rumors and scandal magazines aren’t proof,” I said. “You can’t ask me to upend my life because of something someone might have overheard or lied about in the past.”
“But don’t the rumors bring up questions? Isn’t that alone reason enough to step back and reconsider things? Why would you want to be with a man who wishes you were someone else?
Rumors wouldn’t be enough to convince me. Even what I overheard the King and Ivan talking about wasn’t proof.
“That’s not what is happening here,” I said, feeling suddenly defensive. Maybe because I worried he was right. Or maybe that
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Chapter 156
small measure of trust I had for him only went so far, and he was stepping well beyond that now.
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In matters of life and death. I trusted Gideon. But I did not believe him when it came to matters of the heart. He had hurt me too many times. Likely, now, he was only trying to break Ivan and me up for his own selfish gains. I wasn’t going to allow myself or my situation with Ivan to fall victim to that.
This wasn’t some game to me. This was my life.
“Claire, if you could only see –”
“You will not convince me without concrete proof,” I said. “And even then, I might struggle to believe you hadn’t just made something up.”
“I wouldn’t do that –”
“I don’t believe you,” I said. “I’m trying to build something with Ivan, and you only want to see that destroyed. You are purposefully trying to stir up division between Ivan and me. You want us to break up. You probably want me back under your control again.”
“It’s not like that –”
“I’m not going to listen to one more minute of your lies,” I said, properly fired up now. My blood was pumping, my adrenaline churning. In this moment, Gideon was an enemy of my future happiness, and I wasn’t going to allow him to defeat me. Not this time.
Never again.
“If you have substantial proof, I will hear it,” I said. “Anything short of that, I simply will not listen to.”
“But, Claire –”
“No,” I said firmly. “Goodbye, Gideon.”
He tried to say something more, but I was done listening and hung up. I tossed my phone at the bed, annoyed by it. Then, with a huff, I plopped myself down on the edge of the bed.
I allowed my anger to fester a moment, grumbling about how Gideon was trying to stick his nose where it didn’t belong. This self–venting was very calming, and after a few moments, I had calmed down a substantial amount.
I pushed most of what Gideon had said straight out of my mind, one hundred percent believing that he was just trying to stir up trouble between Ivan and me.
Except…
The Alpha King had also mentioned to me that I bore an incredible likeness to the woman Ivan had loved and lost. If this mysterious woman had been the former Luna Queen, then surely there had to be a picture around the palace of her.
If I saw her for myself, maybe I could understand why others were concerned about this. It seemed silly to me. After all, how close could a likeness to a woman I didn’t know truly be?
Leaving my room without my phone, I set off in search of a portrait of the former Luna Queen. I walked down the hallways. stopping now and then to exam the women in the portraits I saw
None of them looked like me.
“Claire!” Ivan called from down the hallway.
I stilled, frozen in shock for a moment, before turning and forcing a smile.
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Chapter 156-
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Ivan and the Alpha King approached me together. I didn’t want either of them to know what I had truly been up to just now.
“What are you doing?” Ivan asked. His tone wasn’t accusatory, more curious.
“I was just looking at the beautiful pictures,” I said, only slightly hiding the truth. This wasn’t a lie, I had been looking at the pictures. I just didn’t tell him what I had been looking for.
Ivan glanced at the portrait in front of me.
The Alpha King did too. “Ah. So much of my lineage hangs on these walls. It is good of us to remember the past now and then.” He glanced at Ivan. “But not to be lost in it.”
Ivan turned away.
The King looked at me once more. “Claire, I have decided to approve the match between you and Ivan, if you are still certain that is what your heart desires.”
My heart, not so much. But my mind was still sure.
I wasn’t going to allow Gideon to ruin this for me. He’d already ruined so many other things.
“I’m sure,” I said and wished I felt more confident. I sounded so, at least.
The Alpha King nodded. Curiously, his expression softened with a hint of sadness. He didn’t show it for long, however, before he returned to being stoic.
He said, “Then you are free to move forward with your wedding plans.” He tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I hope to be included on the guest list, and will expect my invitation soon.”
