Princess

Chapter 19: Under The Table

Ariadne

I aced my SATs. I graduated summa cum laude from Johns Hopkins University. I survived the MCAT. I was the top of my class at Harvard medical school. I lived under constant public speculation. I was always overshadowed by my older brother's general perfectness and my younger sister's beauty and accomplishments. I stomached my father's infidelity.

And yet walking away from Damon Hale felt like the hardest thing I ever had to do in my entire life.

How did something so ridiculously wrong feel so undeniably right?

He was a player, a complete womanizer. He'd have his way with me and then toss me aside without a second thought. There was no way I was going to subject myself to that kind of person.

But I wanted him so badly. I splashed some water on my face and avoided Damon until dinner. It was the six of us and Dean tonight, so the lavish dining room was filled with incessant chatter.

To my surprise, Damon came up behind me and pushed me closer to the end of the table. He took his seat at the head of it and motioned for me to sit right next to him. I raised an eyebrow. He had been avoiding physical proximity to me like the plague and now he wanted to sit next to me?

That was dangerous.

We both knew that we had pretty much no self-control around each other and being in such close proximity led to an air of immediate carnal desires.

Cautiously, I took a seat and looked around to see if anyone noticed. Robyn gave me a little smirk but nothing further. The dark wood of the table matched the sophisticated surroundings, dimly lit and so enormous that I had to repeat myself often and lean in to hear what people were saying.

I loved the weekly dinners so much—a chance to see all my family. Bella, Francis, and Christian were so busy all the time and while Bella and Francis kept limits for themselves and worked more reasonable hours than my brother, Christian was almost always working. Always. He was on his phone, doing whatever it was he did.

It was only when Robyn covered his wrist with a gentle hand that his gaze darted up to hers for a moment.

"Work," he answered simply.

"It'll still be there later, Christian," she promised.

After spearing her with a heavy look, he set his phone down on the table and raised his hands in surrender. She laughed gently and I didn't miss the hint of a stolen smile on Christian's face. Robyn Hale was magic with my brother. Letting her go was the worst mistake of his life.

We laughed and talked together, looking through the photos from Bella's wedding, skipping past ones of Damon and I dancing. But Christian subtly forwarded himself a photo of Robyn just smiling at the camera sweetly and she paused a moment too long on one of them together.

My heart caught in my throat when I looked at Bella and Francis.

They were so similar yet so different. All her life, she'd always been so beautiful that she didn't seem real. But she was real and so much more than that—she was the most loyal person I knew. When Bella decided she cared about you, absolutely nothing could stop you from feeling the sheer force of her love and affection.

And Francis? God, he was something else. He was quietly the strongest person I'd ever known. The definition of strength, and character, and resilience. The person everyone hoped their kids would become one day. One of the best people I knew.

He'd been afraid to live his life properly, always on edge and always on guard. Then, Bella came around and taught him how to love without constraints, without thinking that it was going to be taken away from him. And that was just what he'd done for the past nearly ten years now. He loved Bella like there was no one else in the whole world.