The piece of bread has melted in my mouth, and I swallow it, the sound loud and intrusive in the middle of the silence.

Before I can say anything, the door to the dining room barges open.

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

24

Aurora

For a second, I’m too stunned to react.

I’m now used to having meals alone with Jonathan and his devious mind and wandering hands. Margot and Tom never interrupt us, which I assume is due to Jonathan’s orders.

So the moment I hear that familiar voice, I get caught into a denial game, thinking this is a play of my imagination. Or even that Harris decided to be an arsehole today.

But it’s neither Harris’s face nor his voice. It’s…

Aiden.

My nephew whom I’ve never officially met, despite begging Alicia to bring him over during her visits to Leeds. She said she would but had never kept that particular promise.

My nephew who called me ‘Mum’ upon first meeting me because he didn’t know I existed in the first place.

He walks inside, a hand shoved in his dark jeans pocket. His strides are purposeful and confident. Just like Jonathan. He’s also a carbon copy of his father, looks-wise. The dark hair and the grey eyes. The proud nose and the chiselled jaw. Even the permanent disapproving look is the same.

And it’s now directed on me.

That’s when I realise the compromising position Aiden has walked in on. I’m sitting on his father’s lap, lips wrapped around his damn finger.

I startle, trying to stand up, but Jonathan holds me tight by the hip. I beg him with wild eyes to let me go. He might be too assertive to care about what his son thinks, but I do. So much so that every second he holds me against him, I’m close to the point of hyperventilating.

He must see the panic on my features, and since Jonathan doesn’t really care about others, I suspect he’ll never let me go. But then, his fingers loosen from around my waist and I use the opportunity to get off his lap.

My breathing shortens as I smooth my dress and touch my hair in a shameful attempt to pull myself together.

This isn’t how I wanted to see Aiden again.

Besides, there’s a tiny part of me that didn’t actually want to meet him. Jonathan was right, the guilt I feel towards Aiden is too big to be translated into words.

I figured that since I moved here, I’d have to confront him eventually, but I never thought it would be under such circumstances.

If he didn’t hate me before, he sure as shit must now.

I should’ve asked Jonathan when he’d return from his honeymoon. Maybe I would’ve been more prepared if I had. Or at least not been sitting on his father’s lap, sucking on his fingers.

Aiden stops a seat away from his father, his lips set in a line, hot fury emanating off him in waves. “What, and I can’t stress this enough, the fuck is going on here?”

I swallow. “It’s not —”

“Did I talk to you?” Aiden cuts me off, his attention still zeroed in on his father.

Fine. I deserve that. Doesn’t mean it hurts any less, though.

Aiden is the last thing Alicia left behind. Aside from me, he’s the only one who shares DNA with her.

And despite looking like Jonathan, I can feel the touch Alicia left in him. That might sound creepy, though, so I don’t dare to voice that thought.

“I’m waiting, Jonathan.” Aiden plants his hand on the table, meeting his father’s gaze as if he’s a rival.

Jonathan’s expression remains neutral. The same blankness he wears so well doesn’t waver. It’s almost like his only son didn’t just walk in on him in a sexual position with his aunt.

This is so fucked up.

“I do not answer to you.” Jonathan takes a sip of his coffee ever so leisurely.

“You answer to your dick then? Is that it?”

My eyes widen, flying straight to Jonathan, kind of afraid about the wrath he’ll strike on his son. The older King continues sipping from his mug of coffee as if Aiden didn’t just say what he did. If he hadn’t spoken aloud, I’d suspect Jonathan didn’t even hear him.

“How dare you bring this whore to the place Alicia called home?”

I bite my tongue, but I can’t let this slide. I won’t. I may feel guilty towards Aiden, but I won’t allow him or anyone else to treat me this way.

Squaring my shoulders, I glare at him, but before I can say anything, Jonathan stands up abruptly, slamming both his hands on the table and meeting Aiden’s merciless gaze with one of his own.

However, Jonathan’s is more intense and the tic in his jaw enunciates it to a frightening level.

“Enough. This is the first and last time you disrespect her under my roof. Do it again and you’ll have me to answer to.”

I grab my watch to stop my shaky fingers from moving. I never thought I’d need Jonathan to stand up for me until I saw it myself.

Not that it forgives anything he’s done — and continues to do — but the fact that he won’t allow anyone, even his own son, to speak to me that way means something.

I don’t know what it is. But it does.

“Remember what you told me last year?” Aiden’s left eye twitches. “The part about how I have no respect for my mother’s memory? Who, between the two us, doesn’t have respect for her, Jonathan? Huh? Because I sure as shit am not sitting with her doppelgänger on my lap.”

His words slam into me, even though Jonathan remains unaffected. My fingers continue their quivering and I clear my throat. “I…I’m going to go.”

“Stay. This is my house and if he doesn’t like what he sees, he’ll be the one to leave,” Jonathan says with his usual authoritative tone of voice, then addresses Aiden, “After all, you didn’t hesitate to marry Ethan’s daughter.”

“Elsa. Her name is Elsa, Jonathan, and she had nothing to do with whatever feud you have with Ethan.”

Stepping backwards, I inch towards the door. Not only do I not want to be caught in the middle of a father-son quarrel, but I also don’t want to be the cause behind it. I don’t want to witness the two people Alicia loved more than the world itself go at each other’s throats.

It’s almost like a fight between a king and the rebel crown prince.