“None of this would have happened if I had just stayed.”
“Stayed and been miserable for the rest of your life.”
Nodding, Kerry leaned forward and rested her head against Landon’s chest, taking solace in the steady beat of his heart. It was like an anchor in this whirling sea of chaos she had found herself in.
“Do you have any food here?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you go relax in a shower or bath or whatever and I can fix something up?”
Astonished, Kerry jerked her head up, almost nailing Landon in his chin.
“You cook?”
“There is more to me than meets the eye.”
“I know that. I just. . .it was unexpected. I guess maybe I should try to reach out to my parents, at least so they know that I’m alright and that they’re being ridiculous.”
“I was going to suggest that.” She watched as Landon reached onto the counter for his phone and handed it to her. “Use my phone. Just in case.”
Kerry leaned onto the tips of her toes and placed a gentle kiss on Landon’s cheek as she took the phone. Thanking him she made her way back to the bedroom she planned to use as the master. In the distance, she could hear Landon banging pots or pans around in the kitchen and decided it was best to make the phone call first.
Despite not knowing Mary’s phone number off the top of her head, Kerry remembered the royal advisor’s number like the back of her hand. Dialing the number, Kerry sat on the edge of the bed and stared out at the lake through the window. The sun was setting over the property and cast the water and trees in an orange hue.
The phone rang a bit longer than she expected, but then she heard the nasally voice of Heath, her parent’s advisor.
“Heath Longfelt speaking, advisor to His Royal Majesty,” he said. The man’s voice was causing Kerry to wince. She didn’t know how her parents could listen to that sound on a daily basis.
“Heath, please put me through to my father.”
“He’s occupied at the moment.” Kerry realized that Heath assumed that she was one of her many siblings.
“He needs to be unoccupied if he wants to know that his daughter is safe.”
The little weasel huffed and then placed her on hold, the only sign being the standard music playing the background.
“To what do I owe this midnight interruption?” her father asked as he answered the line. Kerry didn’t know why she expected a warm greeting of any kind, but the cold-hearted and ruthless greeting was a bit off base, even for him.
“Hello, father.”
“Karolyna?” he said. A chip in his hardened heart evident in the tone of his voice. Maybe he cared after all, even if just a smidge.
“I just wanted you to know that I’m safe and that you can call off your manhunt.”
“Let me get your mother.”
Kerry waited a moment for her mother to come on the line, then repeated her statement to call off the news reports and hunt for her.
“Is this because of the ultimatum?” her father asked and Kerry rolled her eyes at the question.
“The ultimatum was the last straw, but I’ve been unhappy for a long time. I just needed to get away.”
“You’re a future queen. You can’t just run away!”
There was her father’s temper. She knew it wouldn’t take long before that would rise to the surface.
“Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I don’t want to be the queen.”