Vicious Prince (Royal Elite, #5)

by Rina Kent

When I first married your father, the doctor told me I couldn’t have kids because of my immunodeficiency disorder. Four years after, I found out I was pregnant and begged your father to let me bring you into the world. Nine months later, you came along,

“The cancer started when you were

around eight and we thought we got rid of it back then, but it came back last year. That’s why we’ve been going on those trips, mon chou. You’re so young and lively, and I didn’t want to put this burden on you.”

“The doctors said I only have a fifteen per cent chance of survival, and I failed on a fifty per cent chance before, so we don’t have much hope.”

“I’m not doing chemo again.” “She’s refusing that.”

“The therapist says to be there for her without making her feel weak.”

In the early morning, I go to Lars and tell him we’re calling a truce so he can tell me all he knows. Apparently, on that nightmare night, Mum and

Dad didn’t leave me because of a Halloween party, but because Mum had intense pain, and as soon as they got to the hospital, she was admitted and diagnosed. All the overseas trips were to a private clinic where Mum had to stay with her regular doctor. The reason they came back after the last surgery is because Mum couldn’t take staying in the hospital anymore and wanted to be with me. Her depression has been reduced since they returned, which her doctor says is a good sign, but they won’t know anything until the test results come out.

He’s suffering as much as her. Why do you think he has that scoundrel taking care of business? It’s so he can devote all his attention to your mother.”

“She left with his lordship.”

Teal sent me a letter then went somewhere with Dad? Why would she do that?

I’m a fraud, Ronan. I didn’t get engaged to you because of Dad’s company, although that did play a part. I got engaged to you for other reasons, and all of them have to do with the pain I refuse to let others

For me, the pain started when I was born as a prostitute’s daughter. Knox and I begged to go

school, but she barely let us. All our mum cared about was drugs and money to get those drugs.

She didn’t care that we heard everything or that we hid so we never got in the way of the men who left her room. Over time, she got clients who weren’t interested in her cunt, but in seeing her children naked. Or rather one client.

He came in the dark when we were asleep and made us strip. When Knox cried, she hit him and said either we do as instructed or we wouldn’t go to school. So we did. We removed our clothes and stood in the dark as that man was making those sounds of masturbation.

Of course, I was clueless to that fact back then. I was so naive that I told Knox maybe he was in pain. My brother told me to shut up because he understood what was going on before I...

Then, that client disappeared, and that was that. I thought it was...

One night, I was asleep and I felt something wet and ...

If I cried, she’d throw me and Knox out for that man to take with him. I stopped crying that day.

The second night, his filth was all over my bare skin. Then it was on my face. I didn’t ever speak during those nights. I stayed still until he finished. I stayed still until I felt his hot liquid, because that meant it was over.

Knox found me one night when the man was sneaking over to where I slept. He hit him on the head, took me by the hand, and we ran. W...

We were running so neither Mum nor that man nor the people who worked with her could find us. I didn’t cry, though, not even when Els...

At least, in that basement, we were away from Mum and that man.

He was an important man and he didn’t speak like the people in Birmingham.

After Ethan took me and Knox in, I made it my mission to find that man from my nightmares. The man who perched on my chest every time I slept. I searched for him everywhere, but I was too clueless and too young;

The little girl who was violated over and over again never left me.

The thing is, we met under the wrong circumstances, Ronan. I didn’t approach you for you. I approached you for your family name. I approached you because you’re the son of the man I decided to kill. Your father took my life, and now I’m taking his.

No it will be the uncle, she'll have them mixed up

but I can’t live in a world where scum like Edric Astor exists.

The whole process went off without a hitch. I had to stop and stare in my rear-view mirror a few times, expecting to find police cars following us. There aren’t. The trip to the forest takes me less than fifteen minutes.

No one has witnessed the man beside me, his eyes closed and his entire body slack.

When I called Edric for a meeting, I told him it was urgent and about Ronan. He immediately agreed. Then, I drove to his mansion in Knox’s Range Rover — I left him a note about it and kind of suggested he get a new car.

So, I asked Edric if he was okay with joining me in my car because I didn’t want to talk about it in his house. Once again, he didn’t suspect anything as he slid into the passenger seat.

The moment he looked down to click the seatbelt into place, I jammed the needle I’d already prepared in his neck,

Since I decided to kill him, I’ve been arranging my dominos one by one. I knew how I’d kill him and how I’d get there. I’ve been watching videos about intr...

My medicine of choice is rocuronium because it’s paralysing, fast, and long-lasting. It’s also prescription only, but when I asked Agnus if he could find a way to get it, he brought...

The drug took effect on Edric within a minute. I still remember the confused expression on his face

after the sting of the needle as he slowly turned around. He didn’t understand what had happened.

With the dose I gave him, I have around twenty to thirty minutes until he regains complete consciousness. Sure, I could’ve found a poison, injected him with it, and ended it there. But that’s too peaceful, too easy.

His limbs start twitching and so do his lids. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that means the drug is slowly starting to wear off. I have another needle at the

ready so when he meets his end, he won’t be able to move a muscle.

His eyes are open, but he can’t turn around to look at me.

You didn’t just steal my childhood — you also took away Ronan.

While you were engrossed in your paedophile activities with me, your own son got molested.”

Edric, Ronan was molested during that Halloween night he dressed up as Dracula and you left him alone. That’s why he’s so overly joyful sometimes. It’s his

defence mechanism when the memories become

too much, just like it’s my defence mechanism to run, to prov...

I can’t live in a world where Ronan hates me. I can’t be out there after killing his father and knowing the pain I caused him.”

He doesn’t answer. He can’t.

Edric and I might have some issues — okay, a lot, and all of them have to do with his stiff personality and the way he stole Mum away from me — but he’s not a paedophile. He’s not sick. Besides, he was too busy with Mum during the time frame Teal described. He didn’t go to Birmingham, and he never spent ten minutes away from Mum.