She tied up her damp hair while instructing her chauffeur to meet her in the underground garage in the least conspicuous vehicle. She could hear the man’s confusion, but he obeyed.
And then she was on the road. The black SUV with highly tinted windows was rolling through the gates and away from the palace.
Every atom in her wanted to look back. Wanted to look at the home she’d had with Vasili. Wanted to look for him.
Distance grew and it felt wrong. It was all wrong. They shouldn’t be apart. But she needed to do this for herself. To give herself a chance at a happy life. She felt as though a thread was rapidly unspooling between them, going taut as they reached the end of the road and then snapping free completely when they turned the corner.
Helia covered her mouth to stifle the sob that bubbled up. She could no longer see the palace. She wouldn’t see her husband again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VASILISQUINTEDAWAKE. Bright sunlight fell across his bed through the open curtains, nearly blinding him. He rolled over, his hands on the cool sheets beside him. He had slept in his old room to give Helia space. Space that he’d hoped she would use to rethink her decision. She wanted to leave, and yet the days leading up to the coronation banquet had been perfect.
They’d kept to the agreement.
But now that very agreement might have cost him his queen.
She wouldn’t have left in the night, he reasoned. Not with so many people in the palace. Perhaps he would be able to speak to Helia. Find a workable solution.
Throwing the covers off, he got out of bed and went about readying himself for this conversation. He didn’t feel prepared for it, but it had to be done.
The palace was quiet when he stepped out of the room. So vastly different from the night before, with all the people, the music, the bright lights. It was as if a sombre hush had descended—but maybe that was a reflection of his own mood.
‘Helia?’ he called, knocking on the door to the room he had left her in the night before, but no answer came.
So he stepped inside and found everything exactly in its place.
Unease crept down his spine.
He opened the bedroom door and found the same. A bed that hadn’t been slept in. There was no sign of her in the bathroom either. He rushed out of the room, moving towards the interconnecting door. Maybe she had needed to sleep elsewhere, just as he had. But again he found nothing in the sitting area. The only evidence of her was her discarded dress and the jewels on the bed.
Vasili rushed to the room she had used before she became Queen, feeling more desperate, more frantic with every passing second. And when he found no sign of life at all in that room, he pulled out his phone and called her.
‘Damn it, Helia, pick up!’
But it went straight to voicemail.
It was obvious what had happened. He could feel it in his bones. In the silence.
Helia had left. She had said goodbye, and now she was gone.
He dropped onto the edge of the bed, his elbows on his knees, head hanging. If she didn’t want to be reached he had to respect that, but it didn’t stop the worry that was breaking him.
Was she okay? What if something happened to her?
She was the Queen. If anything had happened he would know. He told himself to hang on to that thought.
When she was ready, they would talk. When she was ready, he would lay out the terms of a new agreement.
Except he couldn’t. He refused to be dictated to, but this time Helia had seized control. This time Helia had decided the terms, just as he had been doing before.
He curled his hands into fists. Of course she was unhappy. He had made her that way.
Vasili felt numb. Dead inside. As if a black hole had opened inside him, sucking away all the joy, all the happiness, leaving him empty. With a pounding headache.
‘What have I done?’ he whispered to the empty room.
Helia looked out of the window of the small mountain cabin. Filtered green-hued light poured into the modest lounge. Tall, lush trees stood on all sides of the little dwelling. There wasn’t another person in sight. She was alone. As she had been for days.
