Paid to Leave, Pregnant With the Vampire Kings Heirs novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Sealed Archive

Ambrose had promised to stay quiet until I wanted him to speak.

He kept the promise for exactly as long as it took for the hall to stop shouting.

Then he stepped into the aisle beside me, and the room fell silent in a wave, because it was the king.

"By the old law," he said, "an accused wife may ask for the king's hour before she is tried."

Ottoline's smile came back, thin.

"Ambrose, darling, that's a law nobody has used in two hundred years."

"Then you'll find it where it's always been. Open the book."

A clerk at the foot of the dais turned pages with shaking hands and nodded.

"It stands, my lady," he said. "One hour."

"One hour," Ottoline agreed. "And then the Concord sits."

Ambrose put his hand at the small of my back, and we walked out through the side door with June running to catch us up.

In the corridor, he stopped.

His hand had a tremor in it that I had never felt before.

"The archive," he said. "Where Ottoline's file is kept. My aide said only the regent can open it."

"She won't."

"She doesn't have to." He held up his hand, and the dark ring caught the light. "The king's ring opens every door in this house. I never needed to know, because I never asked what was behind them."

June frowned.

"Why now?"

"Because my aide found a drawer of severances. Nine of them, in the Trust's own ledger, over two hundred years." He looked at me. "Nine wives. Paid. Gone. I want to see the names, and I want to see why the regent seals them."

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