“That I’m an asshole?”
“That I understand. All this, it m-made me understand—” Her voice broke. “Just how much I hurt you that—”
His fists clenched against his sides. “Shut up.” Because hearing her talk about that night—it just made him relive the pain.
“I love you so much,” Tiara choked out. “I love you, Arkane, but this—”
“Just fucking leave,” Arkane snarled.
Because as unbelievable as it was—
He was the one who had planned to shame her, and yet, here she was, making him feel like she was about to break his heart all over again.
“You’re like a p-prince, do you know? I told you that y-yesterday, remember?”
Was she now going to butter him up before kicking him in the balls?
“It’s not because you’re rich and hot, but b-because you’re noble—”
“I just tried to fucking shame you,” he gritted out. “So stop pretending—”
“I know about her, Arkane.”
He whitened.
“I know why you guys broke up.”
I’m sorry, Ark. I didn’t tell you until it was done. I knew you’d try to stop me, and I couldn’t afford it. I still have my whole life ahead of me.
“And so for you to go this far—”
I don’t blame you, Mirabella. But I don’t want to see you again. I can’t. Not after what you did to our baby.
“Just to hurt me—”
She was crying so, so hard now that it should’ve been impossible for him to understand her.
“How c-can I have the right to fight for you—”
And yet he did.
“—if I’m also the reason you’re doing all these things that’s not n-noble?”
Every fucking word.
But for some reason, he just couldn’t fucking move.
Even with Tiara reaching up to yank the little crown—thetiarahe had chosen to shame her, the one that he intended to ask back so he could give it to Mirabella—off her head—
“A princess isn’t meant to turn princes into frogs.”
She pressed the tiara to his hand, the small weight of it cold against his palm, but it was as if pain had stolen his very ability to think.
“And I’m—I’m s-so sorry for hurting you that night.”
And then she was turning away.
The crowd swallowing the sight of her.