my boarding school days in Lausanne, some friends that my parents didn’t approve of flew home with me on breaks. We’d go kayaking around Halencia on weekends. But as you know, the Mediterranean can be choppy when the wind comes up. This lagoon is like glass in comparison.”
They started paddling together and headed out. “I wonder if I ever saw you out there during the few times I came home from boarding school.”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. Do you believe in destiny, Christina?”
“To be honest, until I received the phone call from you that we were really getting married, I believed that I was meant to—” She broke off abruptly. “Oh, it doesn’t matter what I believed.”
He stopped paddling and turned to look at her. “Tell me. I want to know.”
She shook her head. “If I told you, you’d see me as a pitiful creature who feels sorry for herself.”
“You’re anything but pitiful. I want to know what you were going to say.”
Christina rested her oar. She cast her gaze toward Bora Bora. “My parents didn’t want me, Antonio. They really didn’t. The only genuine love I felt came from my great-aunt Sofia, but I wasn’t her daughter and didn’t see her very often.
“I believed it was my lot always to live on the outside of their lives. This became evident when they didn’t put up a fuss about my working in Africa. I was crushed when they sounded happy about my doing charity work there. They didn’t miss me, not at all. Marusha’s parents have been more like parents to me than anyone.”
Her suffering had to be infinite. “That’s tragic about your parents.”
“I was afraid you’d say that, but I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. They were warmer to me at the wedding, especially Mother. You asked for the truth and I’ve told you. As for believing in destiny, despite my pain, I was happy with my life in Africa and decided I’d probably live there forever. The ability to help other people brought me a lot of peace I hadn’t known before.”
“Until I turned your world upside down,” he bit out in self-deprecation.
“It wasn’t just you, Antonio. Elena had already become family to me. When she got into real trouble, I felt her pain. Like you, she led a life of isolation being royal. I can understand why she took up with guys from my world. In your own way, you and Elena have led a life of loneliness. It’s a strange world you two inhabit and always will be. But I was lucky enough to be the friend Elena let in. If I could have had a sister, I would have wanted her.”
“You’re very perceptive, Christina. I originally went to San Francisco to learn business. It was there I worked with normal people. Zach became a true friend and I enjoyed it so much I didn’t want to go home. My parents’ lifestyle was a personal embarrassment to me. But when I heard of the trouble Elena was in, I couldn’t turn my back on her. Forgive me for using you.”
“By phoning you, I used you too,” Christina came back. “Did you really have a choice to do anything but try to draw the paparazzi’s attention away from her? I was the perfect person to help. After all, we were an unlikely threesome, yet no one knew me or knew about me. What I want to know is, why didn’t you break off our engagement a few years later and ask the woman you loved to marry you?”
His jaw hardened. “I wouldn’t have done that to you.”
“You see what I mean?”
Her sad smile pierced him.
“You tried to be like everyone else, but in the end, the prince in you dominated your will. The princess in Elena let you fall on your sword because you were both born to royalty and knew your duty. She wanted you to be king one day.
“Before I phoned you, did you know she wanted to admit everything to the police and take the blame so there’d be no reflection on you or your family? But I wouldn’t let her. I told her I was going to phone you because I knew you could fix things and you found a way.”
“Which involved you.” His voice throbbed. His emotions hovered near the surface. “Let me ask you a question. Why didn’t you tell me to go to hell when I called you to give you the wedding date? You would have had every right.”
She breathed in deeply. “Because your royal dust had blown on me years before. I’m not a Halencian for nothing. My country means everything to me. The engagement we entered into was very bizarre, but it made a strange kind of sense. In fact, the only kind of sense that would satisfy the people.
“I’m positive it would have been hard for them to accept your marriage to a woman from a different nationality as you pointed out. But if you’d wanted it badly enough, you could have made it happen.”
He eyed her for a moment. “When it came down to it, I didn’t want her badly enough to break my commitment to you.”
“Thank you for saying that. I want you to know I’m not sorry, Antonio.”
His heart skipped a beat. “Do you honestly mean it? Even though it meant ending an important relationship with the doctor you met in Kenya?”
“It wasn’t that important. I didn’t want to break my commitment to you either. You and Elena have trod a treacherous path all your lives. You always will because you were born to the House of L’Accardi.
“Elena and I were friends from the age of fifteen. I knew her sorrows. She bore mine. Her greatest fear was that you might end up living in California one day and giving up the throne so she would have to be queen. That was one of her greatest nightmares.”
Good heavens. So much had gone on that he hadn’t known about behind the scenes because of his selfishness in pursuing his own dream. “I didn’t realize...”
“How could you if she never said anything? At our reception, Elena acted so happy we got married that she could hardly contain herself.” Even though there was still something she seemed to be holding back.
“Her happiness went much deeper than that because it meant she wasn’t going to lose the best friend she’s ever had.”
Christina flashed a full, radiant smile at him, stunning him. “Now she’s got both of us and our threesome can go on forever.”
Forever.
* * *
Antonio turned around and started paddling again. There’d been a time when the thought of being married forever stuck in his throat. But no longer. When they returned to the hut, Manu had served their dinner on the deck.
“Tonight you are eating freshly caught mahimahi with coconut rice and mango salsa.”
“It looks fantastic, Manu.”
After he left them alone Christina said, “They’ve gone all out for us. Now I know the true meaning of being treated like a king.”
His blue eyes glinted with amusement as they sat down to eat.
Christina took her first bite. “The fish is out of this world.”
“This is Bora Bora mahimahi,” he quipped. “We won’t be getting
