Chapter 45

Charming had just left his interview with the New York Times reporter when he saw the receptionist scurry by him. His heart started pounding.

Why had she left her post?

Why had she left the girls alone?

He pushed his way past the cubicles, not stopping in the publisher’s office like he’d been asked to do. They had already let him know what they wanted: they wanted him to write a book under his own name—

Anything you want, Phillips said, so long as it’s fiction. You’re a spectacular writer.

I told you, Charming said, it’s Mellie’s words.

And your ability to make them clear, Phillips said. Not to mention your ability to tell a story.

Charming didn’t want to think about that right now, just like he didn’t want to think about the reporter he saw. At least he’d been able to sway her. Charm had worked beautifully, helped by the fact that she had no respect at all for ghost writers. She was perfectly willing to believe that it was Mellie, and Mellie only, who made Evil work.

Her news story—“An Interview with a Ghost,” she said she’d call it—would go a long way to repairing the damage done by Cindy Jordan. Besides, the Times reporter told Charming, Cindy Jordan had been fired from two stations for embellishing her research. I wondered, when this story broke, if she had embellished here.

And she made it seem like she would check. He would let her. Everything would work out. The tension in the publishing house had eased. Now he just had to tell Mellie, and gather up his girls.

If, indeed, they were okay. The threat from Ella had ended, but that didn’t mean his girls should be left alone in the reception area.

He opened the double steel doors to see Mellie, sitting on the couch, looking a bit bemused. Across from her, Imperia had gone into full imperial mode.

Charming eased the door closed quietly. No one noticed him except Grace. She started to say something, but he put a finger to his lips. Her eyes smiled at him, clearly liking the fact that they had a momentary secret.

“He makes them all feel safe and special and oh, so important, but they’re not,” Imperia was saying. She sounded angry. “They’re just damsels, and he’s just doing his job.”

His poor daughter. He had no doubt these words had come directly from Ella’s mouth, more than once. He had so much work ahead to repair the damage that Ella had done.

“You’re just the latest damsel,” Imperia said bitterly. “There will be another.”

He looked at Mellie. She took a deep breath. His breath caught too. He didn’t know what he would do if she believed this nonsense. She already had troubles because of who he was. She felt herself unworthy, as if he was something special.

He was a divorced dad who owned a bookstore. Nothing more. At least, nothing more in the Greater World. In the Kingdoms, he was even more of a failure. Everyone knew he would never be King, not with his dad hanging on forever.

Mellie tilted her head slightly as if she were assessing Imperia.

“I know that’s what he does,” Mellie said. “And I can’t tell you how grateful I am that he helped me.”

Charming let out that small breath he’d been holding. He hadn’t expected that answer from Mellie. Neither, he noted, had Imperia.

Imperia’s eyes narrowed. He privately called that her “incoming” look. It meant she was going to let something nasty fly.

“What were you doing in our room?” she asked.

“Trying to figure out how to solve a problem with my book,” Mellie said. “We had to have a meeting on it today, and last night was the only time.”

God, Mellie was good. In fact, she was spectacular. She wasn’t letting Imperia get to her. Mellie seemed to know exactly what to do.

So, of course, Imperia ratchetted up the tension.

“He kissed you,” Imperia said.

Mellie smiled. The smile was warm and a bit personal, as if she had remembered the moment. He remembered it. He loved kissing her.

Mellie nodded. “I kissed him back.”

Imperia’s frown grew. She was getting angry because she couldn’t control Mellie.

“Do you love him?” Imperia asked.

Good question, he thought. He finally was beginning to understand what Mellie had said about Snow White. Snow had been slightly older when Mellie had married into the family. And Snow was grieving the loss of her mother.

Snow had challenged her, just like Imperia was doing.

This must have felt very familiar to Mellie.

He wanted to hear the answer, but he knew that any answer—yes, no, maybe—would only make Imp angrier. He wanted Mellie in his life. And that meant teaching his girls how to get along with her.

So he spoke up.