“And you were together for over an hour.”

“Carter?” asked Edgar.

“And as the footage reveals,” Caroline said, savoring the accusation, “the kiss is quite lengthy. And sensual. And Carter, when our staff contacted Mr. Turner, he said your relationship remains very real and that you’d been avid to see him. He said you seemed worried and offhand about His Highness. He chose the words ‘restless’ and ‘unsatisfied.’ He said you were keen on reconnecting with him, because the two of you had never really broken up.”

God damn Callum. His ego was that fragile. And I’d fallen for it. Callum liked to think that because of his relentlessly Instagrammed cheekbones and ranch-hand-in-a-Tylenol-ad jawline, he had no competition. Until now.

“He also provided us with an album of photos, hundreds actually, depicting the intensity of your romance. They’re on our website. He said you belonged together. And that His Highness was, in his phrase, ‘a rebound deal.’”

“No he’s not!” I said vehemently, to end all of this and expose Caroline’s distortion of the facts. “And you have to understand, that’s exactly the sort of thing Callum would say!”

“Carter?” Edgar repeated. His face was ashen, because he didn’t know what to believe. How had I let this happen? And how could I fix this? And why was I being blamed for Callum’s ugly scheming?

“Callum is lying,” I said, speaking as clearly as possible. “He’s jealous and he cheated on me and he made me feel terrible about myself.”

“A provisional theory,” Caroline smirked.

“Edgar, please, you have to believe me. I would never do this to you. Because I know how it feels when someone gets bored or horny and starts lying about everything, and I stuck with Callum for way too long, and it almost destroyed me. So that’s not who I am. Yes, I went for a drink, and he grabbed me, but that’s all that went on. I would never want to hurt you.”

“That’s a pretty speech,” said Caroline, hungering for more fireworks.

“It’s not a speech!” I practically yelled, my voice strained and desperate; I was telling the truth, but the more I underlined everything, the more I sounded trapped.

“Your Highness?” said Caroline. “Any response? To Mr. Ogden’s somewhat far-fetched and unlikely tale?”

I have never hated anyone as much as I hated Caroline right then, Getting louder or standing up wouldn’t help my cause, because Caroline would turn it against me and ask Edgar if I’d ever been violent. I could feel my face reddening as I clutched the armrests of my chair, digging grooves into the fabric. I wasn’t sure when Edgar had let go of my hand, but he seemed miles away. He wouldn’t look at me.

Edgar shut his eyes, in pain. He opened them and attempted to breathe.