Chapter 147: Who To Marry

Spencer's POV

“How did Ivy get kidnapped by our enemies yet again?”

I glower down at my mother as she places her hands across the desk, looking up at me with a smug, expectant gaze.

“They used a sedative,” I say eventually. “But now that we know it’s a weapon they have at their disposal, we’re ready for it. And they didn’t even take Ivy from the palace! We were off royal grounds when they–”

“This isn’t the first time Ivy has been taken,” my mother cuts in abruptly. “And it certainly won’t be the last. Please, Spencer, I need you to face the facts. As long as everyone knows how much you love Ivy, she’ll always be a target.”

I purse my lips. I want to refute, to say all the ways I could protect Ivy, but something is different this time.

Because this time, she was taken from right underneath my nose. I should have been there–I was nearby, I could have protected her, but I was off swimming and I wasn’t there and she nearly died because I wasn’t good enough–

And if I can’t protect her…

F