Prince: Royal Romantic Suspense (Billionaires in Disguise: Maxence Book 5) Blair Babylon (ebook reader screen txt) 📖

than anyone I’ve ever seen. I worried that you would break your body with strain. I have seen you return from missions starving, literally starving yourself to death, because the people you were trying to help did not have enough food for themselves, let alone you. I have seen you take care of orphans, sleeping on the floor by their crib or bed to nurse them back to health for months. Majambu Milandu and Mpata Majambu are alive and growing to become beautiful children due to your care. I beg you, come to the Vatican with me now for your ordination, because I believed you when you said it was all you’ve ever dreamed of.”

Dree leaned across the desk and grabbed Max’s numb hand. “Max, I need to speak with you in private. I need to speak with you now.”

Maxence shook his head. “This is so sudden.”

“It is sudden. It’s too sudden,” she said to him. “I didn’t even know an ex-pope could make that kind of decision. What does the real pope, Pope Vincent, say?”

Maxence looked back at Father Moses, whose brows had lowered in confusion. “I didn’t ask what he was thinking because as a priest, I am obedient to the church and the Pope.”

Dree argued with him, “But Celestine VI is not the pope.”

Father Moses shook his head. “Celestine VI is still a cardinal in the Church. He can decide whether to ordain a man as a priest or not.”

“Max, you said that Pope Vincent is your friend. Why didn’t he make the decision?”

Maxence looked up into Father Moses’s eyes. “Celestine said he would never relent. What caused his change of heart?”

Father Moses scolded Max, as he had dozens of times before, “You need to stop questioning those with authority over you. You are being offered Holy Orders, your heart’s desire. His Holiness said you have an airplane at your disposal that can take us to Rome within hours. His Holiness said he would ordain you today. And so, my dear child Maxence, my brother who has served with me on some of the most desperate missions of my life and has offered his body and soul on the altar of God more times than I can count, come receive the sacrament of Holy Orders and become a priest of Christ because you are worthy of it.”

Maxence’s knees became frail rubber, and he sat heavily in his desk chair.

Father Moses continued, “I understand you succumbed to temptation in Paris, but this was an aberration. It was not the man I know, and you said she was an adult and consenting.”

To his credit, Father Moses didn’t look at Dree, but Maxence did. Her blue eyes were wide with horror and betrayal.

The pain of the traitor’s knife sliced through Maxence’s heart.

Dree cried, “But why does it have to be today? If Pope Celestine thinks Maxence is worthy of being a priest, why does it have to be now? Max, you aren’t finished here yet. Monaco needs you. You said you were a member of the royal family before you were a deacon and that it had to come first. You said in a few more days, you could call a Crown Council meeting to elect a new prince. When you do that, you would be done, and you could take Holy Orders with a clear conscience.” She turned to Father Moses. “How can the Church ask him to do this right now? He said Pope Vincent wouldn’t allow him to take Holy Orders because his loyalties were divided, and they still are. In a few days, they won’t be, and he can be a priest then.”

Father Moses stared Maxence in his eyes, absolutely intent. “As an obedient man of Christ, you need to come with me now.”

Dree said to Max, “You have to call a session of the Council of Nobles and make sure Monaco is all right. You will never forgive yourself if you walk out on your responsibility to forty thousand Monegasque citizens because they are your people. What if Jules is elected? Would you allow Prince Jules to have that power over your people?”

“Enough,” Maxence said, his voice rough in his throat.

The room fell silent, but the quiet felt like a lull in the storm.

“Father Moses, my brother in Christ,” Maxence said. “I have responsibilities to the people of Monaco. There is—a situation here, where an evil man may be elected the Prince of Monaco. The world would be a worse place if it happened. Ms. Clark is right. My loyalties are divided. I must coordinate the election and elect the right person to be the next sovereign of Monaco.”

“Brother Maxence,” his emphasis on that was unmistakable, reminding Max of his vows and his years in the Church, “you are an ordained deacon of the Holy Church. If the Pope says come to Rome, you go to Rome.”

Maxence shook his head. “I know what it may cost me. If you report to His Holiness, tell him that I will make sure that everything is settled at the Sea Change Gala tonight, so that we may hold the election tomorrow morning. I can be in Rome tomorrow afternoon.”

Dree asked him, “So, you’re going?”

Maxence dropped his head and stared at the wood again, unable to meet her eyes.

Father Moses said, “You don’t keep popes waiting.”

“And yet, I have to. If His Holiness has a change of heart, inform me. It would be a waste of jet fuel to fly to Rome if there were no reason. Father Moses, you have the option of staying here in the palace guest quarters or at the convent in France with bonne sœur Disanka and bonne sœur Ndaya.”

Father Moses took a step back. “Why aren’t bonne sœur Disanka et bonne sœur Ndaya in Kinshasa?”

“Excellent question. It’s quite a coincidence they and my two goddaughters showed up, and then you arrived just a few days later.”

The old priest frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Maxence said, “I don’t either.”

But he knew that one action was a