AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Malik, it’s Odette.”
“Hello, Ms. Princess.” He chuckled into the phone.
“Don’t give me that. I just spoke to Augusta. What is going on? Is she okay? Did something happen? Because she is acting like she’s lost her mind.”
“Honestly, I have no idea. I haven’t spoken to her in days.”
I looked at the phone for a moment. Was this still reality? “Malik, she is your wife—your pregnant wife. How have you not spoken to her in days?”
“It’s complicated. We had a fight. I am out of town for a game, so Augusta went to her mom’s. Look, Odette, I am kinda busy here. I hope you are okay, okay? Bye.” And just like that, he hung up.
I had no idea what was going on in the world anymore.
“Is everything okay?” Wolfgang asked me, but all I could do was shake my head.
I now knew why Gale was so worried whenever we spoke about the press back home. I was doing my best to ignore it. I kept telling myself I knew the press would be hard to deal with, but I’d deal with it. However, every day here, it felt like I was getting punched in the face and told to smile as if it had never happened. For the most part, I had still been able to smile. It was lies. But with Augusta, my sister, I felt gutted.
Did she not see how hard it was?
Did she not see me getting slandered all over the world every day?
Even if she was upset at me, she should not have aired it like this.
“Everyone saw this already?” I whispered, sitting back down slowly.
“No one has said anything, miss.”
I rubbed the side of my head. “They haven’t said anything, but they have seen it. So, I am sure it is only a matter of time before the queen will call me in for tea.”
“It was not bad, miss. Would you like me to tell your other tutors to come back another day?”
I scoffed. “And have someone leak that too? No, I’d rather not give them headlines for tomorrow. The very least they should do is work to come up with stories about me.”
“Then I shall get the next one?”
I closed my eyes and tucked my hair behind my ears, inhaling deeply. You can do this, Odette. Everything is okay—you are okay. You are stronger than the lies they tell about you. Augusta is just dealing with her own life. Her own stresses. It can’t be easy when she has the press on her back too. And she doesn’t have a palace full of people trying to shield her, either. See, you are okay. Odette, you are okay.
“Next should be my Ersovian tutor, correct?” I asked, rising for my seat and standing up properly to wait for them to enter.
Wolfgang nodded, walking to the door.
Just as it opened, I put a small smile back on my face, pretending it was Gale coming through those doors.
“Forgive me, ma’am, but it seems they chose to change their story early this morning.” Mr. Ambrose stated as he placed the printed newspaper out for us both to see, though I already knew what it said.
“Thank you, Ambrose. You may leave us,” my mother directed, and he bowed his head to us both before exiting Arthur’s—my personal study.
“Augusta Wyntor-Washington, Odette Wyntor’s younger sister, claims her sister has snubbed her? Who is she going to be at war with next—Eliza?” I snapped. They had chosen a photo that had to be at least five or six years old based on the outfit choice—ripped denim overalls, rose-colored shades, and her hair was much shorter and in pigtails—and city, most likely Seattle. She did not look bad. However, they had chosen a much more modern and pretty photo for her sister for some reason.
“The length these people will go to never surprises me. However, why, in God’s name, would her sister speak to the press? I thought they were on good terms,” she asked me as if I would know.
The last time Odette and I had spoken about her sister was months ago. I had thought because Odette cared for her, they would have worked it out, but her sister had come with another knife to stab from behind again, it seemed.
“It is jealousy,” I muttered.
“I do not care what it is. It cannot happen again,” my mother declared, tossing the paper onto my desk. “Today’s story was supposed to be about the signing of the Austrian Treaty yesterday, as well as the upcoming Bellecoeur Garden Party as your official first outing together. Instead, it is this nonsense.”
At the very mention of it, I wanted to throw my head onto the desk. Over 10,000 people up close and personal, forced to make conversation with everyone, was supposed to be our first royal public event together?
