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Olivia: The only running the prince as ever done has been running from responsibility.
Angel: Impressive. How long have you been trying to come up with that one? Six, seven years?
Hector: As I said, wanna do something together? You know, not like three-year-olds? Oh, wait, who wants to see a movie?
Angel: ….
Olivia: ….
Hector: Don’t everyone talk at once, guys.
Olivia: What kind of movie do you have in mind?
Hector: Horror.
Angel: I’m in.
Olivia: Seriously, answer faster. Couldn’t it be a romance or something?
Angel: It couldn’t.
Hector: I can find something romantic, if you-
Angel: No, he can’t. You can’t.
Olivia: Fine ok whatever.
Hector: Meet in five minutes? Liv’s room.
Angel: Be there in three (so we can talk about Hec while we wait).
Hector: Fine, have it your way. I’ll race you, and we’ll see who gets there first.
Olivia: OMG, boys, stop it, you’re being rid- Oh, great, you’re both offline. You’d better not show up in my room all sweaty, like you did last nigh-
nineteen
I’ve just hung up with Angel, when someone announces ‘King Mihail’ from the door, and the guard behind Marco clears his throat pointedly. I glance at Marco: he looks absolutely gray with fear.
Marco presses a kiss against my neck, burying his head between my collarbones, his hands shaking as if he’s afraid to let me out of his grip even for a second. Even for a few hours. As if he’s afraid that he might never get the chance to do it again.
The ‘we’ll make it work, somehow’ promise I gave to Marco suddenly feels premature. Stupid. Will we? Can we? How will we do that when the real world comes rushing in through these doors? And the real world, aka my dad, is about to walk in through them.
I hate the insecurity that suddenly grips me by the throat.
Marco sets me gently on my feet and straightens, looking up, away from me. He turns into a soldier in front of my eyes. All of us, the guards, the aides, the secretaries and me, we all turn towards the double doors.
The king is about to walk into the room.
…
Dad said he wouldn’t come to meet me at the airport; he said his first public appearance after the scandal would have to be an apology, but he didn’t want to do it yet for two reasons: One, I was still away from Asteria, and his appearance might give rise to a new wave of hatred towards the monarchy and me. He’d rather I was safe under his and Asteria’s guards’ watch when that happened.
And problem number two was the little unresolved matter of who his other child was—the fourth one.
He still didn’t know, and he’d rather make his address having all the facts under his belt. He’d rather be holding all the cards. He his team were afraid that whoever the other child was, he or she or a team of people backing him or her would suddenly reveal the truth and try to make a scene, a la the ‘rotten royals’ posts. Except, you know, in actual, real life.
On live television.
