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Suddenly a woman steps out of the crowd and comes toward me. The crowd murmurs immediately.
“Who is that?” I hear one guest say.
“One of her friends? From America?” another replies.
I’ve never seen this woman before in my life. She stops in front of me and hesitates, then gives me a small curtsy. She looks as uncertain as I am.
“Come with me.”
Her voice is so soft I can barely hear her.
If I want to live?I think wryly. I’m not sure I do. The look Alex gave me when he realized that I’d known all along was enough to destroy me.
The woman leads me, together with Nicolai, Alex’s secretary, toward a panel that looks like it’s part of the wall. It’s a secret passageway. Alexis said the royal residences are full of them, just like in his home.
We slip inside, and the man shuts the door on the growing excitement in the ballroom.
“I know you. You’re…”
“Nicolai. The prince’s secretary. This is my fiancée Katerina. Give me your phone, K.”
Katerina opens her purse and hands it to him. He starts typing on it.
“Katerina will take you back to Villa Silvae.” He stops typing to look at me. “I assume that’s where you want to go.”
“Yes, definitely. And...”
He gives Katerina her phone back and starts marching down the hall. We follow.
“And?”
“Plane tickets. I need to go back to Texas.” I hesitate, then add on. “I can pay for them.”
I’m not sure I can. But I need to get out of Solvaria as soon as possible.
“It will be arranged.”
Nicolai leads us through a maze of hallways to an underground garage. He and Katerina kiss quickly, then part. I follow Katerina to the car and get in the seat beside her.
“Oh. I thought you’d sit in the back.”
I shake my head.
“I’m not royalty.”
“You do look like a princess though. That dress. It’s amazing.”
“You should see me on my ranch. No dresses. Just horses and manure and hay twenty-four seven.”
She laughs. I say very little the rest of the drive. Light chit-chat here and there. But I’m too far inside my head to be able to talk about the real world.
“Thank you, Katerina, for this. You saved me on one of the worst days of my life.” Only the death of my mother exceeds it. But just barely.
“Good luck, Isabella.” She pauses. “I’m rooting for you.” We give each other two kisses on the cheek. I hope I see her again one day. If not, she’ll have a place in my heart for life.
I shut the door and run inside our temporary home for what is likely the last time. Lily is pacing in the front hall.
“Are you okay?” We say it at the same time, but neither of us laughs.
