Page 51 of The Cinderella Prince

“The magazines,” Rome clarified.

The ridiculous relief at finding out that it wasn’t Cedric saying it lifted me off the bed and made me cross the room. But it was useless. He would announce it in due time. “If he’s meeting with Élodie in public, it must be true. His family wants to announce the news before the elections.”

“Dude, what the fuck?” Roman demanded. “You knoweverything?”

I cleared my throat and pushed all thoughts of Cedric aside. “Rome, I was an ass. I’m sorry. He left me, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t even blame him. Hell, I’d leave me for a crown, too. I couldn’t take it out on him, so I took it out on you and Mama Viv. I…I hope you can forgive me.”

“Hold on,” Roman said. “His family wants the announcement?”

“Um, yes, but Rome…”

“Did he tell you he wanted to marry her when he left?” Roman asked.

“What’s going on?” Mama Viv cried.

“Hold on,” Roman said. A moment later, the quality of sound changed, and I knew they’d put me on the speaker. “Tris, did he tell you that?”

“Well, no, but it’s obvious,” I said.

“You have to tell us what he said, Tris,” Roman insisted.

So I did. I wanted to protest it, but they deserved to know the whole story. It would be great gossip to tell people forever, hiring a prince and criticizing him when he dropped a tray full of beers and cocktails. I told them, however much I hated remembering it, everything from the moment I knocked on Cedric’s door. I told them about his phone and about Cedric’s fears that he could be located. I told them that they had already found him and followed him. The story wandered back into the past to everything Cedric had told me about the marriage, election, tradition, and his older brother. And then, I told them about Cedric saying we simply couldn’t be together because his duties were elsewhere.

“And you believed him?” Mama Viv demanded.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t let that enter my voice. “It’s the truth. You know who he is.”

“Darling, he ran from them,” Mama Viv.

“No, but he changed his mind,” I said. “He realized he was better off without me.”

“Don’t be silly, Tristan,” Mama Viv said.

Rome hijacked the conversation. “It’s so clear, but only you don’t get it. He told you before that he wouldn’t marry her for anything in the world. That he doesn’t love her. Tris, they must have threatened him real bad to make him go back. If they were following him here, then they probably knew about you.”

“Darling, can you call him?” Mama Viv asked.

“No. He never had his phone on,” I said. “I don’t even have his number.”And he won’t want to hear from me.

Silence. They were thinking. Roman spoke after a while. “I think they blackmailed him, maybe. Or worse. I think they forced him to go back. It makes no sense that he just flipped around and decided he was done. That guylovedyou, Tris.”

“He did,” Mama Viv said softly. “When I told him we would hunt him down if he hurt you, he beamed. He was so happy to know you had loyal friends, Tristan.”

“This smells rotten to me,” Rome said. “We need to get in touch with that guy.”

My soul was torn out of me, and an abyss opened up in my chest. Had I let him go on some stupid, self-sacrificial quest because I couldn’t believe that he loved me? Had I doomed him to a forced marriage just because I didn’t think I deserved love? Oh God. Oh, all the gods that listened. Apollo and Antinous, Hyacinthus and Dionysus and Hermes. “We have to save him,” I whispered.

Whatever they threatened him with, I could protect him from it. I could help him get out.

“And I have a plan,” Mama Viv said.

It took Mama Viv three days to arrange the flight. Her text message to me said, “I have always stood by your side. And I always will. Get that boy back.”

The return to the Hudson Burrow passed in the blink of an eye, and the flight that followed was restless and sleepless. Its significance clutched my heart and filled me with anxiety.

How would I ever find him?

How would I ever come near him?

---