Page 132 of Rags to Royals

Because we figure she blames us the most, Scarlett and I stay in the kitchen to clean up while Ruby takes a plate up to Mariah.

She comes back down empty-handed which we assume means Mariah will at least eat.

“You should just leave her alone for tonight,” Ruby says. “You can’t really put this toothpaste back in the tube, you know? But,” she adds. “You two probably need to figure out what you’re going to do going forward. Mariah has a point. If the town ever figures out who you really are, they’re going to realize we all lied to them. That could really be problematic for Mariah and me with our friends. Not to mention your hope of ever getting back on the good side of anyone,” she says, looking at Scarlett. Then she heads out the door for work.

Scarlett sets down the dish she’s holding and looks up at me. “What are we going to do?”

“About Mariah? Or the town?” I ask. I don’t actually have an answer for either of those.

“Mariah is on our side. She’ll be okay. Though I’m glad lying bothers her so much,” Scarlett says. “But I guess, if this turns into something long-term?—”

I step right in front of her and look down at her, meeting her gaze. “Thisissomething long-term.”

“Then we’re in trouble. You’ve been a royal in hiding for twelve years. But you’ve been using your real name. You’ve still been Cian O’Grady. Just no one here really knew who Cian O’Grady was. If you stay here, do we come clean? And, just live with the fact that the whole town thinks we’re liars? Or do you continue to live with a fake name? Which then compromises what we want to do with the foundation. I want your name on that. I think you do too. And that’s how you fundraise. That’s how you’ll get the word out. It’s something you should be proud of.”

“You definitely want to stay here?” I ask her. I love that she’s talking about the future, but yes, we now have a problem. “Or would you let me take you somewhere else? Somewhere that you don’t have to worry about what these people think? Where you don’t have a history? Where you can start fresh?” I lift my hand and run it through her hair. “We could go back to New Orleans. And you liked Autre.”

“I do like Autre,” she says with a smile. “But the thing is, they don’t need us. They’ve got all the people they could possibly need pitching in and helping out and keeping things running. We should be somewhere that needsus.”

“There’s probably a hundred places like that. Thousands.”

She nods. “Yeah. I guess we should think about that. Ruby would probably be okay leaving. She does have friends here,but she’s left before. But I do hate that she always has to leave because of me. Mariah is different. She has friends here and especially Greta. That would be hard. But I hate to drag her into all of this.”

“We don’t have to solve this tonight. For now, no one knows who the woman is that Cian O’Grady is chasing. None of this has exposed either of us. Let’s just…think about it.”

I wish I could tell her we have time to figure this all out. I wish we did have time. That would make all of this so much easier.

But even though Scarlett hasn’t brought up the fact that we only have eleven days left, I’m aware of it.

And even if we extended that deadline, my grandfather still has one for me.

And I’m not sure I can solve all of Scarlett Gale’s problems in two and a half months.

Chapter 28

Cian

Jen: Oh my God, Lindsey, we’ve been getting some very interesting news that we haven’t had before about the royal family.

Lindsey: I know. It makes me want to go back and think about everything that happened with Torin and Abigail also.

Jen: I know. But it’s especially interesting in light of the information we have about Cian going to look for this mystery woman in the United States.

Lindsey: We need to fill everyone in. According to our sources, apparently the king ispressuringthe grandkids to get married. The source isn’t saying exactly why. It has to do with some long-standing agreement that they would all be married by a certain time or something. Our source either doesn’t know the specifics or isn’t sharing. But either way the grandkids are feeling some pressure.

Jen: All I really hear is that we might be having some more royal weddings coming up. Bring it on!

Cian: what’s your favorite dinner? Home cooked. Not burgers or pizza.

Mariah: chicken Parmesan bake.

do you know how to make it?

yeah

can you teach me tonight? We’re out of casseroles.

what happened to Diane?

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