Page 78 of A Wise Prince

I set the box on the bench and slowly lift the lid. My mother’s tiara sits inside, missing the pink diamond and a few smaller ones, but otherwise, looking just as it did the very last time I saw it.

Kate gasps. “Oh my god!”

“Fuck,” I curse as I pick it up and examine it. “I can’t believe it’s been here the entire fucking time.” The genius of this hiding place is not lost on me. This would be the very last place anyone would be looking for the crown, thus making it the very safest place.

“Holy shit!” Anna’s voice rings out from behind us.

We both turn around as though we’ve been caught doing something bad. Anna rushes over and takes the tiara from my hands. Tears glimmer in her eyes as she looks up at me.

“This whole time…” Her voice trails off as she runs her fingers along each gem.

“How’d you…” I look around in confusion, words failing me.

“You do know that I have you bugged, right?” she says, rolling her eyes as tears fall from them.

I sigh. “Well, now what?” I ask because I can’t think of anything better to say after finding my mother’s missing crown.

Anna smiles through her tears. “Now, we wait. This couldn’t be better.”

“What couldn’t be better?” Kate asks.

“I had a hunch about the tiara. Something you said once about Conrad being in here when we were playing. I don’t know why that memory came back to me right now. So, I followed you here and maybe left an electronic trail for our watchers,” she says proudly, clearly feeling redeemed.

“Meaning?” I ask her.

“Meaning, whoever is behind this should be coming here now,” she says.

“Huh?” Kate and I both respond.

Anna’s grin grows. “If they don’t want us to find the crown, then they are going to come get it. And I don’t think they’ll send just anyone based on the fact that I may have fibbed and made it look like our perimeter security just got upgraded along with more guards, making it crucial for a figurehead to come here instead.”

“Jesus, this is crazy,” I lament as I run a hand through my hair and stare at the object that has garnered so much of our attention for so many years. “I can’t believe it’s been right here next to Mom the entire time.”

“It’s fitting, no?” Anna says.

I look over at Mom’s grave. “It is, but…” I trail off.

Anna presses something on her watch. “I don’t know, but we are about to find out,” she whispers as she pulls us back into a corner as footsteps echo on the stone pathway.

Kate

Auggie puts an arm around me protectively as we wait. From the look of Anna’s watch, which keeps blinking, I’m guessing we aren’t alone out here. She must have alerted security. The footsteps get louder. We all hold our breath as a figure emerges from around a corner.

Lacey, a young woman who works here, who I’ve only met once, appears. She looks around before stepping over toward the lion statue. She gasps when she sees it’s been moved, and the crown is missing.

“It’s gone,” she says into her phone. “No, it’s not here. Someone took it.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Auggie mutters under his breath. He steps out into the light, and Lacey freezes, dropping her phone. She starts to run, but Jack emerges from the shadows and grabs hold of her.

“I don’t think so,” he says.

She tries to struggle in his arms. When it’s clear she can’t get away, she bursts into tears.

“It’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything wrong,” she yells.

“We’ll see about that,” Jack says as he pushes them toward the palace. We follow him up the back stairs and into the main drawing room where Pete, my dad, and King Michael sit. Clearly, Norddale’s size makes it easy for everyone to get between the palaces in no time at all.

“Sit,” Jack barks. Lacey sits on a chair, visibly shaking.

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