Page 79 of A Wise Prince

He leans into her face. “Now, you need to tell us everything, and I do mean everything.”

Lacey visibly trembles under the bravado of Jack’s voice. “I-I…h-he said he’d ruin me if I-I didn’t do it.”

“Who!?” Jack yells as Lacey shrinks into the chair.

“L-Lord Johansen, sir,” she whispers, her eyes wide. “H-he had me apply to work here. I needed money for my mother. She is sick and needs to go to Switzerland for treatment. He said he would pay if I did certain things.” She looks away, her face is red with shame.

“Such as?” Jack urges, his tone softening slightly.

“I had to report back to him about what happened at the palace. That’s it really, until tonight. He said he needed me to get a box for him. He didn’t say what was in it. I…he said our deal was off if I didn’t. My mom’s supposed to leave next week. She needs this treatment,” Lacey says, her voice shaking with a mixture of fear and worry.

“What exactly did you tell him?” Jack asks as he sits down across from her.

“J-just stuff. He wanted to know when and where you all were going. He wanted to know any conversations I overheard. Things like that,” she stutters as tears fall down her cheeks.

King Michael stands and walks over to her, kneeling down to face her. “Lacey, I’m going to have you go over everything you told him with Pete, OK? I won’t punish you as long as you are honest. I will personally make sure your mother gets the medical care she needs.”

“Oh, thank you, Your Majesty,” Lacey cries out as she weeps into her hands. The king does something very un-king-like and embraces her like he would a small child. He whispers something to her, but I can’t hear what before he pulls away. She nods and wipes her eyes. Pete clears his throat and she follows him out of the room.

Everyone is silent as the king’s eyes turn to Auggie who is holding the crown. He walks over to it and Auggie lifts it up for him to take. He does so, his eyes glinting with tears.

“Where was it?” he asks, his voice hoarse with emotion.

“Under the lion statue,” Auggie says quietly.

The king nods, his hands tightening on the crown as though the mere act of holding it can bring back his wife.

He looks at Auggie and places a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, son,” he says in a low voice, almost a whisper.

Auggie nods as the king hands the crown back to Auggie. “See that this is put in its rightful place,” he instructs. The fact that he has asked Auggie to do this is clearly a big deal. Auggie’s eyes glaze over with tears as he nods to his father.

The king turns to the rest of the room. “Conrad is en route. I have summoned him.”

“Good, because I have summoned Senator Farrington and his son,” Jack says with a wink. He looks over at Anna and I know whatever she did was the reason they are on their way here.

“So, that is it? This is over?” Chris asks from the corner of the room. “Can I get my staff back now?” I’m surprised the king had staff removed so quickly.

Auggie rolls his eyes.

“We still need to conduct interviews, but yes, staff will all get reinstated one at a time,” the king answers.

“Well, that was…an uneventful culmination of events,” my father says.

“It usually is,” Jack answers. “If it’s done the right way.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY

Auggie

I placemy mother’s crown back in its spot in the vault as Anna and Chris look on. We all stand in silence for a long moment. I set the pink diamond in the middle of it, noting that the crown jeweler will need to be called to replace the missing diamonds and reset the pink diamond.

“I still can’t believe it was here the entire fucking time,” Chris mutters.

“It’s fitting, in a morbid sort of way,” Anna adds.

“Well, it’s where it should be now,” I state. Chris and I both wrap an arm around our little sister as we stand in silence and reflect upon the events that have led us here. I’m not sure how long we stand there, but Chris’s phone buzzing eventually breaks our impromptu sibling moment.

“Dad wants us back upstairs,” he says. And with that, we all head back to the drawing room as our guests arrive.

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