“What are you going to do?” Mom asks. “Send them back to Florence?”
“No, there’s no way I’m letting either of them out of my sight.” I turn to Lawrence, who’s been quiet. “What are your thoughts?”
“Sir, I think it would be best to spin it. Explain what happened to her as a child and focus on how rough her life was. Tell them you met and fell in love but lost touch and you found your way back to each other.”
Mom smiles warmly. “Like a modern-day fairy tale.”
“Only the prince didn’t save her,” I tell them, my thoughts going to Jasmine’s book. “She saved herself.”
“She saves herself…” Lawrence muses out loud. Then his face lights up. “We could start a charity, in honor of abandoned children, to help them go to University.”
“I like it, and I bet Natalie will too.”
“That’s perfect,” Mom agrees.
“Paul,” I say to another one of my advisors, who deals with the media. “Schedule a news conference and invite everyone. After I type up what I plan to say, I’ll email it to you to approve. I’m going to address the people, and then I’m going to take Natalie and Jasmine away while the fires are put out, so they’re not here to see and hear it all, and hopefully while we’re away, I’ll convince her to marry me.”
Mom grins at the same time Stephanie gasps. “You can’t marry her! What are you thinking?” She shrieks. “After everything I did—” She quickly closes her mouth, and I’m about to ask her what she means by that, when Flynn, another one of my advisors walks in.
“Your Majesty,” he says, addressing me.
“Flynn.”
“There’s something you need to see, sir.” He hands me a file and I open it. Inside are grainy pictures, but still clear enough to make out what they’re of. I glance up at him, not wanting to believe what I’m seeing. I flip through the pages of pictures and emails that were printed, everything becoming clearer by the second.
When I’ve had enough, I close the file and look at Stephanie. “Care to finish your statement from a moment ago?”
“Wh-What are you talking about?” she mutters.
“I’m talking about the fact that you had Natalie investigated and then sold the story to The Lexenburg Gossip!” I bark, tossing the file across the table at her.
My mom gasps. “No, Stephanie…”
“I can explain,” she begins, as Harold enters.
“Miss Natalie and Miss Jasmine are gone, sir.”
My blood runs cold. “What do you mean, they’re gone?”
“Jasmine was tired and wanted to ask for a kiss before her nap. She came in here and Natalie followed. I went up to check on them and they were gone. Their luggage is gone too. I spoke to security and they said they walked right off the grounds.
I close my eyes and take a calming breath. They came up here…which means Natalie heard us talking about her. Who knows what part of the conversation she walked in on.
“They left?” Mom asks.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“William,” she says. “If they left, they had to have been bombarded by the paparazzi.
Damn it, I didn’t even think about that. “I need to find them,” I say, heading to the door. I stop before I exit, remembering something. “Stephanie, you’re fired,” I tell her, before turning my attention to Flynn. “Flynn, tell security she is to be escorted to gather her belongings and then removed from the premises.”
I don’t wait for a response before I rush out. Harold is waiting for me by the car with the door already open. “Any word?” I ask, jumping in.
“According to my friend with The Post, several reporters swarmed them,” he says once he’s inside and driving. “They verbally attacked them and Jasmine started crying…”
“Damn it.” I can’t believe this is happening. I should’ve paid more attention to what Stephanie was doing. I knew she’s had a crush on me for years and that she was upset about Natalie and Jasmine. But I never thought she would sell Natalie’s story to the biggest, sleaziest gossip rag in Lexenburg.
“The last he saw, they got into a car,” he says, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“The airport.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
The entire drive there I text and call Natalie, leaving her voicemails and messages to please call me, but she doesn’t answer. I have to hope that the flight she’s catching will be late enough I can get there before they take off. I text my other guards, letting them know where we’re going, and they let me know they’re already ahead of and behind us.
When we arrive, we go straight to the only airline that flies into Italy. My guards are on top of it, keeping everyone back as I jog through the airport, straight to the terminal. When I arrive, I stop and glance around, not seeing either of my girls. When I ask a woman to please check the women’s restroom, she comes out a minute later and tells me nobody is in there.