Who was she texting? David? The thought felt like a crushing blow to my ego. As if sensing my eyes on her, she glanced up, but I could tell she meant to look right back down at the screen. It was probably David. Fucking David. I swallowed.
“Yes?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I need you to put out a statement on behalf of Esmée and myself about Oscar.”
“What would you like it to say?” She looked at the screen again.
“Isn’t figuring it out your job?”
“It seems impersonal to have the papers announce it.” She met my eyes again. She looked annoyed by me, or this, or both. “You should do this with a camera. Broadcast it. Share it on social media. We can record it ourselves so you don’t have to involve the press directly if you’d like. Either way, we need to run this by the King before we do anything.”
“You know my brother will want the press involved.”
“I guess we’ll find out soon.” She looked outside the front windshield.
I turned and did the same. My brother and Adeline’s caravan had already gotten here and the two of them were walking toward the center, shaking hands with people and smiling at cameras. My brother was truly a people’s King. It was why he always had media attention. He hadn’t always been like that. There was a time my brother saw a camera and ran the other way. My parents would talk about how he wasn’t ready for the role, but I couldn’t imagine anyone better.
Once inside, we greeted my brother and Adeline in the backroom, where we were given aprons to put over our clothes. We were all dressed in jeans and T-shirts, but we put the aprons on anyway. Adeline and Joslyn walked to the front first, and my brother made to follow, but I stopped him.
“I have to talk to you about something.”
“Is it about your little meeting with Mother this morning?” He was still fidgeting with the tie on his apron, which was slightly ripped and kept coming undone.
“I didn’t have a little meeting with Mother, I had breakfast with her. You could have joined.”
“I have breakfast with her often. I don’t need to join yours. I assumed you had a lot to talk about.” He shrugged a shoulder. “So, is all forgiven?”
“I can’t stay mad at her forever.”
“You always have been her favorite.” Elias smiled when he said it. It was somewhere between a truth and an exaggeration. Everyone always said I was our mother’s favorite, though I couldn’t imagine why. Elias was her first born and Pilar was the baby, and the perfect daughter.
“I can’t imagine she’d keep a secret this big from her favorite child for seven years,” I said. A reminder that punched me in the gut whenever I thought of it.
“Your first mistake, then, was thinking she cared about any of us more than she cared about The Crown.” Elias raised an eyebrow. “What did you need to speak to me about? We should be getting out there soon.” He looked at the door.
“Joslyn.”
“What about her?”
“I wanted her to put out a statement about Oscar and Esmée. I don’t want to keep my son a secret from the world.”
“I agree with that. It would feel more genuine if you did it in front of a camera. You’re charismatic. They love you. They’ve forgiven all of your missteps.”
“Missteps?”
“Like doing cocaine on top of tables in clubs.” He shot me an amused look. “Or taking home every single woman you could and kicking them out of your apartment.”
“I don’t do those things anymore.”
“I’ve noticed. I don’t know if it was Oscar who brought upon the change, or Joslyn, or the accident, but I’m glad you’re taking care of yourself now.”
I gave a nod, feeling a lump in my throat as I took in what he’d said. He wasn’t wrong. I’d been reckless for years. Between my absolute need for attention and acceptance and being in the wrong group of friends, I’d been going down the wrong path fast. The accident definitely triggered the change. Starting with the realization that I’d survived it and others didn’t and continuing with the headlines of my unworthiness. Add to that, my friends didn’t even care to visit me in the hospital or ask how I was doing in physical therapy after my surgeries. They only showed up afterwards, when I started with the parties again, pretending I was fine, that everything was fine. Joslyn saw through it though. She showed up every night, cleaned up after me, helped me to bed, helped me pack, helped me with my schedule and went to all the events to make sure I showed up. She did a lot more than clean up my image. She helped clean me up and that was worth more than gold to me, to my brother, to The Crown.