“Not more with that curse, Sebastian. Please, I cannot take it.”
“Not that.” I shake my head, though I can’t let that go either. Is it finally coming down to this? Bellamy’s life once again on the line? In the silence of the room, I want to scream, to shatter the oppressive quiet, but I remain still, listening to the distant echoes of the palace’s life. “I fought with her. She accused me of having something with Charlotte and then when she asked me to fire her, I refused. I’ve been the worst husband to her. And now I don’t know where she is.” My voice cracks with desperation. “How can I find her when I don’t even know where to start? How could I pick fucking Charlotte and her stupid job we could hire twenty thousand people for over my wife?”
It’s as if the walls are closing in on me, suffocating me with the weight of my own failure. Once again, it’s my fault. But this time, I swear, when I get her home, I’ll never let anything separate us again. Not this curse. Nothing.
“Sebastian, you haven’t done well by her lately and I won’t sugarcoat that. But couples fight. They have issues. You didn’t cause her to be…taken. What you’ve failed to see is that we are all responsible for our own path and our own choices. Yes, a series of awful events have happened to this family. Yes, many of them have fallen on Bellamy recently, all in a row. But you did not make Marie kidnap Desta and kill your father. You did not make Samil tamper with Nora’s helicopter or attack you and Bellamy. And you did not make whoever took Bellamy take her.”
I nod absently. I know all of this. I’ve heard this before.From Bellamy even. I just haven’t allowed myself to believe it. But by allowing it to tear me apart, to tear me and Bellamy apart, I’m letting it win, whether it’s real or not.
That’s what Bellamy was trying to tell me. Only I was too stubborn, too afraid, to listen let alone believe her.
“Sebastian,” Rowan’s voice cuts through my thoughts, and I glance up to see my brother and Javier standing in the doorway, looking as wrecked as I feel. “We’ve searched everywhere we can think of, but there’s been no sign of Bellamy.”
“Fuck!” I yell, pacing the room, every step echoing the increasing urgency within me. My mind races, trying to piece together where Bellamy could be, but I come up empty each time.
“I’m so sorry, brother. Whoever took her did a damn fucking good job of it. But at this point, I think it’s clear someone did take her. She’d never wander off without her phone or purse.”
I run my hands through my hair. “Why would someone take her? No one knew she’d be out. The grounds around the palace are open and uninhabited.” I stop, freezing in my own steps and turn to face my brother. “Rowan, Bellamy told me something before she left,” I say, my voice wavering with anxiety. “She said Charlotte has been spying on us. That she overheard our conversations.”
A furrow forms between his brows. “Yes. Bellamy and I were speaking about it earlier today while you were out on your stroll with Charlotte. I’ve had my suspicions about her too,” he admits.
“Bellamy and I fought about her. About that very thing and how she feels I’ve grown too close to Charlotte. That something is happening between us. She wanted me to fire Charlotte, and I told her I didn’t have the grounds to do it. Bellamy stormed out after.”
“If Charlotte overheard your conversation…” Javier trails off, and I nod, pacing again, my hands on my hips.
“Yes. She left around the same time to supposedly go to Tourin. She had the opportunity and, if she overheard Bellamy trying to get her fired, motive.”
“Where is Charlotte now?”
I shake my head. I honestly don’t know.
Javier pulls up the cameras we have throughout the palace and scrolls through them. At first, I think he’s searching for Charlotte, but then he says, “She overheard you speaking with Bellamy earlier. She was hiding in a parlor directly off the back hall and the door was open.”
I growl under my breath, cursing in Latin.
“She watched Bellamy go for the front door, and afterward she went toward the garage.” He moves his finger around on his phone and says, “She went in the same direction as Bellamy did.”
“Then let’s go confront her,” I bark, ready to fly out of the room, only for Javier to grab my arm and stop me.
“What are you doing? Think for a minute, Sebastian. Say you go and confront her, and things go badly, which they likely will since she has a motive we’re not fully clear on. Yes, her job was at risk, but there is a huge line between not wanting to lose your job and kidnapping someone. That says she’s very dangerous and highly unpredictable. She could lie and say she has no clue what we’re talking about, but she’ll know we’re on to her and never lead us to Bellamy. Or she’ll get violent and hurt somehow and will be unable to lead us to Bellamy. Or simply angry enough about something and again?—”
“Won’t lead us to Bellamy,” I finish for him, sagging and beyond frustrated. “I get it. What do you propose then?”
“I propose we play this where you’re the sad husband who is missing his wife but doesn’t suspect the nanny at all. Tomorrow isSunday, and the children are home. We’ll tell her Rowan and Althea are taking the children somewhere for the day so they don’t grow suspicious about Bellamy being gone, and then we’ll tell her that you and I are headed into Tourin because you believe Bellamy might be staying with an old teaching friend of hers.”
“Yes,” Rowan smiles deviously, coming over to stand beside me, his hand on my arm. “That’s brilliant. You’ll tell her given the situation she gets an extra day off since the palace will be empty, and maybe she’ll go to Bellamy on her own and we’ll follow her.”
I gulp at all the variables of that. All the things that can go wrong. I look across the room to Althea, who gives me a firm nod. “I will take the children somewhere along with Emily because I don’t want them in the palace for whatever happens. But yes, make her believe no one suspects her of any foul play and make her also believe she’s alone so she’ll hopefully go to Bellamy.”
My hands rake through my hair. I suppose this plan is all I’ve got right now.
Morning comes with no rest,my eyes bleary, but my mind is razor-sharp, my body on alert. I don’t know why Charlotte took Bellamy, but I can guess. If she overheard our conversation, then she knew Bellamy didn’t trust her and wanted her gone. But to go from not wanting to lose your job to kidnapping feels like a far reach for me, and I feel as though Charlotte has other secrets we’ve yet to unearth.
The children rise early, as they always do, lively and jumping around the breakfast room after Emily and Althea announce that they are going to a children’s museum about an hour from here. Althea—bless her—already woke the owner of the museum in the wee hours and asked if arrangements couldbe made to accommodate the royal children. He all but leaped at the chance, offering to close down the museum for three hours as long as we agreed to have our social media manager post about the children visiting.
Naturally, we agreed.
I sip my coffee, picking at a piece of toast I don’t think I’ve tasted. Rowan has intentionally made himself scarce along with Javier. So when Charlotte enters, it’s just Althea, me, and the children. Charlotte doesn’t look as though she’s slept any better than I have, and her nerves set me on edge. When people are nervous, they’re unpredictable. They act rashly.
