Yet she looks different. She feels different. She’s shed some of her formal layers.
Most importantly, the children had an incredible time.
We pile into the large black SUV, exhausted and sticky from last-minute cotton candy and candy apples. Zayer passes out in his car seat the moment the car sets in motion. He went on three rides with the girls, which Sabrina whined were for babies, but had fun on all the same. They won prizes, and I’m proud to say we have no critters hiding away in knapsacks.
Marcella is quiet the entire way home. She’s had her face glued to the window and the passing landscape, but it’s clear she’s not seeing any of it. I exchange looks with Bellamy, but all she does is give me a simple shrug as if to say she’s as clueless as I am.
As much as I want Bellamy to have friends, I worry about her easy trust. I worry about how easily Marcella has sucked the children in. Has suckedmein.
I don’t know.
The Ella shit is messing me up. Still. Because I acted on impulse. I went with my gut, and she was a lie. A fabrication. A woman I never should have touched, though at this point, so many months later, it seems unlikely she was after anything with me. A random foreigner who snuck into the royal wedding for a high and got nailed by the prince.
Except I took her virginity.
Who does that? Who sneaks into a royal wedding loaded with security, gives a fake name, fake everything, but then gives a man she just met her virginity? How do I stop thinking about her? And how do I stop connecting her to Marcella?
17
MARCELLA
Ijolt awake to frantic knocking on my door. My room is pitch black, and I can tell the sun isn’t rising yet. More knocking, and I practically fall out of bed, calling out an “I’m coming” as I snatch my sweatshirt from the chair in the corner and throw it on before I open the door.
“Thank God you’re up!” Jennine, one of the cooks, exclaims.
“What time is it?” I ask, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“Half past five. We’ve got a situation that requires immediate attention.”
“Okay. Give me five minutes, and I’ll meet you down in the staff room.”
“Perfect! Thank you!”
She races off, and I shut the door to get myself dressed and ready. I’ve taken to wearing black pants and shirts—what Emily typically wears—since my dresses were cut up. I slept like shit last night, my thoughts impossibly heavy. I never snuck out to the king’s office. I never went to hack his system. Instead I lay in bed thinking over and over about all the things Samil told me over the years about King Sebastian and the royalfamily. All the things Antonia and Signoria Batorini have told me. Even things my father told me.
I was also stuck on what Bellamy said. The king relayed to her what Samil had said about wanting the children dead. Who’s to say he’s not lying to make himself look better after what happened between them?
I don’t know who or what to believe anymore. It’s rattling me. I need to believe my brother didn’t lie to me. I’m not sure I can handle the alternative.
I make it down to the servants’ quarters and find four others here, including Raul and Marsha.
“What’s the problem?” I ask Jennine since she’s the one who came to me first.
“The laundry delivery that was supposed to come in last night never came,” she tells me. “And it appears the order was changed to arrive tonight at nine.”
“What? I didn’t change it.”
She shrugs. “They said you did. It’s on the form in their system, order changed by Marcella Russo.”
Motherfucker. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“The prime minister and his aide are still here,” Raul jumps in. “How are we supposed to care for them and tend to their rooms if we don’t have fresh linens and towels?”
“Let me get on the phone with them and see what happened. I’m sure we can make something work. For now, we can take from unused rooms, do a quick wash, and reset everything in those two rooms.”
Sara, another housekeeper, nods. “Yes. Good idea. I can get started on that now.” She leaves us, and I release a tense breath. At least someone is willing to help and get things right.
“Fine, but what are we supposed to tell the prime minister when he comes asking for fresh towels?”
