A Cinderella Twist: A Contemporary Royal Romance

by K. S. Thomas

  “Oh.” That does surprise me. “I wasn’t aware anything was scheduled that required my physical presence.” There are plenty of things for which I would ordinarily be present, but none come to mind for which an appearance in person would be necessary. Certainly not any that my brother would deem worthy of his royal time.

  “There wasn’t. Until her royal wench of backstabbing decided to move some things around.” Soren sighs and it’s filled with his usual exasperated annoyance. “Just look it over and tell me what you want me to cancel or make room for in your schedule.”

  I nod, coming to a stop in the hall. We’ve reached our destination.

  “I don’t suppose we’ll cross paths again until dinner,” I say, turning to face Greer.

  “Maybe not even then,” she says, smiling strangely. “Mallory and I have a lot of catching up to do. I may just request that Katia arranges a private dinner to follow up our private lunch.” She shrugs. “Make it a whole girls only day.” She hooks her arm into Mallory’s and spins her toward the door before I can say anything. “Well, girls only, plus Cheese.” And then, just like that, they’re inside and the door flies shut behind them.

  “That was weird,” Abbas remarks.

  “It’s almost like you didn’t take my advice,” Chase says dryly, helping himself to the door handle and leading the way into my suite using the key he’s had since I moved into the East Wing.

  “Did your advice involve telling him not to complicate things with Greer?” Soren says, apparently joining us for the time being since he’s followed us inside and closed the door behind him. “Because that’s the advice I gave, and he definitely didn’t make good use of it.”

  “What are you talking about?” As far as I can tell, that’s exactly what I did. “Nothing is complicated between me and Greer. Everything is going precisely according to plan.”

  Soren snorts.

  Chase lets out a ‘ha!’ as he plops down into my sofa.

  Abbas is kind enough to stay silent, though I notice his stare and cocked brow are saying plenty.

  “Right.” My brother is the first to make use of his vocabulary again. “That’s why we’re having separate boys’ and girls’ meals our first day here.” He laughs. “We can’t even get those back home where we see each other every damn day.”

  “Yeah,” Abbas agrees. “I don’t think you can talk your way out of this weirdness. Something obviously went down. And my guess is Greer is telling Mal all about it as we speak.”

  “No doubt. So, stop holding out on us. What was it?” Chase asks, and I can already see the signs of his smug smirk making an appearance.

  “What was what?”

  “The thing you both freaked out about?” Chase clarifies.

  “Oh,” Soren pipes up again. “I know this one. It was her mom showing up. Really screwed them both up.” He’s enjoying this. And not just the part where he thinks he’s so superior to me. No, it’s the part where he finally has a community of people who like to point out that they’re so superior to me. At least when it comes to my level of emotional intelligence. Which everyone seems to think is severely lacking.

  “Hold up.” Abbas finally has words to use. “Greer’s mom is here?”

  “She was,” I explain. “She’s gone now.”

  “Why?” Chase seems temporarily thrown. “How?”

  “You really can’t sort this one out for yourself?” Soren seems somewhat disappointed to find out he’s still the smartest person in the room. “Her wretched queen of foul play. How else?”

  “You still need a why?” I ask, taking the jabs where I can grasp them.

  “Well, I can definitely see how that fucked Greer up,” Abbas mumbles, going to take a seat beside my brother. “But why did you freak out?”

  “Yeah,” Soren adds, sitting on the edge of the coffee table, a move I’ve never seen him make before today. Apparently, having the guys here is bringing a whole new level of comfort to our relationship. “Why did you freak out? And don’t say you didn’t. I read that speech you wrote and then didn’t use.”

  “I didn’t use it because you said it wasn’t any good,” I remind him.

  He shakes his head. “I never said that. I said it was perfectly fine. If you wanted her to know that you’re in love with her.”

  “In love, huh?” Chase is grinning from ear to ear now. “That must really be messing up Greer’s life.”

  “Should you be so entertained by this?” I ask, taking a stand at the center of the room. There’s no way I’m sitting down. This is the only high ground left to me.

  “Seems fair. I’ve been laughing at you both since you brought her here and told me it was all pretend. Which it clearly wasn’t.” Soren’s grinning too.

  “Plus, I’m going to help you fix the mess you both made, so you won’t even remember this part,” Chase says.

  “There’s no mess,” I insist.

  “Right.” Even Abbas doesn’t believe me. He turns toward Chase. “So, I’ll talk to Mal after lunch? Find out how screwed up Greer is over her mom?”

  “Yep.” Chase nods. “And in the meantime, let’s see this speech Soren mentioned.”

  “Absolutely not.” I shake my head in an adamant no.

  “I made a copy,” Soren offers, whipping out his phone and tapping away at the screen for a second before handing the whole thing over to my brother.

  I make my way to the nearest chair, have a seat, and surrender.

  “The name Greer means ‘watchful’,” he reads out loud. “And I can’t think of a more perfect word to share with you tonight as I try to give you a glimpse of the woman who found my absent heart and claimed it, and who couldn’t be better suited as Linden’s queen because she shares this one specific trait with her name. Watchful.”

  “Oh shit, here we go,” Abbas mumbles under his breath causing him and Chase to exchange a look before the latter continues.

  “I could tell you, how her beauty takes my breath away or how much harder it’s been to take life seriously since she’s been around, making me laugh at every turn. I could say that she’s smart and thoughtful and strong, and those would all be admirable traits of hers worth sharing. But they wouldn’t tell you nearly enough.” He takes a moment to clear his throat before he goes on. “They wouldn’t tell you how she can watch a horde of children running wild on the playground and never lose sight of any of them. Or how she makes jokes in order to get to the heart of something serious, because somehow everything is easier to talk about that way. You wouldn’t see how she can eliminate your fears or worries before you even voice them, or how she can swoop in and bring a smile back to the two-year-old whose frustration has mounted due to being misunderstood or the way she guards her own heart by guarding those most precious to her.” Chase stops, eyes meeting mine for a moment before he reads the final piece out loud. “And most importantly, you wouldn’t understand how she found and collected all the parts of my heart I placed where I thought they were needed, with Linden, with Monroe, with my family here and my family there, with my grief and my duty...she found them all. And she brought them home to me, made me whole in the moment I needed it most. Because she was watching, truly seeking to see what could be easily missed. I trust Greer to guard my heart, and the heart of my daughter. To stand at my side and be watchful over Linden. Because that’s the heart of who she is. And it’s that heart I fell in love with.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  GREER

  “How about now?” Mal asks as soon as we’re alone. Well, sort of alone. Katia is here as well. But the boys are gone, so it’s alone enough.

  “How about now, what?” I purposely avoid eye contact and start marching for the coffee bar. Katia in all her infinite awesomeness already started a fresh pot for us.

  “Now do you want to go ahead and tell me how you’re in love with him and how I was right, and you were wrong, and this is the biggest mistake ever?” she spells it out for me. Not that I needed her to. And truthfully, I would ha
ve preferred she hadn’t.

  “Wait.” Katia frowns. “Why wouldn’t she be in love with him? And what exactly is the biggest mistake ever?”

  Right around now, Mal realizes her own mistake. “Oops.”

  “Thanks.” I make a face at her but refrain from saying any more. To her, anyway. I now have plenty that needs to be said to Katia. “Lachlan and I...we’re having sort of an arranged marriage.”

  Apparently, this just makes things more confusing. “Who arranged it?”

  “We did.” I sigh. “I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to put you in the position of knowing this thing you really shouldn’t know because the queen will be livid if she ever finds out and anyone who knew about it will no doubt suffer her wrath.”

  “Am I going to know now?”

  “Do you want to know? You can still choose not to. Stay in the dark where it’s safe.” I’ve thought about telling her countless times since our relationship shifted. I’ve wanted a friend I could confide in, one who was in the middle of it all with me, but it just didn’t seem fair to burden her with the risks we chose to take on.

  Katia comes to meet me at the coffee bar. “You have to tell me. I don’t want to be safe if you’re not. I want to help you.”

  Given the many imaginary attempts I made at sharing this secret with her, the words fall out pretty easily once she gives the official green light to let the floodgates open. By the time I’m done telling her everything, she doesn’t even look all that surprised.

  “I see now,” she says, slowly nodding her head.

  “Yeah?” I think I covered everything pretty efficiently, though I did ramble on in a few different aimless directions once or twice along the way.

  “Yeah.” She sounds pretty set on it. “Mallory is right. You’re definitely in love with him and given your arrangement, I can see where this could turn out to be the biggest mistake of your life.”

  “That...no. It’s not going to be a mistake,” I try to assure her. Them. Me. I’m not sure any of us are buying it though.

  “Oh,” Katia looks like she actually agrees with me. “No, I know it’s not. But it could easily have taken a turn in that direction. If he wasn’t also stupid in love with you.”

  I can feel my nostrils flare on the next exhale. “You people really need to stop saying stuff like that.”

  “Maybe you need to start listening,” Mal says. Apparently, now’s a good time to jump back into this conversation. “And also start talking. Because I didn’t see two people stupid in love with each other out in that hall. I just saw two people being stupid.”

  “That was you and Abbas,” I counter, feeling a tad on the defensive. “Also, the angry little red head? That’s your date to my wedding.”

  Katia scowls. “I thought Mallory was your best friend.” She turns toward Mal. “Even if you didn’t have a really attractive alternative, you really should think twice before choosing Soren as your escort.”

  “No!” Mal steps between us, wagging her index finger at both of us. “We tackle one screwed up love life at a time. And as I’m not in danger of fake marrying the man I’m pretending not to be in love with, mine’s not the one we’re starting with.”

  I can feel my shoulders collapse in around my chest like armor around my heart. There’s no getting out of this. I may as well just open the can of worms with a big ol’ pop. “My mother was here.”

  “Oh.” Mal’s reaction isn’t quite pop worthy.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Katia at least shows some interest in the revelation.

  “Because,” Mal answers before I get the chance, “Greer’s mom walked out on their family to pursue her career and somehow, because Greer has aspirations of being successful one day too, this means she can’t fall in love or have a family because she may at some point turn her back on them, thus destroying those she loves the way her mother destroyed her.”

  “I’m pretty sure women can have marriages and careers,” Katia says slowly, frowning again. “They can even be mothers. It’s a thing now. We can have it all. Especially when you marry into royalty. The castle has a full staff of nannies.”

  “Yes,” I agree. “But how many acting jobs come along in Linden? How many movies are in production here over the course of a year?” I shake my head. “Don’t you see? One way or the other, I’ll have to give something up. And if anyone is going to make sacrifices for my dream, it’s going to be me.”

  “It’s bullshit.” But Mal doesn’t expound beyond that. Just takes an empty mug from the collection and pours herself a cup of coffee. “Alright. Now we can talk about me and Abbas.”

  LACHLAN

  NOT LONG AFTER CHASE got his hands on my original speech, Simon was ready for us. I don’t think I’ve ever been more pleased to have to try on clothes. To make matters even more promising, Chase and Abbas both made mistakes when taking their measurements, and thus, both of their suits require a significant amount of pinning and adjusting, which means the conversation about me and Greer is tabled at least for the time being.

  It’s not until we’re changing back into our own clothes, Simon is packing up and Abbas sneaks off to have a not-so-secret, secret rendezvous with Mallory, that Chase starts in on me again. At least this time, he’s alone. Even Soren isn’t around since he took off on some official business or another shortly after the fitting started. To be honest, I think he just didn’t want to stick around to watch a bunch of guys get dressed up and stand around like male mannequins.

  “You have to tell her how you feel.”

  “I can’t.” I’ve been over it a million times already. If Chase wants to go a million and one, I’m ready. I have my reasons. And they can’t be swayed or argued away.

  “Because you think she doesn’t feel the same way?”

  I shake my head, keeping my eyes on my shirt while I finish buttoning it up again. “Because I know she does. And if I tell her I love and that I want her to stay, she will.”

  “Please, keep making my argument for me,” he teases, bending down to tie his shoes.

  “I can’t let her stay.” I reach the last of my buttons and almost start to undo them again just for something to do.

  “Because she’s an aspiring actress and Linden has but one pathetic theater and no TV or Film industry to speak of?” Done with his shoes, he stands upright and moves directly in front of me, making it impossible for me to continue to casually ignore him while we have this chat.

  “Because she’s disappearing. The longer she’s here, the less Greer she is. And I can’t let Linden snuff out all the parts of her I fell in love with to begin with.” The acting thing is an excuse too easy to lean into and even easier to erase. We might not have acting gigs to spare, but we have planes. She could fly to any audition or job she ever wanted. It would require a longer commute than hopping on the subway, but it could be done. It would be done. If she stayed. Which she won’t.

  “Oh, good. Mommy issues on both sides.” Oddly enough, I sense some sympathy in his mockery. “Has it occurred to you, that maybe she’s less Greer not because she’s in Linden but because she’s overcompensating in her acting on account of trying to hide how much she’s not pretending when she’s walking around being all in love with you and shit?”

  No.

  “It started before we left,” I point out. “That morning, in her fake fiancée outfit with her new fake fiancée hair, that’s when it started.”

  “Yeah.” He nods. “I was there. She was acting then. In costume. Doing legit acting. Because she agreed to be your fake fiancée.”

  “Yeah. But why should being my fiancée, fake or otherwise, require her to change? Why didn’t I just insist on bringing her home exactly as she was?”

  Chase flat out laughs at me. “Probably because you both needed reminding that everything was pretend. And creating a fake personality and look to go with the fake engagement was a good way to do that.” He rolls his eyes. “Get real, Lachlan. Neither of you would
have agreed to pretend and not pretend when you were both already so clearly into each other, which was, of course, the only reason either of you agreed to pretend in the first place.” He stops there until he notices me staring at him. “Don’t even act like you didn’t follow all of that.”

  I did. I don’t feel good about it, but that actually made perfect sense. “So, I have to tell her how I feel.”

  He nods. “You have to tell her how you feel.”

  “Tonight. After dinner.” Now that it’s decided, dinner seems like a painfully long time to wait. On the other hand, it’ll give me time to do something I’ve wanted to do since the night of our official engagement dinner. “First, I need to go see my father.”

  Chase doesn’t even ask why. And next thing I know, I’m bursting into my father’s study. Thankfully, he’s alone.

  “You look upset.” He stands from his desk, concern furrowing his brow as soon as he sees me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” Everything. Everything between me and Greer and how we ended up here, is all wrong. But we can still make it right. “I was wondering if it was too late to choose mom’s ring.”

  He chuckles and I can hear his relief in the sound. “It’s never too late for that.” He walks out from his desk to meet me. “The way you looked storming in here, I was afraid you were about to tell me the wedding was off.”

  “That would be bad timing, huh,” I joke though we both know there’s not much funny about it.

  My father takes it more seriously than I expected. “Timing,” he says quietly, his hand moving out to gesture for us to sit in the overstuffed leather chairs near the window. “You’re not rushing this wedding on my account, are you?”

  “Honestly?” It suddenly feels like I have a lot of catching up to do in that department. “It seemed like the smoothest way to put an end to the which son will be the heir debate.”

  My father leans back in his chair, one hand resting on his knee, the other coming up under his chin. “I wasn’t aware it was up for debate.”