Royal Scandal (The Prince's Choice Book 2)

by Leila Haven

  “I can talk to her for you.”

  “No, don’t. She needs to calm down.”

  Anna left, and I was alone. I didn’t know what to do. My instincts were to go to Melody, but I couldn’t. Not now. Not after what just happened.

  There was no way I could go to bed and sleep so I took my drink out onto the balcony. It overlooked the garden, the air thick with the scent of blooming flowers. The moon illuminated the grounds, giving everything a blue tinge. Nobody was outside, making everything whisper-quiet. Not even the traffic from the city could infiltrate the stillness of the night.

  I sat down on a wire-framed chaise lounge, sinking into the soft cushion. I’d stuffed up completely with Melody. There was little hope now that she’d calm down enough to walk down the aisle tomorrow. My father had tasked me with one thing, and I let him down. How I would break the news to him was unfathomable.

  “Are you getting cold feet?” The question made my head snap around. My mother, in her white nightgown, was standing at the door.

  “No. I still want to get married tomorrow,” I replied.

  She shuffled over in her slippers to sit beside me. “Then why do you look so unhappy?”

  “Because I messed up.”

  I told my mother about what had just transpired. It was selfish burdening her with the news, but she was the only one in the palace I trusted with the information. I wanted my mother to tell me everything would be all right, like she did when I was a child.

  “I withheld the full truth from her and now she wants nothing to do with me,” I finished.

  My mother placed her hand over my arm. “The hardest things in life are often the most rewarding. To achieve them, we must fight for them.”

  “What are you saying?” I was genuinely confused. My brain was too fuzzy to solve riddles.

  “I’m saying you have to fight for what you want. If Melody is what you want, then you must put everything you possibly can into getting her.”

  “She doesn’t want me.”

  “That’s not true. You hurt her, and she’s upset. But she wanted to marry you and that kind of love doesn’t disappear in an instant. You must heal her heart, then she can feel that love for you again.”

  “How do I do that?”

  She tapped the side of her nose. “That’s for you to work out, my dear boy.”

  My mother wasn’t going to be able to solve my problems for me. Only I could do that. And sitting around drinking bourbon wasn’t going to help. I needed to move. I needed to find Melody and fix the mess I created.

  I thanked my mother and went back into the palace. It was an enormous building, and Melody could have been anywhere. I started with her rooms, finding them empty. There were also some personal items missing from her bedroom—including her handbag and coat. That wasn’t a good sign.

  My search was methodical after that. I went from room to room, asking anyone I saw if they’d seen her. From all accounts, she was a ghost. Somehow, she’d slipped away with nobody noticing.

  I went through the entire palace, ending up in the sunroom. I crawled onto the couch and tried to think where else I could look. She must have gone into the city, and from there, she could be anywhere.

  Pure exhaustion took me over as I laid down on the couch. I only intended on closing my eyes for a moment when sleep swept me away.

  I awoke to the sun glinting through the windows, splayed directly over my face. I sat upright and rubbed at my eyes. For just a moment, I remembered it was my wedding day and excitement rumbled in my stomach.

  Then I remembered the full story.

  I needed to find Melody. I had five hours before we were to be married. Five hours to convince her to be my wife. Five hours to track her down.

  It seemed an impossible feat.

  As I hurried through the palace, politely greeting our guests as they appeared, I tried to formulate a plan. My first stop were her rooms, desperately checking to make sure she had not returned.

  She hadn’t.

  Her rooms were still as dormant as the night before. Her cousins did not know her whereabouts either. They didn’t appear to be stalling me. For Melody not to confide in her cousins, she must have been beyond upset.

  My cell phone was still in my office so I hurried up to retrieve it. All my hopes rested on finding a message there from her, but there were none. She clearly wanted nothing more to do with me.

  A knock on my office door instantly sparked hope. But it wasn’t Melody; it was Anna. “You look like you haven’t slept.”

  “I got a few hours in,” I replied. “Have you seen Melody? I can’t find her anywhere.”

  Anna shook her head. “No, sorry. The wedding is in four and a half hours. What do you want me to do?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  “You need a wife.”

  “I know.” I was letting the entire kingdom down by not marrying. If my uncle took the crown, he would make everyone suffer. There would be no way to undo my mistake. It would be his successor who next inherited the crown.

  Anna entered the office and closed the door behind her. “Marry me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I said marry me, Richard. You need a wife. You have a wedding planned. I can be your princess.”

  I started laughing because I thought she was joking. But the curves of her lips turned downwards. Anna wasn’t kidding around; she was serious. “Anna—”

  “Just think about it, Richard. You know me. We get along beautifully. Your parents love me. I know in time you can love me too. I already love you.” She confessed the last part quietly, her eyes downcast.

  My heart bled for her. I didn’t love Anna. She was more like the sister I never had. But she had a point too. I needed a wife. My father was only just clinging to life, and we had hundreds of guests arriving this morning. I didn’t have time to find another woman to fall in love with and propose to.

  What Anna was suggesting was a possible solution.

  If Melody was determined to shun me from her life, if she refused to love me anymore, then what choice did I have?

  I needed a wife.

  Chapter 14

  Melody

  ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

  My eyes were blurry, making it difficult to see. The first rays of light were doing their best to reach the ground but weren’t quite making it into the courtyard—the palace was too tall.

  I needed to get out of there. All I wanted to do was be as far away from the palace and everyone within it as I could possibly be. They’d all kept me in the dark, and there was no believing that they would have ever brought me into their secret circle.

  It was almost morning, and I’d been stumbling around the grounds since the sun peaked over the horizon. I’d spent the night in my cousin’s room, begging her not to tell anyone I was there.

  Now, I needed to move out. It wouldn’t be long before the wedding guests started to arrive. There was already activity around the place, as people organized outside decorations for the ceremony chapel area.

  I had no money on me. If I were to get a hotel room, I would need cash or they would track me down through my credit cards. I couldn’t even get a taxi to take me there with no funds in my pockets.

  I stumbled through the courtyard, trying to stick to the shadows so nobody would see me. I wasn’t even sure if anyone was looking for me, but I couldn’t take a chance. I would have remained in my cousin’s room if all the air didn’t feel like it was being sucked out me within the four walls.

  “Melody? Is that you?” The female voice had me frozen. It took me a moment to place who it was. I turned around.

  “Yes, just out for an early walk,” I replied, flashing a horribly fake smile for Violet.

  She took the few steps to reach me. “You look terrible. Have you been crying? Your eyes are all red.”

  I obviously looked as bad as I felt. “It’s nothing.”

  Violet linked her arm around mine, taking me by the elbow, so we continued to walk li
ke there was nothing wrong. “You can talk to me, Melody. We were friends in the competition. We used to discuss things.”

  We did. Even though we were vying for the same man, there was still an underlying friendship between us. Maybe she would have a perspective that I hadn’t considered before. “Rick and I had an argument. He’s been keeping secrets from me.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  She nodded. “Of course you can.”

  “When you were staying at the palace, did you feel like Rick loved you?” I asked, chewing on my bottom lip while I waited for the answer. It felt like my entire future rested on that one question.

  “No, I didn’t. That’s how I knew deep down that you were always going to win. He looked at you differently from the rest of us.”

  “Looked at me how?”

  “Like he already knew you. Like you were the one he had been waiting all his life for. Whether he knew it or not, the decision was made the second he laid eyes on you,” Violet said kindly. How she could say such nice things after we’d competed was beyond me. It must have been hard going through the competition if that was how she’d always felt. She, and all the other women, had hid it well.

  “I think he might be using me,” I blurted out. I wouldn’t betray his secret, but my feelings and suspicions were all my own.

  “Him or the crown? I think that’s the question I would need answered.”

  Was it Rick or the crown? I didn’t know. He needed to be married to inherit the position of king. Was that for him, because he wanted to be king? Or was it for the kingdom, so that none other took the throne?

  Everything I’d read and heard about the line of succession said that Rick’s uncle was second in line to the throne. So if Rick didn’t inherit, I assumed his uncle would. I’d met him at the engagement ball, and he wasn’t someone I would trust on the throne. He had eyes that were always calculating and a sneer that betrayed his harsh nature.

  Rick didn’t seem to think much of his uncle either. The few words he’d spoken about him weren’t kind, so there was obviously some animosity between them. Rick was probably fearful that his uncle would inherit the crown at some stage.

  But, then again, everything I knew about Rick told me he was a reluctant prince. He quested for freedom; he didn’t want the kingdom on his shoulders.

  He was using me for the crown.

  For the kingdom.

  So his uncle never sat on the throne.

  It should have made it better, but it didn’t change the vast hurt I felt in my gut. My heart was still broken, obliterated into millions of tiny pieces.

  Violet continued without my answer. “It was a relief when I was told you had been chosen as his bride. It must be difficult agreeing to take all this on.” She gestured to the palace. “It’s a huge responsibility. I can’t imagine how it must feel to marry into a dynasty.”

  The strange thing was, it never really bothered me that much. Yes, I was afraid of letting the royal family and the kingdom down, but I was ready for the challenge. I was ready to step into the role of princess and serve alongside Rick.

  “It’s a big change,” I admitted.

  But it was a massive undertaking. Perhaps these lies were what I needed, an opportunity to escape from what would be a very controlled future. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

  “If you need anything, let me know,” Violet finished. “I’m on your side, no matter what happens. You know where you can find me.”

  “Thank you. I really mean it.”

  She patted my arm and let me go, walking back toward the palace like we’d just discussed the weather. I wished I’d made more of an effort to be good friends with her. In the competition, it hadn’t seemed possible.

  I kept walking while I tried to clear my head. My feet kept chewing up the ground until I found myself in the forest that ringed its way around most of the palace. I’d been here only once before, and that was on a picnic date with Rick. It had been a turning point in our budding relationship.

  Rick told me that night that he used to come here when he was a child. He would hide from everyone here and use the solace to think about things until nightfall. I’d felt for that poor little boy with the world on his shoulders.

  The logs that surrounded our picnic area were still there. I sat on one, feeling the change in temperature underneath the trees’ canopy. The fairy lights that had been wound around the branches were gone now.

  How could Rick have hurt me so badly? I trusted him and always thought he wouldn’t let me down like others had done in the past. I thought he was solid; I thought he wanted to build a life with me.

  I thought he loved me.

  But it seemed that I was blinded by my love for him. I’d made him into this perfect man, put him up on a pedestal, and then been shattered when he fell. It wasn’t my fault that I fell in love with him, but it was his fault that he hurt me.

  And Anna knew about it. All the time she must have been so smug in the knowledge that I was only a placeholder. She was probably waiting for this moment, waiting to take my place as the bride. She had planned the wedding to her tastes. It would be a dream come true for her to step into my shoes. I’m just surprised she didn’t tell me herself sooner.

  Leaves rustled behind me. “I’m not ready to talk yet, Violet.”

  “I don’t want you to talk,” Rick said.

  He shocked me into silence, every part of me frozen in place. I didn’t even turn around to face him. If I did, I wasn’t sure what would happen.

  Would I burst into tears again?

  Would I run into his arms?

  Would I slap him across the face?

  I was a loose cannon, so the best thing I could do was remain still and quiet. If it got to be too much, I could always walk away. I never had to stay anywhere I didn’t want to be; my mother had always told me that.

  “I never wanted to lie to you. I promise you that. My father’s condition has been rapidly declining, so much so that he could have days, at most. The current legislation states that I must be married in order to inherit. If I’m not, my uncle will take over the throne. He is not fit for the station. He will lead the kingdom into ruin.”

  All I was hearing was background noise. He could talk until he was blue in the face, but it didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want to marry me out of love. He was doing it out of duty.

  “When my father received his diagnosis, he told me about the legislation. We had a discussion as a family, and it was decided I would seek out a wife immediately. Once I found that woman, the wedding would be arranged as soon as possible. The deadline for this has continually been brought forward as his health declined.”

  His voice was calm and stable, the tone I had come to know over the past few weeks as he spoke to the public. I didn’t want the prince to speak with me now; I wanted Rick.

  “When I met you, I was so excited. I knew you were the woman I had been searching for. You were the one woman that I could not only see by my side, but also really see with me. I knew you would be my partner in life, not just a placeholder. I thought we could have the kind of love I’d seen in my parents, the kind of love that truly does last a lifetime and beyond.”

  I’d witnessed his parents’ love with my own eyes. On the few occasions when the king had been present, they were always holding hands or whispering between themselves. The gazes they shared bespoke of a deep connection between the two of them.

  “I proposed to you because I love you, and I want to marry you. If it weren’t for the illness, then yes, I would have waited longer to ask for your hand in marriage. It would probably have taken months for me to pluck up the courage to pop the question. But I would have done it, and I would have been just as thrilled when you said ‘yes.’”

  I knew he was being honest now. It felt like he was letting his guard down so only the man was standing behind me and not the crown. This was the Rick that I knew most intimately, t
he one I loved.

  “I was wrong to lie to you. Since I was born, I have been conditioned to keep palace matters to myself. I was told as a child never to tell anyone what happens to my parents, and I took this learned behavior into my adulthood. It became so ingrained that it’s difficult to ignore. You should have been the exception, and under normal circumstances, I would have seen that. But I haven’t been thinking clearly.

  “I know you think I used you, and I don’t blame you for coming to that conclusion. But you are wrong. I have always wanted to marry you and that hasn’t changed. Nothing will change that. You are my princess, and I would move heaven and earth to make that happen.