Declan: You have ten minutes.
Declan: Ten minutes are up.
Declan: I’m calling Jean.
Jean: Adrian? Come on. Not again.
Jean: Sooner or later we’ll find you. You’re the prince. You can’t hide forever.
I scroll farther into the night after Declan had no choice but to call my mom.
Mom: You cannot ditch security.
Felicia: Seriously Adrian, grow the fuck up.
Mom: What if something happens? People are crazy. Declan is frantically searching for you.
Rowan: Mom’s crying. Something bad happened. Wanna play Xbox?
Dad: Your mother called. This adolescent behavior has to stop. Call Declan to pick you up NOW.
Mom: Please sweetie. Don’t be upset about me contacting Dad, I’m worried and have no idea what to do.
Felicia: I need you and this isn’t about you going rogue on security.
Mom: You were tagged. Declan’s coming now.
Declan: Where did you go? I know you were at this bar. Stop running.
Jean: There’s a hold on all your credit cards. Good luck going anywhere.
Ha! Little did Jean know I had more than enough cash for a typical night out.
There’s silence through the rest of the night, and this morning, there’s only one text from my mom.
Mom: I love you and I know you love me. Please don’t make me worry. It’s time to call now, sweetie. It’s time to stop hiding.
I leave the pastries and coffees on a small table and go into the small hotel store, picking out a shirt and shorts for Sierra and me. Once I’m done, I sit in the chair away from any prying ears and dial my mother, prepared for her wrath.
“Adrian,” she says, sighing.
“I just wanted one night,” I grumble.
“I know, but when is it going to stop? When will it be enough? Declan is beside himself. Jean blames Declan. Felicia is doing everything she can to keep everything out of the press.”
I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, my head down.
“Your father is here, I’m putting you on speaker.”
I roll my eyes and pull my leg up to rest on my knee. This should be good. Him lecturing me on proper behavior.
“Adrian, I demand you return home right now.”
“Yeah, thanks, but I don’t think so.”
“This is not a choice. I am prepared to cut you off. You think because you had a few hundred bucks to mess around with in New York City that you have any idea what it’s like to not have the privilege this life offers you? Maybe it would do you some good to learn how blessed you are in this life you hate so much.”
His authoritative voice doesn’t make me want to comply. Not after he’s the one who ruined our family.
My phone dings and I look to see Felicia is calling.
“I’ll call you right back,” I say.
“We need to talk—”
I cut my dad off and click over to Felicia. “Yeah, yeah, save the lecture.”
“We have bigger problems than you acting like a runaway child. A reporter has figured out what’s going on. I’m not sure if Dad’s friend talked or not, but they want money to keep quiet.”
My head rolls across the back of the seat. “It’s going to come out.”
“I’m doing everything I can, but you know if it comes out and they get a divorce… you know what that means, right?”
I might hate my life, but I know the royal rules that govern my birthplace. If my parents get divorced, I’m to marry immediately and take the throne. Only a king and a queen may serve.
“Yeah, I know.”
“It means you’d have to marry Princess Adelaide.”
Aggravation gnaws at my insides. “I know.”
“You have to stop running away.”
“I don’t want to marry her. Look what happened to Mom and Dad. He cheated because he married a woman he didn’t love.”
“They love each other.”
Felicia is a glass-half-full person, where I always see the glass as half empty.
“Like a brother and sister and still he could do that to her.” I’m angry enough without having to see my dad with someone else. I can’t imagine how Felicia does it, having seen it in person.
“I know. But rules are rules.”
“For being such a tough bitch, you sure sit back and let the rules from centuries ago stick it to you.”
She scoffs. “Don’t take it out on me. It’s not my fault I don’t have a dick.”
Felicia was born first, and out of the three of us, she’s the only one who can’t rule, even if she is the most suited.
“It’s time to come home now. I gave you your night without cameras.”
I tap my fingers on my ankle, staring at the two coffees and bag of pastries. The bag of his and hers I Heart New York T-shirts. “I’m not ready yet.”
“I don’t care.”
“I’m going to call Mom and arrange a deal.”
“Adrian? This is ridiculous. Just come home.”
“I love you.” I hang up and dial my mom back, but of course my dad picks up.
“Adrian, you do not hang up on us—”
I cut him off before he gets a chance to launch his lecture. “I’ll come home and marry Princess Adelaide on one condition.”
“No.”
“What is it, sweetie?” my mom asks, always the one to give in to us. I think she secretly wanted to live a normal life before marrying a prince.
“We are not adhering to his demands,” he says to my mom. “You are to contact Declan to alert him of your whereabouts and then you are to come home.”
“I want two months. Two months.”
“You’re supposed to meet Princess Adelaide and her parents in a month. It’s all been arranged. A short courtship and a quick wedding,” my mom says.
The thought nauseates me, but I’ll do it if they’ll give me this time to just be myself, figure out who that really is.
“I want two months. You two need to look happy and get that woman to keep her mouth shut. If I’m going to sacrifice my entire life to rule Sandsal and marry a woman I don’t know, then you can do it for two months.”
Silence is all I hear from the other side of the phone.
I watch as a happy couple leaves the hotel, the man carrying a large garment bag. Their shirts are inscribed with bride and groom in white cursive letters and their smiles could brighten all of Brooklyn. Jealousy knifes me in the heart.
I hear my parents talking in low murmurs, my dad’s seething voice a little louder than my mom’s.
“Okay,” my mom says.
My dad intervenes quickly. “Two months. But you’re cut off. Whatever money you have with you is all you’ve got from us. You do not have Declan or Jean. If you really want to do this, you’re on your own.”
As shallow as it sounds, I hadn’t really thought about that part of it, but he’s right. If I want to experience a life without the handcuffs my privileged life stifles me with, I can’t have the gains of it either. “Fine.”
“Where will you live?” my mom asks.
“I’ll figure that out and be in touch.”
“In two months, you are to return home and I never want one of these disappearing acts to happen again, is that understood? You come home, marry Princess Adelaide, and rule this country without any argument.”