LITMIR.BIZ

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fly to Africa and tell me in person we didn’t have to go through with it.”

      “I’m afraid that wasn’t our destiny, Christina. Everything has escalated out of control, the paparazzi have driven things to a higher pitch. Father’s chief assistant, Guido, had me on the phone, urging me to marry you as soon as possible. The people are fed up with my parents. They want our marriage to take place for the good of the monarchy, reminding me of the danger of an abolished royal family if we wait.”

      “I know. That’s because they want you for their king, and you need a queen. I understand that, but I’d rather you didn’t start using meaningless platitudes with me.”

      “I was complimenting you,” he asserted.

      “I’m glad we could help preserve Elena’s reputation along with your family’s, but I don’t want compliments. Your sister is doing much better these days and has a boyfriend who treats her well. Let’s be happy for that and avoid any unnecessary pretense.”

      Antonio had come to the bridal suite already deeply immersed in troubled thoughts about their forthcoming marriage. Her last remark only added to his anxiety. He put the small velvet-lined box at the foot of the bed. After closing the doors quietly behind him, he left the bridal suite and walked down the corridor to the staircase of the three-storied palazzo.

      Zach, his best friend, would be waiting for him in the bedroom just off the staircase of the second floor. By now some hundred and fifty guests had arrived for the ceremony, including his parents and their entourage. The small wedding Christina wanted had grown to royal proportions. It had been inevitable.

      Antonio had met Christina when he went to Switzerland many times to visit his younger sister at boarding school. She always asked if her roommate, Christina, could come along with them when they went out for fondue au fromage or took the ferry to see the sights around Lake Geneva.

      Though Antonio thought of Christina as his sister’s pudgy friend, he’d found her sensible and soft-spoken, and probably the sweetest girl he’d ever met. That favorable impression of her grew deep roots when she’d phoned him in the middle of the night about Elena four years ago.

      His sister had needed help because she and her loser addict boyfriend had been hauled off to jail on drug possession. Her boyfriend had been arrested and charged. What if Elena was next to be tainted with a jail record?

      The paparazzi would have blown his sister’s mistake into a royal scandal that would do great damage to the already damaged royal family. Antonio’s parents hadn’t been in favor with the country for a long time and were constantly being criticized in the press for their profligate ways.

      In order to keep Elena’s latest scandalous affair out of the news, Antonio had to think of something quick to take the onus off his wayward younger sister. Thankful beyond words for Christina’s swift intervention with that phone call, he was able to turn things around and had talked her into entering into a mock engagement with him to create a new piece of news.

      If the press focused on his stunning announcement, it would take up column space and deflect the paparazzi’s interest in his sister’s scandal, thus saving Elena’s poor reputation and the family from further scrutiny and ruin.

      After some persuasion Christina had agreed to fly to Halencia and become his fiancée because she loved Elena and had believed the engagement wouldn’t last long. They’d be able to go their own separate ways at some future date. Or so Antonio had thought...

      But once he’d leaked the news of their engagement to the press and it had gone public, everything changed. Elena’s problems with the paparazzi went away like magic. Even more startling, the news of his engagement to the unknown Christina Rose grew legs.

      The country approved of the Cinderella fiancée doing charity work in Kenya, whom he’d plucked out of obscurity. Immediately there was a demand for a royal wedding to become front and center. Guido was insistent on it happening immediately.

      Antonio understood why. The royal approval ratings had dropped to an all-time low. In particular, his and Elena’s philandering parents drew criticism with their string of affairs. There were accusations of them dipping into the royal coffers to fund their extravagant lifestyle. To his chagrin, Elena was also becoming infamous for her wild party ways and uncontrolled spending habits.

      The press had been calling for the king and queen to step down. It was the will of the people that the monarchy be turned into a republic. Or...put Antonio on the throne.

      A lot had gone wrong with his family while Antonio was pursuing his studies and business interests in the US. To his amazement, the separation that had distanced him from all this scandal had endeared him further to his subjects, who saw him as the one person to save the royal dynasty! Christina’s hope that there wouldn’t be a wedding was dashed. So was his... Guido’s phone calls to him had changed everything.

      And had made him feel trapped.

      Once Antonio reached the second floor of the palazzo, he entered the bedroom designated as the groom’s changing room.

      “There you are!” Zach declared with relief. “You have a letter from your father.” He handed him an envelope.

      Antonio opened it and after reading it, he put the note back in the envelope and slid it in his trouser pocket. What were his parents up to now, spending the taxpayers’ money on a honeymoon he hadn’t asked for? He couldn’t say no, but this was the last time public money would be spent on private, privileged citizens of the royal family.

      “It’s getting late,” Zach reminded him. “You have to finish getting ready now. Lindsay has the wedding planned down to the second.”

      Antonio looked at his best man through veiled eyes. “I had to deliver the brooch to Christina so she could pin it on her wedding dress before the ceremony.”

      “How did that go?”

      “She was hiding behind a screen and told me to leave.” Considering the fact that she’d been forced to go through with this marriage they hadn’t planned on, he shouldn’t have been surprised she sounded so upset.

      “That was wedding nerves. Christina was a sweetheart when Lindsay and I met with her for her fittings,” Zach said, helping him on with the midnight blue royal dress uniform jacket.

      After their unexpected exchange upstairs, Antonio didn’t exactly agree with his friend. “She’s not happy about this wedding going ahead.”

      Zach attached the royal blue sash over his left shoulder to his right hip, signaling his rank as crown prince. “She’s a big girl, Antonio. No matter how much she cares for Elena, she wouldn’t have agreed to an engagement with you if deep down she hadn’t wanted to. Christina doesn’t strike me as a woman who would bow out on a commitment once she’d given her word.”

      Antonio grimaced. “She wouldn’t,” he admitted, “but she would have had every right. When I was talking to her upstairs, I heard a mournful sound in her voice. She thought our engagement would have ended before now and she wouldn’t have to go through with a real wedding.” He’d felt her pain. From here on out he’d do everything he could to make her happy.

      “You both underestimated the will of the people who want you to be their ruler.”

      His jaw hardened. “But she didn’t ask for this.” He had a gut feeling there was trouble ahead.

      “So use that genius brain of yours and look at your wedding as new territory. Think of it the way you do with every challenge you face at work. Think it and rethink it until it comes out right.”

      “Thanks for the advice, Zach.”

      His friend meant well, but Antonio couldn’t treat it as he would a business problem. Christina wasn’t a problem. She was a flesh-and-blood human being who’d sacrificed everything for her friend Elena. That kind of loyalty was so rare, Antonio was humbled by it. His concern was to be worthy of the woman whose selflessness had catapulted her to the highest rank in the kingdom.

      Zach

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