Dirty Crown: A Bad Boy Secret Baby Royal Romance (with BONUS book - Rebel Rockstar!) (17 page)

We pant next to each other, grinning and laughing happily, both fully satisfied now in a way that we haven’t been for ages.

“How much time do we have before we need to pick up Lily?” He asks me, which fills me with happiness.

He’s really taking his role as a father seriously, and that makes me so pleased.

“We still have a little while left, why are you suggesting round two?” I joke, winding him up.

“Very funny, as if you haven’t completely shattered me!” He laughs.

“No, I just don’t want to be late.”

We lay in silence for a few moments, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

“Are you sure that you want to go to America?” I check with him.

“I just want whatever plan we go for to make us all happy.” I would do anything for Edward now, and it isn’t exactly like I have a whole life that I
need
to get back to out there.

Bill might miss me, but he would be able to replace me, and Lily does have school friends, but as she’s proven she can easily make more.

Going home would be absolutely fine, but so would staying here if that’s what Edward needs. Sure I don’t like the idea of being anywhere near the queen, but it’s also a sacrifice that I’m more than willing to make for the love of my life.

She’s his mother anyway, it’s unlikely that we will be able to avoid her forever, no matter what we do.

“I want to be with you,” he tells me.

“I don’t care where, as long as we’re together. You are all that I’ve ever wanted, and all that I ever will want.” He holds my face in his hands, grinning at me.

“I won’t ever think about what my life could have been if you’re by my side, but if I lose you and Lily, that’s
all
that I’ll think about.”

The guilt of Edward losing his life starts to ebb away. If he feels as strongly as I do, and it really seems like he does, then nothing else will matter.

We will make it work, no matter what.

“
C
ome on guys
!” I cry out, trying to sound much happier than I’m really feeling.

I’m exhausted, and so are Lily and Faith, but we’re about to start our brand new life so we need some enthusiasm about that.

“Let’s get to the airport, the car is already waiting outside for us.”

“But I’m tired,” Lily whines, shooting a sad look at her comfy bed.

“Do we have to go right now?”

I lean down to her, and I hold her in my arms.

“I know sweetie, but the plane leaves soon. You can always sleep on the ride over.”

But the look that she gives me breaks my heart. I can already tell that she has me wrapped around her little finger, which isn’t a good sign. That will only get worse the older she gets, which means that I’m in for years of trouble!

So because I don’t want her to look sad for even another second longer, I pick her up and carry her in my arms, angling her bag and my own in my hands too. I’m overloaded, but I don’t even care. As long as we’re all happy.

“Are you okay?” I ask Faith.

“All ready to go?”

“I think so!” She shoots me a smile, but I think that I can detect a little strain there.

I hope that she isn’t still worrying about what I’m giving up to be with her, and I really don’t care. None of that means anything to me, and I can’t wait to spend every day proving that to her.

By the time we all step into the car, Lily has fallen back to sleep, so I lay her down across the back seat, and I pick her back up again to carry her inside.

We sit in the first class lounge – Faith sipping her coffee, Lily still drifting in and out of slumber, and I start to feel restless. I need to get going now, and it’s driving me crazy that we still have to wait. I’ve never really loved airports, and today, with all of this hanging over me, I’m more irritated than normal.

“I’m going to grab a newspaper,” I tell Faith, before heading to the shop.

Once there, I feel like all eyes are upon me. I have goose bumps bursting up and down my neck, and it’s making me feel very uncomfortable.

I have always been in the public eye, so it wouldn’t be a huge shock that people know who I am, but this feels different.

More purposeful.

More intense.

I grab the paper quickly and get back outside, wanting to be back in the safety of the first class lounge.

Out here, I feel too exposed, and that’s the last thing that I need.

“That was so weird,” I mutter as I slide back down on the seat next to Faith.

“It felt like…”

“Edward?” There’s an odd fear in her voice, one that has my eyes snapping up towards her.

“What happened?” I ask, with a million and one scenarios popping through my mind, each one of them involving the next awful thing that my mum has done.

“What’s going on? Are you okay? Is Lily alright?”

She doesn’t say anything, she simply hands me my phone, displaying a web page for me. I scan my eyes over it, feeling sicker and sicker with every single word.

This is the weirdest thing ever, and it explains why everyone was staring at me.

It’s the whole story – me, Faith, Lily… Kristine too. Every sordid detail, every bit, including the stabbing threat.

I open up the newspaper too, seeing a very similar story plastered across the front page.

How the hell did I miss this when I picked it up? If I hadn't been so distracted, so confused as to why everyone was looking at me, then I might have spotted this sooner.

“What the hell is all of this?” I hear myself asking.

“I don’t know,” Faith admits.

“Someone must have sold the story.”

Someone.

Who?

Marcus.

He’s the only person that I can think of. It discusses everything that went down between Kristine and Faith, and if it wasn’t so negative about the princess, I might have assumed that it was her trying another way to get to me.

Maybe it was Kristine, and it backfired on her.

“I don’t understand,” Faith continues.

“Isn’t everything that happens in the palace protected? Isn’t it all private? How has this happened? How do they know all the details?”

I read through all the details about the forced engagement, and the incident with the knife, and the truth about my feelings for Faith.

There are really only a few people that know all of this, which limits the possibility of who it could be massively.

But why?

Is it to try and make me stay?

Or is it to force me away?

I really don’t know how to feel about it – should I be mad or kind of happy? It really does expose a different side to the story, a more realistic one that the public hasn’t been able to see just yet.

Maybe now they can stop feeling sorry for me, thinking that I was taken advantage of. They can finally see that we were torn apart, but that we got our happy ending in the end.

“What are we going to do?” Faith asks me, clearly panicked.

“It’s everywhere!”

She clicks through a bunch of websites and social media accounts, showing me that somehow this story is going nuts.

“What the hell!” I snatch it from her, taking a closer look myself.

“Why is everyone so interested in this?”

Sure, I know it’s a bit insane, but this is something else.

Then I click through the comments that people have made about the story, and all becomes so much clearer.

‘Wow, this shows a very different side to the royal family – maybe money can’t buy happiness after all!’

‘That crazy Norwegian bitch sounds awful! Edward should marry his one true love – who cares if she isn’t nobility? This isn’t the fifteenth century!’

‘Poor Faith All she did was fall in love with a man who happens to be a prince.’

“They all love you,” It tell her, unable to disguise my shock.

“Everyone is sticking up for you, suggesting that the royal family is wrong.”

“Are you serious?” She takes it from me, seeing the evidence for herself.

“This is crazy, I don’t get it! Why the hell are they all saying nice things about me?”

“I suppose you’ve lived the fantasy, and paid the price for it,” I joke, but she’s far too stunned to laugh.

She looks absolutely gob smacked by it all.

“I’m going to go and find a TV,” I tell her, really needing to do something about this.

“They usually have the news on somewhere, I’ll try and find out what’s going on.”

As I walk my mind reels with all of this. How has this even happened? Normally stories written about the royal family are mostly invented because we only give away so much, so I can let it wash over me, but everything within these reports is accurate which means that someone approved the story going public.

Someone in that damn palace had a reason for doing this, and I really want to know what it is.

I eventually stumble across a screen, which gives me even more reason to feel stunned. There are actually protestors outside of the palace, with boards and everything. They are unhappy with the way that Faith and Lily have been treated, so much so that they are making a stand about it.

How has our little love story, that I thought was only between us, become such public knowledge?

It’s weird having it displayed in front of us, with every single detail laid out in such a way. It makes me realize just how bizarre and intense the whole thing has been.

Ring, ring. Ring, ring.

My phone starts to ring in my pocket, and when I pull it out, I’m stunned to see the name plastered across the screen.

“Mum?” I ask into the handset, my heart racing with a weird kind of scared feeling.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Oh Edward,” I can instantly tell that she’s crying, which makes it even stranger.

“I’m so glad that you answered. I didn’t think that you would ever speak to me again.”

“Mum, please just tell me what’s happening.” I ask wearily.

“I don’t understand any of it.”

“Trust me,” she insists – using the hardest words in the world.

How the hell am I supposed to trust her after everything that she’s put me through?

“I only just found out about this today – I have less idea than you.”

“So you didn’t know that Kristine was crazy? You didn’t hear about her threatening Faith and Lily with a knife?”

“Of course not!” She actually sounds offended that I’ve dared to say this.

“What sort of person do you think I am? I knew Kristine was… difficult, but I thought some time alone with you, with your calming presence she would grow out of that.”

She sighs deeply and sadly.

“It’s just her parents… they’ve always spoilt her in a terrible way, and her behavior is a reflection of that.”

“Okay,” I shake my head, not truly believing anything that she’s saying.

“So… why are you calling exactly? What is the point of all of this?”

“Now that I understand better, I want you to come home. I want to see you,
all
of you, and I want to talk to you properly…”

“No,” I jump in right away.

There is no way that I’m going back there now after everything she’s put us through. She’s probably only doing this now because the public have gotten wind of this story. If not, she might never have spoken to me ever again.

“I’m leaving the country mum, and I don’t intend to come back.”

“But…” I can hear her speaking, but I’ve pulled the phone from my ear and I’m already hanging up.

None of this will matter soon enough, once we’re in America, all of this will have been forgotten.

I stalk back to where Faith is sitting, a frustrated anger coursing through my veins. How dare she come back to me now and spout all of that crap at me?

My mum has never cared about me, which she has repeatedly proven recently, and I don’t think that she’s any better now. I don’t trust her one bit, and I don’t think I ever will.

“You won’t believe this,” I explode as I see Faith once more.

“Mum just rang me and asked us to come there to speak with her… all because there are protestors outside the palace. She is unbelievable. After everything, she wants us to rush back there, just because she wants the public to see her as a nice person…”

I’m truly on a rant now, unable to stop myself. “If would be nice if she asked me how I’m feeling, how this has affected me, but no…”

“I think that we should go,” Faith interrupts me, quietly.

“What?” I gasp, staring at her with shock plastered across my face.

She cannot be serious?

“What do you mean? Why?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do, and I think that you know that.” She sounds so wise, which means that she’s probably right, but I’m too pissed off to see that.

“No one else cares about doing the right thing, so why should I? Why should I give her the time of day?”

“To be the bigger person, to set a good example for your daughter. If you leave without doing this, you won’t have your closure, and it’ll plague you forever.” She holds my hands in hers and stares deeply into my eyes.

“We won’t be able to have the fresh start that we all need. This is for you and me, not her, not the public.
We
need this.”

I sigh deeply, hanging my head in despair.

Why does she have to make so much sense?

“Okay,” I tell her.

“I’ll call my mum and tell her to send a car.”

As the phone rings, I feel incredibly conflicted. I don’t know what the right thing is anymore, and that’s hard to deal with. I didn’t used to be this indecisive – but then again, I’ve never had to face such difficult decisions before.

“Edward?” Mum asks into the phone.

“Have you changed your mind?”

“Send a car,” I demand, nowhere near ready to be forgiving just yet.

“We will be there soon enough.”

“Thank you,” she replies.

“That really does mean a lot.”

But I can’t think of anything to say, so I shut the phone down, cutting her off before I reply with something that I’ll regret.

Well,
I think to myself.

Here goes nothing…