𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙺𝚎𝚢𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚢 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 (𝙰 𝚂𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢)

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚜

I wait in the safe room with Liam for what feels like 80 trillion years, but it's not. Several hours pass by of me and Liam just talking about our families, mainly about my family. Liam wants to hear everything about Mom and Dad's romance. 

So I repeat everything to him as he listens and nods along. When I ask him about how his life is, he tells me a few things, but he's holding back and doesn't make any attempt to hide it. 

Weird whirring noises come from the door, and Liam and I lock eyes briefly before Liam grabs a meat knife from this small pile of cutlery and pushes me into the corner and shields me with his body. I slip away from him and turn the light off before I run back and Liam moves to shield me again. 

The door opens and light fills the room from outside. The light gleams off of Liam's knife, and the person outside shouts triumphantly. "Found someone!" The voice is definitely male, and I hear a female voice ask quietly, "Who?" 

"Mom!" Liam exclaims and drops the knife. He runs to the door and I follow him. Queen Paige reliefs a happy cry and grabs Liam and holds him close. "Oh god, I thought you were dead. Where were you? I'm so sorry dear, but we have reason to believe that Iris is gone." 

Liam looks at his mom weirdly and says, "She and I were in the same safe room Mom. She and I are both fine." Paige sees me and smiles weakly. "Oh good, we thought that you had left. One of the girls didn't understand and was taken by the Easterner's." I take a deep breath in and cross my fingers that its not Charlotte, who's coming to be my super close friend. 

"Who?" I ask. "She was a five, Amelia Johnson, from Palome, I believe." The queen replies. "But thank goodness both of you are alive and well." She adds quickly. 

Liam and Paige walk away, and one of the guards escorts me to a room. My maids aren't in there, but Charlotte is. "Oh thank god! I thought you were dead!" She exclaimed and gave me a hug. 

"Yup, I'm fine." I reassure her. "Where were you?" She asks. "I was umm - I got stuck in a room with Prince Liam." I tell her. Charlotte groans and at my puzzled look, she says "Do you know how bad this will look? Claire already came after you. What will happen if she comes after you-again?"