Kaden | ✓

part eighteen ♚ passé

It took a moment for Marilyn to explode. By the time she did, I had prepared myself for the blast.

"How am I not going to be continuing on?" She demanded. "Even if you don't want me as princess, I'm a perfect candidate! I'm rich! I'm famous! The people love me! I'm beautiful!"

I gathered my patience. "Marilyn," I said calmly. "I don't need money, my family is wealthy enough. Valentina is famous as well, and the people love the other girls too. Yes, you are beautiful, and yes, I think you have some great qualities. However, what I'm looking for is someone I want to spend the rest of my life with, and I can't see a life beyond this competition with you."

She waved that off. "You don't need a wife and we all know it. You need someone to bear your children and put on a pretty face for the public. You probably don't even want to get married." She took a step closer. "I can be exactly what you need. Whatever you need me to do, trust that I will."

Marilyn may have been a famous actress, but when it came to this, she was awful and transparent. I could see straight through her. She was terrified and desperate, and though I knew I wasn't breaking her heart, I knew that I was taking away something she wanted. I had gotten to know Marilyn fairly well over the past few weeks, and if I knew anything, it was that she wanted to own things, not love them.

I didn't want to be owned. I was not a thing to be had.

"This is nothing against you, Marilyn." I said. "If you leave here and hate me for sending you home, fine. But know that I have nothing against you. You just aren't for me, and I am not for you. I do want to be married, and this is not just to find a pretty face to stand beside me for the sake of the public."

She took a step back and smoothed out her dress. "Very well. Have a nice life, Your Highness." She spun on her heel and sauntered from the room. The door quietly clicked shut behind her, and I collapsed in a chair. Marilyn's outburst wasn't what I had expected from a Hollywood primadonna such as herself, and that was a good thing. The smaller and shorter the explosion, the better.

I sat back and thought about it. If that was Marilyn's reaction, what was going to happen when I started sending other girls home? More importantly, what would I do to handle that? I had hoped to avoid that kind of backlash, but the more I thought about it...what would prevent Isabelle or Valentina or even Miracle from freaking out because they weren't the one? My hands shook, and I quickly rose to my feet and left the room. Exercise . That was what I needed.

♚

It turned out that what I actually needed was advice, so for that I visited my father.

It was one of the rare days that my mother made him take off to spend on his own, and I found him in the garden taking photos of the flowers and trees. He looked oddly content and younger than he was, and I could almost picture him as a young nineteen-year-old, trying to ignore the fact that his own Selection was looming over him.

"I was wondering when you would come find me," he said after a while. He didn't even glance at me and continued snapping pictures. "What's wrong?"

I told him my problem. I explained how confused I was and what I was worried about, and my father listened patiently. He said nothing and continued to take pictures, but the skin between his eyebrows furrowed, so I knew that he was thinking my dilemma over, turning the situation over in his head in an attempt to determine how to work everything out.

After I finished, he was quiet for a while. I followed him as he searched for a new spot. "Well," he started. He turned towards me and said, "smile" before snapping a quick picture and carrying on. "When I was your age, I worried about the same thing. Especially with your mother." He chuckled, shook his head, and took a picture of the path before us.

I paused. "You thought about eliminating Mom?"

He shrugged. "I'd considered it many times. But Kaden, you have to remember that I didn't know your mother before the competition like you knew Emmaline. Your mother was my choice, and I was constantly worrying about whether or not it was the right one. Sometimes I was tempted to send her home just so that I could sleep at night." He slowed his pace so that I was beside him and not nearly jogging to keep up. "But, I was worried about it. I can't give you advice on how to avoid the lashing out, because really, there is no way to avoid it. You're the prince, Kaden. You're going to be verbally attacked for every little thing. Just keep a passive expression, stand tall, don't back down, and don't shy away. Be patient and understanding, and listen to what they say, and you'll be fine."

"And that's it?"

My father nodded. "That's all there is."

My father and I spent the rest of the day together. We discussed just about anything and everything--my Selection, books, his Selection, budgets, the state of the world, when we're going to see Ahren next...anything either of us thought of was discussed that day. We skipped out on lunch and grabbed a snack later on in the day, and after that we went back to my room and compared notes on the things that technically Eadlyn should have been doing.

At dinner, we spent so much time talking that Osten clapped his hands over his ears and moaned loudly, begging us to shut up. Officer Leger, Kile, and Mr. Woodwork joined our conversation about the military and how stable our treaties and peaces with other countries were. My mother, Miss Marlee, Eadlyn, Josie, and Miss Lucy discussed plans with the girls for the Convicting and for other things. The girls all seemed to get along well, and it was the first time I'd ever seen Eadlyn with actual friends. And the fact that her and Josie were finally getting along...it was strange to watch, but oddly pleasant.

I sat back in my chair and smiled. Everything seemed to be working out.