The Stars Are Blind ★ Nick Jonas

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Nick's POV

I was in my small dressing room, getting into my Prince Charming apparel when a knock rattled the door. With shirt in hand, I reached out to open the door. Standing in front of me was the person that I least expected to be knocking. Liz's father.

"You're back?" I asked in disbelief. He had been gone for almost two months now. I was in shock. 

"You seem surprised" he said with a playful smile on his lips.

"Well is not like I knew you were coming back" I replied.

"Yeah, no one knew. I came back as soon as I could after finding out about the play" he said, sitting down on an empty chair near the door.

"Couldn't miss your daughter's performance huh?" I inquired, with a smile.

"Yeah but that's not exactly the reason. Nick I'm sorry but you can't be on the play" he said without hesitation. I stared.

"I'm sorry?" I asked. Maybe there was a small chance that I heard him wrong.

"I'm sorry Nick, but I can't let you be on the play" he said once again.

I sat down on the chair I had used previously and looked at him.

"Why not?" I asked. I couldn't keep the disappointment out of my voice. I had tried not getting excited about the play, but my efforts were futile. I was excited about the idea of being on stage again, acting just like when I was on Broadway. I couldn't avoid feeling like I could have a tiny aspect of my old life back. Now, it seemed that the idea was crumbling right in front of me.

"You're under Witness Protection, you are supposed to be keeping a low profile remember? That was our deal from day one" he stated.

He was right. He was so horribly right. I had completely forgotten about that small detail. I'm not supposed to draw any attention to myself. I can't use my full name. I'm not supposed to let anyone recognize me. 

I let out a tired sigh.

"I'm sorry" Carlos apologized once again. I waved off his words.

"It's fine. It was my mistake. I forgot" I said softly.

"Yeah, but I can see how much this meant to you, I don't feel good about taking it away" he responded. My eyes looked up to meet with his. He was being honest, it was very clear in his set of blue eyes. 

"Yeah, well, there's nothing else to be done. I'm kind of sad though because your daughter worked so hard for this and now what are we going to do? How is the play going to work out without the Prince?" I asked.

"Did you guys have an understudy for the prince?" Carlos questioned.

"No, my character was literally the only one that we didn't find an understudy for. I don't know what are we going to-" but I stopped mid-sentence.

"What's wrong?" Carlos asked, eyeing me with concern.

"I got it!" I said excitedly.

"You got what?" he asked in confusion.

"Blake! Blake was in every rehearsal and he was also helping me run my lines in our free time. He must know all of it" I explained.

"What's his role though?" he asked me.

"He's the narrator so he didn't have to learn anything because he can read from the cards. I could swap places with him!".

Carlos gave it some thought and smiled.