When you tell the world you're mine

Chapter 17: Betrayal

"Breaking news: Prince Philip is retiring from Royal duties due to health issues"

"The Prince Consort is sick and will be retiring from Royal duties"

"Who will step up to take Prince Philip's place to escort The Queen to Royal Duties?"

Harry could only read the headlines Edward was throwing at his desk. His secretary was furious, his father was furious, his grandparents were furious and he was furious. It was supposed to be a secret until after his Grandmother's birthday. But it was out in early March. Not even all members of the family had known Philip had had a surgery last August and was undergoing a treatment since then. Not everyone knew that the Duke of Edinburgh was retiring. It was a very well thought decision that took months, maybe even years, to be taken. Only five people knew it. His grandmother, his grandfather, his father, his brother and him. Kate and Camilla weren't told the news yet, but they sure knew something was coming when William started talking about moving back to London and Kate was resistant about it. She didn't want to give up her almost normal life in Norfolk.

Harry knew he was fucked. Because three out of five people would never tell it in public. His grandfather didn't want to retire, he had to. He was forced to. And if William hadn't told even his wife about this secret, of course he wouldn't blab it to anyone else. So, all of them knew that the cat was out of the bag because of Harry.

And he never felt so betrayed. He was angry at her, he asked her a million times to not tell anyone about what was about to happen. It was a delicate family matter and he had only told her because he needed to let it out. He was so scared because his grandfather was the synonym of strength. His whole life was of duty, of work. He didn't want to be weak or more dependent on other people. He didn't like compliments or much help. And now, his biggest role model was feeling the burden of his age and was getting weaker, dependent and had to stop working. Had to break his promise to always, and at any cost, be by his beloved wife's side.

"I can't fucking believe this is happening.", Harry said. He only grabbed his coat and was out of his office in a blink.

(...)

Carol was slowly earning her boss' trust. After six months working with him she learned how to improve his mood and how to not make him even mad when he was on a bad day. Her work ethic was what surprised not only him but the other journalists as well. She had really great idea and developed a huge project that would increase employee satisfaction and would help all of them to start a career plan inside the company.

That's why she was asked to be present at the board of editors meeting. It was basically a room full of important journalists and managers and RH experts listening to a trainee. It could really boost her career or decrease it at once and lose her chance to work with what she liked.

She prepared herself for weeks, and even neglected her studying pattern to be able to present her project with coherence and calm. Her boss, like always, didn't like to be kept waiting, so after presenting her to the people in the room, asked her to explain her idea and how they'd manage to establish it within a very tight budget. And she killed it. She first introduced herself and gave them all a very detailed and researched paper with the company statistics and studies showing that her idea would help their board of employees to be even more satisfied than they already were. And since she meant business, she brought out statistics from other companies that had similar inclusion projects, with extremely happy employees. And she said with grace and looking in the eye from every director present at the meeting, that the happier the employee is, the more he produces and with more quality and in probably less time. After all, time is money.