Page 93 of The Princess Trap

We’re ready.

Ruben slid his phone into his pocket as they approached the door to the music room. He turned to Lydia and said, “I can’t take you in here without warning you. Harald—”

She held up a hand. Sometime over the last few minutes, she’d become cold and remote. Now her gaze was flinty, her jaw hard as stone. She said, “Which one of my daughters is in this room?”

He met her eyes as he said, “Ella.”

She swallowed. Nodded. Took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Cherry and Ella had been sitting side by side on the little piano stool. At the sight of her mother, Ella disentangled herself from Cherry’s voluminous skirts and ran across the room, her tears starting all over again. “I wasn’t supposed to tell,” she sobbed.

“Shh.” Lydia swept her daughter into her arms, her tiny figure suddenly seeming ten feet tall. “It is good. You must always tell. We talked about this, remember? No matter what anyone says, you must always tell.”

Ruben left mother and child for a moment, turning to Cherry. Letting her see every inch of his gratitude for the things she’d done tonight.

She stood, and he pulled her into a hug, giving himself a few blissful seconds to melt into her softness, her sweet, cinnamon scent. She rubbed a soothing hand across his shoulder, and only then did he notice the tension in his own muscles, the pounding in his head. Only then did he realise how drained his fury had left him.

She whispered into his ear, “Everything will be fine. This is the darkest moment. From this point on, everything will be fine.”

He wished he could believe that. But just hearing the words from her lips gave him strength.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead before turning back to Lydia. She was watching him over Ella’s head, her gaze hard.

“Tonight,” he said.

She nodded. “I should’ve listened to you.”

“No. Your priority was your daughters, just as it is now. Things have changed. We change with them. Put Ella to bed, and go back to the ballroom.”

She stiffened. “I can’t—”

“You have to. Go to him. Smile at him. We will too. Retire early, tonight, and ready the children. Hans will come to get you.”

She nodded slowly. But then she asked, as if she couldn’t help herself: “Are yousure? Are you sure this will work?”

“No,” Ruben said. “But I am sure that one way or another, you’re getting out of here tonight. No matter what I have to do.”

Chapter Thirty

Cherry’s dress was gorgeous, but in hindsight, she should’ve chosen something slightly less… dramatic.

She watched Lydia settle her children into the back of the waiting Hummer. First Ella, then Hilde, who had been carried from the palace asleep in Hans’s arms.

“Don’t worry,” Demi said, placing a hand on Cherry’s shoulder. She had to reach up to do it, but she still managed to sound like a parent comforting her child. “We’ve planned everything. Nothing will go wrong,inshallah.”

Cherry exhaled, her breath condensing in the midnight air. “I’d feel a lot better about this if I’d seen you at some point in the last week.”

“Oh, I was around,” Demi smiled. Her gaze trailed to Hans, as if by habit.

Cherry managed to spare a smile of her own. “I don’t doubt it.”

The children already settled, Lydia climbed into the car. Ruben appeared, a few familiar members of his guard trailing behind him.

“We’re ready,” he said. “We’ll go round to the front entrance and slide in with all the cars leaving tonight. He shouldn’t notice we’re gone until we reach the airport.”

With a nod, Demi stepped forward and slid into the passenger seat. Hans walked round to the other side of the car, leaving Cherry alone with her prince.

Prince no longer, after tonight.