Chapter 146

ISABELLA

I listened to Charles’ instructions carefully. At the advice of Joseph, the royal family wanted me to use my time in America wisely and do some snooping on Mila’s adoption from the Benson household.

Despite the fact that I readily agreed to the task, I still felt a bit hesitant. Mila’s adoptive family was cold and cruel at best–nothing short of monstrous at worst. In order for me to pull this off, I had to make it so no one suspected what I was doing.

There was also the matter of Charles to contend with.

The younger prince made it sound like he truly missed and cared for me. It was breaking my brain a bit to think about his sudden switch-up. Was he finally being sincere? Was there a heart in that chest of his after all?

Could he ever actually love me?

When I finally emerged from the attic, Nadine and the Bensons were all lined up in the hallway, staring at me with their arms crossed.

“Yes?” I asked, striving to keep my tone as innocent as possible.

“Who was calling you?” Mrs. Benson asked, suspicion and distrust written all over her face.

“My mother,” I said, avoiding her eyes. I knew better than to let them know what was actually going on. “She tends to over-exaggerate things. As it turns out, there was no emergency. She just needed to chat.”

I felt a bit bad about throwing my extremely levelheaded and balanced mother under the bus like that, but I needed a cover. She surely could understand the importance of putting the kingdom first in this scenario.

“You’re late getting started on your chores,” Mr. Benson growled. “Get to it or you won’t have supper for a week.”

I pasted a benign look on my face and made my way downstairs.

I was nearly certain that any and all information on Mila’s adoption would be kept in Mr. Benson’s study. The only issue was that he rarely came out of the room when he was home, and it was the one room in the house I was not allowed to clean. I had no idea what other secrets he kept in there, but they must have been positively awful.

It was only when all three of the Bensons left the house that I could be sure to have uninterrupted time to investigate the study. That, of course, was my next issue–getting the family out of the house.

I needed to be smart about this.

As I scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees, I kept reassessing the problem over and over in my mind. It was, at least, a better use of my brain than dwelling in shame and sadness, which was how I normally spent my chores.

I was mopping the floor when it hit me.

The Bensons loved money and status more than anything else, except for one thing: fawning over Nadine. The family would seize any opportunity to make Nadine the center of attention, even and especially at someone else’s expense.

I knew how to get them out of the house.

A few moments later, I clutched a piece of paper to my chest as I made my way up the stairs to the sitting area, where Nadine and Mrs. Benson were cooing over a dress catalog.

“Excuse me,” I said, keeping my voice to a demure level, “this was just slid under the door. I believe it is for Miss Nadine?”

I extended the paper towards her, praying that she could not see the way my hands were trembling.

“It’s an invitation!” Nadine exclaimed. “I’m being honored at some sort of press event. A Women in Media type of thing.”

My royal education had not been the most useful when it came to basic life skills, but at least I had tremendous calligraphy talent. The paper was filled with all sorts of fancy swirls and official language to make it look all the more appealing.

“A press event? For what?” Mrs. Benson exclaimed.

Nadine grinned. “They’re doing a celebratory dinner in Harrison tonight for the most beautiful and influential girls in the area. Women who had made a really big impact on their communities. Then at the end they’re picking one girl to be on the cover of a magazine! They selected me after seeing my excellent media coverage during Mila’s wedding!”

“Harrison? But that’s nearly two hours away!” Mrs. Benson frowned.

I held my breath. I had laid the bait–would they take it?

“Then we better get going!” She finally said. I fought hard to keep my relieved exhale from being too audible.

The Bensons were out the door a few short hours later. I did my duty of waving them off and swearing not to touch any of the food in the refrigerator. I waited until their car had vanished down the street before rushing to Mr. Benson’s office.

I had about two hours before they realized that such a dinner did not exist, and that I had just sent them on a wild goose chase. Two hours to gather all the information I could on Mila’s adoption and then flee to the Fresonian embassy, which Joseph assured would house me for the time being.

I was terrified, but I would do this for the man and kingdom I so desperately loved.

It took me nearly a half hour to sort through the drawers in Mr. Benson’s desk. There was nothing related to Mila or her adoption at all, but certainly plenty of papers to indicate some shady business dealings.

I was about to give up and start looking through the bookshelves when a tiny button on the bottom of the desk caught my eye. Curious, I pushed it. To my shock, a hidden drawer popped out from the bottom of the desk, topped with a file that clearly read MILA ADOPTION.

I snatched it and immediately began paging through.

The first paper was a letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Benson, following up on their inquiry into adopting a child from Fresonia. The letter advertised a program that would provide the American couple with a child, along with a large sum of money to be used for the child’s schooling and upbringing.

The next paper was a bank statement, showing that Mr. Benson had immediately transferred those funds into an account all for himself.

“100,000 dollars,” I whispered, my eyes widening.

The Bensons had never really wanted Mila at all. They only adopted her for the payday.

They just wanted to have a child so that they could brag about it and dress it up like their little doll. Mila, with her shy demeanor and quiet personality, would have been a disappointment to the egotistical Bensons. It was only when their own child came along that they finally had the perfect girl that they could mold into their exact likeness.

Mila had never stood a chance in this household. For what it was worth, neither had Nadine.

I checked the time. Right about now was when the Bensons would be arriving in Harrison, only to discover that there was no press event for Nadine.

I had to get out of there as soon as possible.