Chapter 47

FELIX

Next to me, Mila froze. Her eyes were fixated across the street, seemingly on a redheaded man who was sulking in the shade of one of the buildings. I could sense her feelings of dismay and outrage swirling in my own gut.

Something in my chest tightened. Who was he?

“Do you know that man?” I asked cautiously. Mila kept staring straight forward, her face as white as a ghost.

“Mila?” I asked again. She finally blinked, as if snapping back into reality.

“Derek,” she breathed in response.

My body immediately flooded with hot anger. Derek was the man who had brought her to Fresonia in the first place before scamming her and leaving her on the streets.

I turned to the guards keeping watch behind us. “Seize him.”

Mila watched, unflinching, as the guards surreptitiously crossed the street and dragged Derek into our car waiting nearby.

I turned to Mila. “We have two options here,” I said. “We can either turn him straight over to the police and let them handle him, or we can wait a bit if you want to speak to him first.”

Mila looked at me, her expression indiscernible. “And say what, exactly?”

I shrugged. “Surely there are things you would like to say to him after all you’ve been through.”

Mila was lost in thought for a moment. She finally let out a deep breath and said, “I would like to speak with him.”

“Great,” I said, pulling out my cell phone. “I’ll have them bring him to a royal holding room.”

The royal holding room was just a fancy term for a blank, empty room in the guesthouse of the summer cottage. Every royal property had one–sometimes it was necessary to have a place to hold your enemies. Mila and I waited until we got word that Derek had been restrained, and then we walked in.

Derek glared at us as we entered.

“I should have known you were behind this,” he sneered at Mila.

Mila, to her credit, merely stared him down.

“You are under arrest,” I told him in my most authoritative voice.

“For what?” Derek asked innocently.

“For stealing all my money and being involved in a criminal ring to bring girls to foreign countries just to scam them,” Mila said coolly. “You disgust me. I can’t believe we were ever involved.”

That hit me like a gut punch. I knew that Derek had used all means necessary to trick Mila out of her savings, but the reminder that she had once had feelings for him hit harder than I was expecting.

Derek saw Mila’s ring and smirked. She quickly tucked her hand behind her back. “You landed on your feet pretty well, I’d say. You found your way into the Prince’s bed. But don’t think it’s forever, Mila. Soon enough, he’ll figure out just how much of a whore you really are–”

Before Derek could finish speaking, Mila slapped him across the face. Hard. Hard enough that there was a slight echo of the contact reverberating around the room.

“Go to hell, Derek,” Mila snapped. She spit in his face and stormed out of the room. I quickly followed her. Security went back to restrain a still-shouting Derek.

“Call the police,” I told one of the guards as we walked past them.

Mila silently stormed up to the bedroom, curling into a ball on the floor and staring out the window at the sea. I sat next to her, rubbing her back, waiting for her to speak first.

“That rat bastard deserves prison,” Mila said finally.

“I agree wholeheartedly,” I told her.

“I don’t know where that slap came from. I’ve never hit anyone, ever. It was like seeing him was a stark reminder of how many people in my life treated me like I was lesser. But today, when I saw him, all I could think was that I was so much better than he ever would be.” The words came out of Mila in a rush.

“I’m proud of you for confronting him,” I said softly. “That had to feel therapeutic.”

“It did,” Mila admitted. “It felt great.”

I laughed, a sound that surprised us both. She looked up at me, the storms in her eyes finally starting to settle.

“I’m so lucky to have you, Felix,” she whispered. “You would never lie to me.”

I almost choked as her words hit me, harder than any slap. Little did she know that I was not only lying to her, I was keeping a massive secret from her, and every day I had a growing fear that she would never forgive me.

“Never,” I said, the word tasting bitter on my tongue. “I would never.”

She snuggled up into my side, and I prayed that she couldn’t feel my heart racing.

“There is good news,” I said, attempting a lighthearted tone.

“Yes?”

“This might just be the big news story we were looking for to take the attention off of us.”

MILA

Despite the incident with Derek, we managed to turn the day around, spending the afternoon in the ocean and the evening having steak on the veranda. That morning’s engagement felt like a lifetime ago, but I still felt the joy and buoyancy at the prospect of our marriage.

We were cuddling in bed when Felix got a phone call from the Chief of Police for the whole country. He answered it, his brow furrowing as he put the phone on speaker. “Hello?”

“Your Highness, I’m glad I was able to catch you. I wanted to thank you for turning in that dangerous criminal today.”

I looked at Felix and mouthed Dangerous?

“We have been able to link Derek Finegarden to a number of serious crimes across the country,” the police chief continued. “He appears to be involved in a gang that specializes in taking advantage of young women.”

“I know all about their little scheme to bring vulnerable American women to Fresonia,” Felix said, his voice tight.

“That’s not all, sir.” The police chief sounded grim. “This gang is involved in a number of different criminal activities, including drug dealing, street crime, and human trafficking. This Derek is an incredibly dangerous man, willing to do just about anything for a dollar, no matter who gets hurt in the process. The good news is that we think we may be able to recover Mila’s money, especially if he starts to cooperate with us.”

And here I was this whole time just thinking that Derek sucked. A dangerous criminal? A human trafficker? I wanted to wash my hands until I no longer had the memory of ever touching his face.

“Are you able to track down the other gang members?” Felix was using his prince voice now, which was thrilling to see.

“He seems open to talking, even though he’s going to be in prison for a long, long time,” the police chief said. “I think we’ll be able to track down the rest of his buddies in no time.”

Felix thanked the Chief of Police for his hard work before hanging up the phone and turning to me.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, Mila,” Felix murmured, pulling me into his arms. “He could have seriously hurt you.”

“Yeah, he just hurt my pride. And my bank account,” I joked.

Felix studied my face for a moment before dropping the bombshell:

“We’ll return to Fresia in the morning.”