The Lost Princess - A 'Selection' spinoff

CHAPTER 27

"I just got off the phone with Vincenzo," Elena said, rushing back into the room.

"And?" Edward demanded. "How on earth did he manage to release this information to the Paps?".

"He didn't," Elena said, giving him a dirty look. "His secretary did. He's being fired as we talk".

"That doesn't reduce the damage that has been done," Elora said, pacing around again. "Ella hates us now. Hates us even more".

"I don't understand - how did Vicenzo's secretary even know about the fact that we found Ella?" Edward asked.

"When we were talking to him a few hours back, the secretary seems to have caught a wisp of the conversation. He sent the information a few minutes later through an email. An email. Who even does that anymore? Apparently they found out it was him in a matter of minutes," Elena said, tying her hair up in a messy bun.

"Well, the good thing is that the public still doesn't know that Aurora is the true heir," Andrea said, having wrapped her head around what Edward had explained to her quite quickly.

"That's true...  Can't we say that it was false information?" Elora asked, grasping at straws now.

"No, we can't, Your Majesty. Not when it was revealed by the secretary of the King of Italy. Who is, incidentally part of this royal family as well," Andrea said.

"Then what can we do?" Edward asked.

"We have one advantage so far - no one knows that Aurora is Princess Ella. And we use that. We have to reveal who she is soon, but we still have time. Enough time to introduce her to the world as the Crown Princess of Illea," Andrea said, typing into her tablet furiously.

"What do you suggest?" Edward asked.

"We send out a press release. Acknowledge the claims, and confirm the news that there indeed is a princess who we once lost," Andrea said. "We may need to release the DNA results too. Perhaps take a new one where the King and Queen's DNA is matched with Aurora's".

"Why?" Elena asked. "Isn't the previous one enough?".

"All the previous one shows is that there is a fifty percent match of Aurora's DNA to yours, Queen Elena. The public may think that we're simply showing them Prince Lucian's DNA results. We need to be through, we can't give them any reason to suspect us," Andrea replied.

"About the press release - I see you're already working on it?" Elora asked, looking at Andrea's tablet.

"Yes, of course," Andrea said, pushing something off of her device, causing a new holographic screen to appear in front of Edward.

"This just says that there is a princess, and that she will be made heir apparent soon," Edward said.

"Yes," Andrea said, nodding. "This is enough for now".

"It's good," Elora said, reading the statement too. "I'm glad you didn't mention anything about who Ella truly was. She would have been quite mad if we had done something without telling her".

"She will be. But we have to introduce her to the public soon," Andrea said. "We need to release another press release for that. The people will demand to see her. We can't keep her hidden forever".

Elora and Edward signed the press release, and Edward took a device and pressed it on the holographic screen.

The royal coat of arms appeared, thus finalizing the document.

Elena plucked a hair from Edward's head and said, "I'll send for the DNA report now".

She walked out of the room, already beginning to mutter instructions into her phone.