Maybe

Chapter 40

~Nathan~

The guards had left two days ago making it a week since I first saw Marissa on the screen. She looked so broken, and all I wanted to do was protect her.

Those thoughts kept me up all night. It was about midnight now. I rolled tirelessly in bed. Nothing seemed to be right. Deciding to find something, my feet carry me downstairs, past the gardens, and into the kitchen. There were maybe two cooks in here. They looked to be looking at recipes for tomorrow's meals. They both nod at me, and go back to looking over the cook book. I find something, and go back to my room.

I go past the gardens this time. The doors are open, and I hear low voices, and soft crying.

"That wasn't part of the plan. I got her to you, that was the deal. Now pay up," the voice said. It was feminine. "You said she wasn't going to get hurt. That's the whole reason I trusted you people."

I gasped. I rounded the corner to find Mila talking into something.

"You promised," she sobbed.

The line must've gone dead because she pulls the phone away from her ear, and just silently sobs in the garden. I move up to her.

"Mila, is there something I need to know?" I question.

Mila turns to me. She looks genuinely scared.

"Nathan. I can explain," she said standing.

"Please do before I decide to send you home," I say calmly.

"It's your mother. I helped her get Marissa. It was all because of this deal I made with her. It's because of her I'm here. She placed me here. She took out the real winner of Bonita, and placed me instead. She took my family leaving me on the streets for years. Before the Selection she reached out to me, and made a deal. That if I competed, and did things that she said, she would release my family. Well, plans changed. If I got Marissa caught, she would release my family. When I did it she promised no harm would come to Marissa. Then after the last call, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Mila began to sob. "I tried so hard to get her to release Marissa, to return my family. But she won't. She told me that since I was never sworn in, or welcomed for that matter in the Southern Rebels she won't allow it to happen."

I sat down next to Mila, and held her close. "Mila, do you know where Marissa is being held?" I question.

She pulls back. "Yes I know."

"Come with me. We need to inform my father right away."

Mila and I walk down the halls of the palace until we reach my father's room. I knock, and a few moments later he opens.

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Mila had explained everything to my father. He was going to punish her for assisted kidnapping, but wasn't to rash about her punishment. She was going to be released from the Selection, and then returned home. It was still up in he air if she was going to be an eight again, or remain her status as a three.

My father now was on a call with the general who was leading the troops. "We're lucky. They were about to turn, and head the opposite direction of the base. Now if this is true, which it better be, they will find her by morning. Or at least the base," my father says rubbing his temple. Mila sniffs. "As for you Mila it is mandatory that you be locked in the prison below the palace. We will decide what your sentence will be by morning. I will not punish you by death, or life in prison, but it won't be a pretty sentence either. So be prepared when someone comes down in the morning." Mila nods her head. "Our guard will escort you down there." She again nods her head, and follows the guard.

After a few moments of silence between my father and I, he begins to speak again. "I'm going to have to tell America, and her family about this. They will be glad to know we are close to finding her daughter," he sighs in defeat.

"Are you going to marry her? Are you going to ask for America's hand in marriage," I blurt.

My father looks at me. "When the time is right I will. She would have been the perfect queen if I had chosen her from the beginning. But if I hadn't I wouldn't have three children I adore." He gives me a smile.

I return it. I have seen the way he is around her. It's like me being around Marissa. Everything was just better. Everything felt right. My father was relaxed, and happy again. I wanted him to feel the love he must have once felt for her.

"Go get some rest Nathan. I will see you in the morning," my father says.

I nod my head, and go silently to my room. Once in there I go right to the bed, and fall into a dreamless sleep.