A Royal Internship | Complete

Chapter Fifty

Little more than a day later, we were sitting down to breakfast in my sitting room, truly alone for the first time since our kiss. Well, as alone as we ever were with two guards and several servers milling about the place.

I was finding it hard to eat while holding hands with Clarence, but it was all so surreal I didn't want to let it go.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Clarence said. "Or maybe Janet did, but it doesn't matter. The piece for my parents' anniversary is ready to go and it's beautiful. I convinced them to put in a little piece of our first outing after..." he looked around to make sure no one could hear and then leaned in to whisper. "After we turned this into more than a business deal." He was smiling ear to ear as he pulled away and sat back in his chair.

I hid my face from him so he couldn't see the goofy smile plastered all over it. "I'm glad," I turned back to face him, trying to act at least mostly normal. I'm pretty sure I'm failing horribly at that.

"It'll be nice to have it in there, for us." He shrugged and dug into some eggs with his fork. "We'll know it's real."

I struggled to poke my own eggs with my fork. "I'm just glad we get to do events now and they've pretty much liberated me from the public relations office. I mean, I still have to file stuff, but Abigail seems to be mostly leaving me alone as long as that gets done."

He had just finished brushing a piece of egg off my dress and was leaning in for a kiss when the doors to the room burst open without an announcement. I instinctively gripped Clarence's hand a little tighter, causing me to stand as he did when the visitor flew into the room.

"Sit down," Janet said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Okay," I said, sitting down on a nearby couch and letting Clarence wrap his arm around my back. Janet looked back and forth between the two of us and raised her eyebrow.

"This?" She pointed her finger back and forth between the two of us. "Really?"

I looked anywhere but at her face and Clarence answered for both of us. "Really," he said, pulling me in closer. "I can't believe you couldn't tell!"

"Don't make me throw something," she threatened. "But that does make what I'm about to say a little easier." She stopped to think for a second. "And a little harder at the same time."

I looked at Clarence and back to Janet, a chill crawling across my skin. "Can you just tell us, Janet?"

She looked up from her clipboard. "Oh, yeah. But you have to promise to give me some details, Genevieve."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, but can you spit it out all ready?"

Without saying a word, Janet pulled a piece of folded newspaper out of her clipboard and slid it across the coffee table to where we could reach it. I could plainly see who the article was about. The front page of this newspaper had a picture of Josh with his arms wrapped around a smiling...

I flipped the page over to confirm my worst fear. "It's me," I breathed, barely audible.

"What?" Clarence snapped the paper out of my hand, unfolding it to see the whole piece at once. He scanned the first section and then ripped it in half. "This is all lies!"

The way he ripped the newspaper reminded me of the way I had ripped the note Josh gave me all that time ago. He had a way of making people hate him, that's for sure.

"What's wrong?" I asked as Clarence got up and stormed towards the door.

"I need to go talk to my father before this blows up even more than it has." He rubbed his shoulder with his hand. "I'm sorry to leave you like this, but I just..."

He didn't finish his sentence, instead flashing me an apologetic look and running out the doors.

I don't understand what's so catastrophic about this. What could he say? That we were engaged? Everyone already knew that.

"Janet?" I asked. "Any chance you can tell me why this is such a catastrophe? Since it is now in three pieces."

She nodded solemnly and pulled another copy out of her binder, sliding it across the table to me. "I think you'll see it," she said, turning back to her phone and typing furiously.

Oh, good. I had created a PR nightmare. The exact opposite of what I was hired to do. This was going great.

I skimmed the newspaper article. A bunch of stuff about our dating history, the engagement, setting a wedding date. Nothing shocking. And then I read the next paragraph and it became acutely obvious what Janet was worried about.

"He says I was dating him and Prince Alexandre at the same time?" I was livid, which is probably why I asked a question I knew the answer to. "And that I didn't have an internship with the palace last year and that..." I trailed off to finish the article. "And that I broke off our engagement long after I snagged Clarence?"

I wanted to rip the paper, too, but I held it together.

"Janet?" I waved my hand in front of her face. "Say something?"

"Sorry." She shook her head and put her phone down. "I'm sorry, there's just a lot to do. I am sure the king will be aware right now and I'm not sure this is a hole we can dig you out of, honestly."

My shock must have registered on my face because she put her hand on my forearm in an attempt to comfort me. "Oh, Genevieve, don't worry. With you and Clarence actually being together now, I'm sure there's a way we can straighten this out."

Well, at least she tried to be convincing.

"Okay." I took a deep breath before continuing. "We can do this. I can figure something out. I just have to... What do I have to do, exactly?"

Janet didn't have the chance to answer me before Semret and Marinettte burst through the door, the latter with a quick curtsey.

"I'm sorry, Genevieve," Marinette spoke between deep breaths, "but King Richard would like to speak with you."

Semret picked up where Marinette left off. "Immediately."

I stood and handed the paper back to Janet.

"Do you want me to--?" Janet started.

"No, I can do this on my own," I said. It's the way I've always done it. If I go down, at least I don't take anyone with me.

I pulled my shoulders back and walked towards the hallway, following Marinette and Semret as they led me to King Richard. Our heels clicking in the hallway was the only sound to be heard until Semret knocked on his door.

"Come in," his deep voice boomed through the closed door.

"Good luck, Miss," Marinette said, backing away from the door with Semret.

I really was going to do this alone.