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Just then the doors opened and the king walked in.

“Your majesty,” I mumbled, standing up shakily to do a curtsey.

“Please,” he smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t be so formal, Elizabeth.”

Ashton pulled me away from him angrily. “What do you want?”

“Well,” the king said, ignoring his son’s hostile tone, “Since you’re done running your investigations, we can finally get down to business.”

“You knew about this?”

“Did you really think the forensics lab wouldn’t give me a report?”

Ashton swore under his breath and the king directed his attention to me.

“Are you satisfied with the results?”

“I… I…”

He produced an envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it to me. “If you still have doubts, then this should settle them.”

I took the envelope warily and opened it. It was another report. My lips parted in surprise as I stared at the king.

“You did a DNA test on me?”

“What the hell?” Ashton growled, grabbing the papers from my hand.

“The samples we received from the hospital match those that we have for Elizabeth. This should satisfy you.”

My head instantly felt like it had been left on spin cycle in the wash. I sat down on the couch in utter disbelief and shock that he would go out of his way to do that. Was he even allowed to do that?

He turned to Ashton, his voice smooth and refined. “Now you can assume your responsibilities as you should.”

Ashton crumpled the papers and threw them on the ground. “Can’t you just forget all of this?”

“Can a king forget his responsibilities?”

“I think I need some air,” I said, getting up. “Please excuse me.”

I didn’t wait for his response as I hurriedly walked out the room. I was betrothed to Ashton? This had to be a nightmare. Ashton and I did not get along and honestly, he was the last guy I would even consider getting into a relationship with. I didn’t want to be a part of the royal family.

I didn’t even know where I was going, but I had ended up outside. The rain had stopped, but the trees that I was under were dripping. I took in my surroundings. It looked like I’d ended up in one of the royal gardens.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be there or not. The only people who were supposed to come in contact with me were the ones instructed by the king and queen. No one was to know that the girl betrothed to the prince was here.

I sat down on the thick root of one of the trees. It was dry because it’s huge, ancient branches and heavy bulk of leaves had sheltered it from the downpour. I sighed again, trying to piece my life together.

I was Elizabeth. I was that Elizabeth.

Maybe I could convince them to forget about the whole arrangement. Ashton couldn’t seem to convince his father, but maybe I could. I didn’t have a duty to marry him. I didn’t want to marry him. I wasn’t even sure if I ever wanted to get married.

I just wanted to graduate high school, start med school and make my parents proud. My parents… I buried my head in my knees. I was still hurt that they gave me their daughter’s back story, but I wanted to make up with them. They’d always been there for me. I did love them and whether they were my biological parents or not, that fact would never change.

I sat there for a while as I came to grips with my new reality. Being the princess that they wanted me to be would mean giving up a certain level of freedom and I didn’t want that.

“I knew you would be here.”

I looked up to see Ashton. His hair was wet and his mouth twisted in a frown. I sighed tiredly as he sat beside me.

“This was the first place I checked,” he mused, looking around. “I guess you really are her.”

I threw him an irritated glare. “I realized.”

“You’re not going to climb up the tree this time?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just an old memory,” he said, leaning against the bark.

“I’ve been here before?” I asked, looking up at the tree. It didn’t ring any bells.

“Once.”

“You’re really not going to jog my memory, are you?”

“No,” he frowned. “Whatever memories you had, it’s better that they stay gone.”

“What if I want to remember?” I protested. “That was six years of my life, you know.”

He chuckled drily. “I cannot believe my luck. Of all the girls… you.”

“You’re not my idea of Prince Charming either,” I spat.

“It’s funny you should say that.”

“Why?”

“I’m not telling you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Leave me alone.”

“This is my property, you know.”

“Fine,” I said, getting up. “Then I’ll leave.”

“Can you?”

I looked around me. I had no idea where I was or which direction I should go in. I shot him another irritated glare and he laughed.

“Let’s watch that movie,” he said, coming over to me. “The depressingly funny one.”

“I want to go home.”

“After the movie.”

I stared at him. What was he trying to pull?

“I want to do something normal,” he said, walking ahead of me. “Let me forget about being the prince for a while.”

I grumbled under my breath as I trotted to keep up with his long strides. We went back to the mansion, but this time we went through a passageway which led to an elevator. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

He pushed a few numbers and after a minute of me making it clear that I would rather go home, and Ashton ignoring me, the elevator doors opened.

“Woah,” I said as we stepped into a cinema. “I didn’t know the palace had this.”

“Because you know everything about the palace, don’t you.”

“You know, you’re really starting to get on my nerves today.”

“Good.” he said, leading me to the third row.

He opened an app on his phone and typed something in. The large screen suddenly came alive and he found the movie.

We looked at the thumbnail. It looked really low budget.

“What was the rating on this again?”

“2.5,” I groaned.

“You said it could be good,” he remembered.

“I might have been wrong.”

“Don’t change your mind now,” he laughed. “If it’s bad, you owe me.”

“Hey, that's not fair,” I groaned. I really hoped the movie was good.

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We sat in silence as the end credits rolled across the screen an hour later. That was hands down the worst movie I’d ever seen in my life. The acting was terrible and the plot was boring.

“Looks like I win,” Ashton said. “Unless you disagree.”

He smirked, knowing just how awful that had been.

“I’m with you on that one. Unfortunately,” I muttered. “So congratulations!” I cheered. “You won the bet.”

“You owe me something now.”

“I have nothing to give a prince,” I pointed out. “You already have everything.”

“I’m sure I could think of something,” he smirked wickedly.

I glared at him and then smiled as sweetly as I could. “Where’s your benevolent side, your highness?”

“I don’t have one of those.”

My smile dropped. “Your prize was the movie.”

He cocked his head.

“I wanted to go home, but instead I stayed here to watch it with you. Just for you,” I emphasized.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I asked, feeling suspicious. “You’re accepting that?”

“Yeah.”

“Great,” I smiled as we went down in the elevator. “I thought you would have been more difficult. Why are you being so… nice?”

“It was a bad movie, but I just wanted to take a break for a while.”

“Take a break from what? It’s the weekend.”

“Because it’s the weekend,” he said with a small sigh. “I actually have to be the prince when I’m here.”

I thought about that. He had been going through some documents when I had just arrived. It felt weird seeing him act so responsible. It felt like I knew two different versions of Ashton.

“Listen,” he said when we got back to the mansion. His eyes held uncertainty. “I-”

What he was about to say was cut short by his phone ringing. He closed his eyes in irritation as he answered it.

“I’m on my way,” he growled after a moment and hung up. He ran a hand through his hair.

“Are you leaving?” I frowned.

He nodded.

“But I wanted to talk about the-”

“Not now.”

He typed out something on his phone and then turned to me. All the previous hints of playfulness had faded away.

“Kevin’s on a business trip. I asked one of our chauffeurs to take you home. Don’t talk to him.”

I nodded slowly as he strode away quickly and sighed. I wanted to talk about the whole betrothal situation.

I didn’t want it and I’m sure he didn’t either. I headed outside, where a tall, elderly man was waiting. He nodded at me and opened the car door.

“Thank you,” I said instinctively, forgetting what Ashton had said.

The man didn’t reply as he got in the car and drove off.

I would just have to talk about it tomorrow with Ashton, I decided. At least today, I could get my thoughts together. We had to come up with a plan and fast.

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